One of the highest profile professions in the world is that of a doctor. Working directly with the public with the most precious possession people have, their own life, makes what doctors do very special. It also makes their liability higher than any other profession.
Let’s face it, working with people is a tough job. Many of us do it, but we certainly don’t work with people in the way that doctors do. They work directly with people in regard to their health, which is often the most important thing in the world to their patients, and if it’s not done exactly as the patient wants, even if it’s done correctly, they will often lash out.
So where do they lash out? Why online of course. If a disgruntled patient is looking for an outlet, they needn’t look very far. Doctor review websites are everywhere, and it’s super easy for a patient to ruin a doctors reputation online with a few well placed reviews of the service the patient was provided. Whether true or not, it’s unimportant, because these reviews stay on these websites forever, and they rank very well in the search engine result pages. So any new patients considering a doctor and looking for info online will find these negative reviews immediately. Often sending them looking for another physician and costing the doctor money.
Because like it or not, medicine is a business and doctors do care about their bottom line. They need to make money to make their practice successful. Negative content and bad reviews hurt that business and ultimately shut a doctor down. This is why it’s so important for a doctor to consider hiring a web reputation management company to handle the online stuff for them.
Now, let’s go over the two types of reputation management plans for doctors.
1. Proactive Campaign
This is a preemptive strike put into place long before any complaints or bad reviews are made. Using a variety of content generation methods (mini websites, articles, authoritative links, etc) we take control of the first page of the search results in regard to your name, the name of your practice, and anything else that might be associated. Then, if some negative reviews ever do come in, they usually are out of the public eye, safely tucked away on page two, three or even deeper in the search result pages. Effectively protecting your practice from losing new patients because the majority of them never see the negative content.
Also, new keywords and phrases used in any future negative reviews are easier to target, because we already have foundation sites with related terms that are already deeply embedded in the search results. These sites get seasoned and gain authoritative status, so new content we add to them if indexed quickly, making it much easier to take on any bad reviews that come down the pike.
2. Reactive Campaign
This reputation management plan is for the doctor that didn’t plan ahead, one that is suffering from negative content on doctor review websites, blogs, forums, and various other sites online. This type of campaign is similar to the one above, with the exception being that we have to target a wider array of keywords and phrases specific to the actual keywords and phrases used in the negative reviews.
What happens is this. We put together a content creation plan specifically designed to displace the negative content in the search result pages. Paying close attention to all of the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, etc. We then put the plan into action, adjusting where necessary and using the results to continue to shape the plan. Over a few months time taking over the first page and pushing the bad content off the first page.
Some of these reactive campaigns are tough, and can take quite some time to work. It really depends on how much negative content there is, where the content is actually at, and how long it’s been there. We’ve never lost a fight, but some campaigns do take longer than others.
Summary
It doesn’t matter if you are a doctor that is looking for a proactive ongoing reputation management plan or a doctor that needs to repair his or her online reputation. We can help. Our clients include a wide variety of doctors that were in exactly the same position you are now, and we have the experience that will ultimately result in you controlling your web reputation.
Give us a call today at 800.818.6286 for a free reputation management consultation. We look forward to speaking with you soon.
Doctors face reputation challenges that can make or break their career. If you are a doctor in need of reputation repair or management, please give our office a call at 800-818-6286.
What people say online can have an instant effect on a doctor and his practice, or anyone for that matter. I have personally seen a few well placed complaints result in severe appointment drops and empty waiting rooms.
My opinion is that this type of reputation control will eventually become a standard part of your overall marketing budget, if only because it is necessary to continue practicing without having to hire someone on staff to handle the web side of things.
A doctor is one of the most personal professionals you’ll pick in your life. So of course you want to find one with a decent reputation. If he or she has a bad reputation, or lots of complaints online, of course people are going to shy away.
The other side is that people are demanding. If they have to wait 10 minutes past their scheduled appointment, they want revenge. so they pop online that night and write bad reviews on ratemds.com or healthgrades.com about how inattentive dr. smith was.
Are there bad doctors out there? Absolutely, and the public has the right to know about them. But this type of doctor bashing is everywhere these days, which is why I’m sure companies like this one have come to being, offering their reputation repair services for those doctors that need them.
my 2 cents.
The best defence a doctor can have is to follow procedure and consider the patient’s needs as paramount. Also, to advertise their services truthfully, not to exaggerate and make false claims, and inform the patient of all risks associated with a treatment. lastly to ensure all advertised qualifications and memberships are based on fact. Any doctor following the above guidance will be unlikely to suffer a poor reputation. The worst mistake a doctor can make is contravene the above guidance and try to conceal errors and hide behind a web of deceit. A wronged patient who has suffered an injury due to treatment, and experienced lies and deceit from a surgeon trying to run away from responsibility is unlikely to be deterred and likely to be extremely persistant.
Definitely appreciate your position Mark, but not all reputation management is done in an effort to conceal anything. In fact, reputation management is often proactive public relations material and strategic search engine optimization in order to obtain more clientele and grow a doctor’s or a group’s practice and increase their bottom line.
Then if you take into consideration the negative content put online about doctors that hasn’t a shred of proof behind it, or is created by an angry ex employee or a competitor, then of course it is in the doctor’s best interest to clean up the search results and present positive content about himself, his staff, and his practice.
We do a ton of campaigns for different types of clients, not just doctors. From that experience, I can tell you this…. Much of the negative content you read is not real, and was created as kind of a reverse campaign, or smear if you will, in order to hurt the doctor, or other type of professional, whatever the case may be.
Bottom line, reputation management is ethical and an important part of any public relations/marketing plan, and should be especially important to physicians and other medical professionals.
My boss at ***** of the Valley, ***** ******, doesn’t even have a college degree, yet she is the C.O.O. here. What really burns the rest of the staff is that she got the job by having an affair with the president of the clinic, *** **** MD. Perhaps if these Dr’s in the practice would stop and take a look at how she is running this place into the ground they would get someone with proper training and experience in clinic administration.
**************Note*******************
Ordinarily we would not post this type of comment, but we have allowed this EDITED version to be posted just to show how people like to use the internet to vent their frustrations. In this case, an obvious employee of the medical center would like to totally out the doctor, the head of the clinic, and the business as a whole. On a blog thread that is simply about doctors and their online reputation. This is why it is so important for a doctor to be proactive in his or her online reputation management efforts if possible. If it’s too late to be proactive, then call us and let us react quickly. We can effectively begin to displace negative material literally within weeks. Call 800.818.6286 for more information on Doctor Reputation Management.
Die Ärzte sind besonders hohen Bekanntheitsgrad und werden oft von unglücklichen Patienten sowie anderen Ärzten, die in direkter Konkurrenz mit ihnen angegriffen werden. Es ist eine Schande, dass die Welt ist es gekommen.
Such an excellent post! No idea how you managed to write this report..it’d take me days. Well worth it though, I’d suspect. Have you considered selling banners on your blog?
Your doctor is the closest person to you, and knowing the truth, the real truth, about whatever they do or have done, is something every patient needs to be privy to.
Now, that being said, the internet has gone bonkers. Completely bonkers, and anyone can say anything about anyone without any real cause or reason. If they waited five minutes too long in the doctor’s waiting room, they sit in their dark little rooms at night talking about how they think the doctor might have violated them while they were under anesthesia. If he was having a bad day, they jump on Angie’s List, Complaint’s Board, or Rate MD’s in order to have their revenge. Silly, but also very effective.
Because as a Doctor, I have seen this personally. Ex employees and competitors using the internet like a weapon to take down a competing doctor or clinic because they know they can. Meanwhile, Doctor “A” and his clinic haven’t a clue why the phone has stopped ringing, because they just aren’t hip to the whole internet thing. They don’t tweet, twat, or twattle. They don’t know the first thing about doctor reputation management online and they don’t have a clue how important it is.
Until they find out they’ve been slammed. Until they find out that when someone searches for Doctor “A” in the Google, they get a full page of ugly, bald face lies. A page that Doctor “A” can do nothing about personally, except lose patients and lose money.
Until he hire’s a firm to clean it up for him.
I’ve had to go through this and let me tell you, it is no picnic. If you are a doctor, heed the words here and consider taking control before bad things happen, not after.
That is all from me for now. Thanks for letting me rant. Good luck to all the doctors out there thinking about how all this can affect your online reputation. Think long and hard my friends.
H.C.
A lot of Thanks for the posting an important article! This campaigns is really good and I would also like to note that the sleeps blog.
Thanks
John Moor
“Doctor Reputation”