Providing a positive patient experience is essential for high patient retention and patient acquisition. Satisfied patients keep coming to see you and help spread positive word-of-mouth for your practice, often in the form of patient reviews.
But in your busy day-to-day, how often are you measuring patient satisfaction? Patient feedback software can help you understand how your patients feel about their care experience and give you actionable insight into enhancing your online reputation. Read on to understand how it works.
What does patient feedback software do?
Patient feedback software allows healthcare providers to learn about patient satisfaction directly from their patients. It does this by sending automated patient satisfaction surveys following appointments.
Patient feedback software keeps providers informed about what they’re doing right and what could use some improvement. Simply knowing what’s working — and what isn’t — gives providers the opportunity to make changes that could positively affect patient satisfaction. Patient feedback software also helps identify advocates who might be open to writing patient reviews, which is critical to online reputation management.
Check out: Patient satisfaction in healthcare: What really matters to patients
Why do I need patient feedback software?
Providers should take special note of how they are being perceived by patients in the office and online. A bad experience at your office can translate into an unflattering patient review, which can hurt your ability to bring new patients through the door.
According to PatientPop, online patient reviews are the top factor affecting patient decision-making, relied upon by 59 percent of patients. According to BrightLocal, 78 percent of people say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and negative reviews stop 40 percent of consumers from wanting to use a business.
Patient feedback software allows your practice to receive feedback on an ongoing basis, which is critical for online reputation management. Because most online feedback is positive, requesting patient feedback can improve a practice’s overall star rating. Plus, 40 percent of consumers only take into account reviews written within the past two weeks, according to BrightLocal, so a steady stream of reviews is important to your overall brand.
Receiving reviews can also help improve your search engine ranking. According to Moz, review signals — which include how many patient reviews you have, how often you get new reviews, and the variety of sites on which you receive reviews, among others — are ranking factors for Google local search.
And not least importantly, requesting patient feedback gives healthcare providers the opportunity to hear from their valued patients. In a provider’s demanding schedule, there may not be enough time to ask patients how you’re doing. Learn the aspects of patient experience that your patients find most important, and make some changes based on the feedback you’re receiving.
Plus, if you establish a consistent feedback loop with your patients, they may feel comfortable sharing any complaints or concerns with you directly rather than leaving negative patient reviews online.
Learn more: 4 ways patient feedback can help improve your healthcare practice
What are the benefits of patient feedback software?
One of the biggest benefits of using software to request patient feedback is the ability to send automated patient satisfaction surveys. This provides patients with the opportunity to give feedback without adding a significant amount of work for you or your staff.
Patient feedback software can be programmed to send patient satisfaction surveys to when patients are most likely to fill them out. According to NRC Health, 73 percent of patients want to be asked for feedback within a few minutes to a few hours after they receive care. If you’re manually sending requests or are calling patients to ask them for feedback, it may be difficult or impossible to reach them in this window of time.
Sending patient satisfaction surveys electronically can also help capture honest feedback from patients, as they may be more comfortable answering in their own time than over the phone or in person.
Requesting feedback is just one component of online reputation management. In addition to sending patient surveys, patient feedback software like PatientPop allows users to monitor all of their online profiles and patient reviews in one place. It’s important to monitor all feedback, so you can stay on top of your reputation and address any negative feedback you may receive.
Interested in learning more tips for boosting your online reputation? Check out the blog post “The dos and don’ts of patient reviews for healthcare practices”
