Plastic Surgeon Reputation Management: A Comprehensive Guide

With plastic surgery and other related cosmetic surgery procedures becoming popular, competition among plastic surgery practices is high. What are you doing to help your practice thrive in this tough competition? Apart from marketing your practice, you need to keep tabs of your practice’s online reputation to get an edge over your competition.

While the typical target customers are not price-shoppers, they definitely consider the reputation of a surgeon. If you don’t watch your online reputation, you can lose perspective patients to your competition. A single negative online review about your practice can stifle your chances of closing new clients or retaining the existing ones. This is why plastic surgeon reputation management is essential for acquiring new patients and building a strong relationship with your existing patients.

Read on for reputation management and marketing strategies you should implement in your plastic surgery clinic to improve your online reputation and grow your patient base.

1. Manage Your Online Reviews

Prospective patients often seek information about a practice online before making the initial contact. Search engines love user-generated content, and some of the results that will be shown about your practice will be reviews left by patients. 
Prospects trust online reviews as much as word-of-mouth feedback. Therefore, keep an eye on the reviews posted about your clinic. Moreover, encourage patients to leave reviews by:

• Asking them to review your service immediately after leaving the clinic.
• Showing them how easy the process is by indicating how long it will take and what it entails.
• Letting them know why you need reviews.

2. Respond Proactively to Your Reviews

When your practice has been reviewed, you need to respond. Be ready for both positive and negative reviews. Having a couple of negative reviews is not bad. The reviews just show that your practice is legitimate. However, you do not want too many bad reviews as this may indicate that you offer poor services. Respond to reviews immediately. If you take too long to respond, potential customers may assume you do not care what your client’s think. Here’s how you can respond to reviews:

For Positive Reviews

• Thank the reviewer.
• Appreciate the compliment or reaffirm the positive remarks given. 
• Be professional in your response. Don’t make the response personal or reveal the identity of the patient.

For Negative Reviews

• Again, thank the reviewer for their comment.
• Acknowledge the negative comment posted.
• Address the concern professionally. Don’t try to argue with the reviewer publicly.
• Don’t make the comment be about the reviewer. Instead, it should be about your practice.
• Describe the changes or improvements you plan to make to improve the situation.
• Ask the reviewer to contact you offline so that you can address their concern.

3. Use Content to Establish Expertise and Authority

A Pew Research indicates that one in every three patients searches the internet for solutions to their healthcare problems.

Posting educative and engaging content on your website’s blog section is important to getting customers. SEO-optimized content can get your website to rank high on search engines and build your reputation as an expert in your industry.

Your website can easily rank high for various search phrases when you create content that incorporates the target keywords, for example, top cosmetic surgeon in (your location).” In addition, make sure your practice is listed on local online directories, you have a location page on your website, and your NAP (name, address, and phone number) are consistent.

To generate additional traffic, share your content on different social media sites.

4. Build Relationships Using Social Media

Today, having a social media presence as a healthcare provider is essential. Patients are using social media sites to look for healthcare-related information.

Interacting with prospects and customers online is important for managing your online reputation. For example, your patients will be ready to vouch for your services and defend you in case an issue arises. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube make it easy for you to build a relationship with potential patients by sharing engaging content with them.

You can also use social media sites to:

• Collaborate with other surgeons and share educative healthcare information
• Find out what your patients need from your practice
• Advertise your clinic to get new patients
• &Share useful content that will establish your practice as a credible source of information 

5. Show Your Skills Using Videos

About 80% of global internet content consumption is expected to be video by the end of 2019.

Video is a powerful marketing tool that is often underutilized by healthcare professionals. You can use videos to showcase your practice and explain surgery procedures to your prospects. This can help to set yourself apart from other plastic surgeons.

Engage your audience with videos by providing interesting content. Remember to keep the content short and add new videos regularly. Plastic surgery prospects especially prefer to view testimonials as it reassures them of your skills and makes them trust you.

Remember to listen to feedback from your viewers to know the kind of information they prefer.

6. Create an Impressive Plastic Surgery Website

Your website is the first thing potential patients notice when they find you in the search results. Creating an impressive and effective website for your plastic surgery practice is important to make a great first impression on new or potential patients.

Your website should be designed and structured in a way that compels your website visitors to take action. You should display patient testimonials, before and after images, and certifications on your website to gain the trust and confidence of your patients.

Apart from these elements, relevant and engaging content on your website helps in educating and attracting potential patients and also establishes your authority in the industry.

7. Have a Robust Presence in Google Search Results

Appearing on top of the search results when patients look for plastic surgery services in your area helps drive more conversions. Searches with keywords like “plastic surgeon in (your city name)” are relevant for your plastic surgery practice and ranking for such keywords will help grow your practice.

Local search optimization (SEO) will help you dominate search results for these keywords. Maintain NAP (name, address, and phone number) consistency, do local directory listings of your site, add location-specific keywords to your site, create local content, get online reviews, build local links, and engage in social media community management to have a robust online presence.

8. Use Paid Searches to Get Instant Ranking

You can further increase your efforts to promote your plastic surgery practice through paid searches or advertising. Pay-per-click (PPC), display ads, social networks, and mobile ads are some types of paid advertising that will help you get your site on top of local search results.

9. Try to Retain Unhappy Patients

Retaining your unhappy patients and converting them into your brand advocates will help you build a satisfied and loyal patient base and improve the patient experience. Educate them about your procedures, offer free appointments, show them results, and help them understand the possible outcomes to set the right expectations.

10. Build a Strong Relationship with Happy Patients

Your happy and satisfied patients are great for word-of-mouth advertising. They become your advocates and share about you and your services to others that can help you get more referrals. Stay connected with your loyal patients through emails, newsletters, or social media to build a long-lasting relationship with them.

The success of your plastic surgery practice is determined by your online reputation and internet presence, so managing your online reputation and building a robust online presence is important for patient acquisition, retention, and improving the patient experience.

Also Read:

Online Reputation Management for Doctors: A Definitive Guide