How to Manage Patient Reviews Using Birdeye Online Reputation

Medical practices aren’t marketed the way they used to be.

Instead of putting an ad in the paper, you now have to cater to search engines like Google. Instead of the yellow pages, you have online listings. And instead of word of mouth, you have social media and online reviews. And that’s where the challenge sets in.

Online reviews carry a lot of weight with today’s patients.

You know you provide quality care. But one rude phone call (and it may not even be your staff who’s rude) and your practice now has a 1-star review online.

It’s a black mark, and it’s not coming off!

It used to be easy to ignore those kinds of situations because you knew your patients and your patients knew each other.

Online, however, all of this context is gone, and prospective patients would rather believe the reviewers’ opinion instead of your own. Stack up too many bad reviews, and you will feel it in your bottom line.

Your online reputation is now as important (or more) than your in-person reputation.

That’s where Birdeye online reputation management software comes in.

What is Birdeye reputation management?

‍Birdeye is an online reputation management tool used by businesses--including medical practices--to manage their online presence.

Birdeye is available at a couple of different price points, from the standard tier at $299/mo and the professional tier at $399/mo, to a custom tier with custom pricing. Each tier unlocks different features depending on your needs.

But just like any tool, it’s just that – a tool. It’s essential that you have a plan and strategy for how you’re going to use it to market and manage your practice online.

Why your practice needs online reputation software

Online reputation management software tools like Birdeye allow you to do several things:

• Keep your business information accurate and up-to-date across all online directories
• Monitor and get alerts for online reviews on different sites
• Easily generate more online reviews
• Communicate with patients one-on-one via text

With tools like Birdeye, it’s much easier to manage your online image and protect your practice. You’ll also be able to expand your practice’s reach and find new patients that you’d never been able to contact otherwise.

Bad reviews can’t be deleted or changed

The fact that you can’t delete or change reviews can cause a physician’s blood to boil. After all, they received quality care – what if they’re just overly critical?

Agonizing over individual reviews is not the answer – however, you CAN compensate for this by gathering more reviews to increase the ratio of good vs bad. Over time, the volume of good reviews will drown out the bad ones.

Also, boosting your total reviews will help make you look more established online. A patient is more likely to pick a physician with 500 reviews and a 4.5 star rating than a physician with a single average review to their name.

Having more reviews than the competition will help you tip the scales in your favor!

Managing patient reviews with the Birdeye online reputation tool

The Birdeye platform allows you to do many things to manage your online reputation. Let’s explore just a few!

Review monitoring

Birdeye collects the reviews people post about you online and displays them all in one dashboard. From this single screen, you can either monitor all of your reviews or filter them by source, time period, or rating. The screen also provides a helpful Average Review Rating at the top of the screen so you can see how you’re doing.

Respond to Reviews

But it’s not enough to just know about a bad review; you have to do something about it. That’s why Birdeye lets you auto-respond to reviews.

The response gets sent to whatever platform the original review is on (e.g. Google) and you don’t have to lift a finger. If any reviews need further action, you can create Tickets based on the review and assign it to one of your staff for resolution.

Sharing Reviews on Other Platforms

If you have a particularly good review that you want to share, you can easily share it to the social media platform of your choice through auto-sharing rules, or individual shares!

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Generating New (and More) Reviews

Online reviews are the lifeblood of the new marketplace, but most customers won’t leave a positive review unless you ask. The problem with that, however, is that your staff has to remember to ask in the first place.

More often than not, the front desk will either forget or ignore your order to ask the patient for a review. And so the only patients who’ll proactively leave a review are the unhappy ones.

Birdeye automates the review collection process by sending out review requests over whichever method you want (SMS text, email, or social media) for whatever review platform you want (Google, Facebook, Birdeye, etc). These requests can also be personalized so that they always sound like you.

This process does involve a bit of a learning curve, but there are plenty of resources for those that want to do it themselves. Alternatively, you can hire an agency like TrackableMed to set up an automated review process for you.

Getting started with Birdeye

Getting started with Birdeye is as simple as going to Birdeye’s website and filling out a contact form. From there, you’ll attend a demo and be given the opportunity to try out the tool.

Once purchased, Birdeye will hand you the keys to your platform (so to speak) and you’ll have to set it up and configure it. There are learning resources available so that you can educate yourself on the tool and then pass that knowledge on to your staff.

On the other hand, if you’re too busy to learn a new tool (and most physicians are), then you’ll want to off-load the work as much as possible.

Agencies like TrackableMed can set up Birdeye for you, as well as onboard you, train your staff, and help you build a process around maximizing the tool so that your staff has procedures on how to use it.

If you  deploy Birdeye with TrackableMed, you’ll get a:

• Personalized microsite
• Customized review dashboard
• Easy review management
• Personalized Review Feed (Live!)

Also, a medical marketing agency like TrackableMed can help you with Birdeye’s pricing. While we can’t offer discounts on the software itself (it’s the same annual price whether you pay us or pay Birdeye) – we can bill monthly rather than paying the entire year upfront in order to help your cash flow.

Note: If you purchase on your own, Birdeye requires payment for a year upfront.‍

Final diagnosis

As powerful and helpful as online reputation management tools are, they won’t be able to fix a horrible office. Birdeye is simply a tool. The tool is only as good as the strategy, the implementation, and above all, the patient experience that your practice is delivering.

Having said all that, Birdeye is an excellent option if you want people online to see you just as how your patients see you: competent and caring, and ready to provide the best healthcare that’s within your power to give.