Reviews provide insight that helps you to improve your services, retain patients, and grow loyalty to your practice or clinic. So how do you improve patient satisfaction to increase the number of great reviews you get? We’ve outlined some of the key ways below:
Provide patient-centred care
Some of the most frequent positive feedback on our site is left by patients who felt they were listened to and understood by their healthcare provider. Patients may feel nervous, intimidated, or even afraid when attending consultations or medical procedures. It helps to fully inform patients about what their options are, and what resources are available to support them in navigating these experiences. Patient centred care is about being respectful of their needs and making sure patient values lead the way in every decision, clinical or otherwise. The happier people are, the more reviews they’ll provide and the better they will be.
Great communication
Put yourself in a patient’s shoes and you instantly realise that knowledge means everything. It’s important to put technical terms into language patients can understand and won’t feel intimidated by. It’s also important to make sure patients feel they have been given all of the required information necessary to make a decision about which option is best for them. The better you communicate with your patients, the happier they will be, and ultimately the better your reviews will be.
Being treated kindly
Kindness sits at the heart of every aspect of the medical profession, everything from applying a plaster to a child’s knee to a full-on operation. When you feel poorly you often feel afraid, confused, in pain, and not your usual self. You might actually find it quite hard to explain your symptoms and make yourself understood. Kindness helps people feel comfortable, respected and cared for. The kinder your staff are, the better your patients will feel about their experience with your practice.
Time spent with patients
Would you feel valued if someone rushed up to you, poked and prodded you a bit, then disappeared at top speed, leaving you confused and uncertain? In a medical context, time is everything. The more time you spend putting people at ease and listening to their concerns, the more valued and satisfied they’ll feel, and the more likely they’ll be to provide a positive feedback.
Being given clear options
You go to the clinic and come out feeling confused. You know you’ve been given more than one option but to be honest you can’t remember all the details, it all happened in such a rush before you were more or less pushed out through the door. Do you feel happy? Definitely not. Do you feel moved to leave a review? Probably not. You’d rather go home and forget the whole thing. Be clear, provide information in writing as well as verbally, and people will feel happier about reviewing their experience.
Trust
The more trust you can generate amongst your patients, the more reviews you’ll get. And trust comes from a myriad of different places, including the points above. If you can tick all the boxes, you’ll be in a much better position to attract people’s trust than if you don’t.
The proof – Popular terms used in Doctify’s patient feedback
If you need proof, we’ve got some for you. The Doctify review system reveals a few very popular phrases that appear time and time again in medical reviews and highlight patients’ preoccupations, the things they feel are the most important. The top seven attributes of a great medical service are: informative, reassuring, efficient, professional, caring, attentive, and ‘clearly explained options’.
