The Importance of Providing Social Proof

February 1, 2023 | Philip Molden

Explore why and how reviews can reassure potential patients that they can trust your practice’s brand and services.

‘Social proof’ may be new terminology to many; however, this psychological phenomenon was first discussed by the American ‘persuasion thinker’, Robert Ciadini, in the mid-1980s, and is now widely accepted as an effective way to build customer confidence and drive sales.

In essence, social proof is the tendency to rely on others’ opinions to help inform our own. We’ve all practised it – perhaps searching for something on Amazon, for example, and being faced with hundreds of different hits. What’s the differentiator we all tend to gravitate towards in such circumstances? For most of us, it’s reviews.

Indeed, with up to 84% of consumers suggesting that reviews are important in their purchasing decisions and 63% more likely to trust brands with online reviews compared to brands with no reviews, this social proof concept is key to success, especially given the challenges many of us are facing in 2023.

THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD

Healthcare is no exception, especially given that modern care is – quite rightly – patient-centred and patients have choices and decisions to make.

The ‘wisdom of the crowd’, expressed through online reviews that are easily accessible to pre-existing and potential patients, can have an incredible effect on decision-making.

It’s a simple cause and effect occurrence that makes complete sense – the more popular your practice as shared in a public forum such as Google, your website, Facebook, Instagram, the more people are likely to seek you out.

Recommendations help people sort the wheat from the chaff when faced with a plethora of options, while positive reviews begin to build that all important trust, and there is always FOMO – fear of missing out.

The generation that experience FOMO the most are the millennials – those now aged between 23 and 41– and figures suggest they are the big spenders.

PEER-DRIVEN PRAISE AND SEO

So, what happens when we consider peer-driven praise in terms of a dental practice?

As an example, let’s focus on tooth whitening, with data suggesting that across all age groups, 10% would definitely have their teeth whitened professionally (or already have) and a further 22% probably would consider such a treatment. These figures increase for the groups aged 18 to 24 and 25 to 49, so there is plenty of opportunity out there for dental practices.

But how will these potential patients find you? The answer lies in capitalising on reviews providing social proof and keeping an eye on your search engine optimisation (SEO) ranking.

If you are worried this is difficult or time consuming to do, think again. When replying to reviews, all you need to do is include judicious keywords, because Google searches the replies as well as the original post.

So, if someone writes a great review about tooth whitening but omits the practice name, reply with something like: ‘Thank you so much for visiting [insert practice name] in [insert your location]. Your comment is gratefully received.’

Without any effort greater than that, immediately Google algorithms are processing what the patient wrote, and you’ve got your location in there via your reply.

Then, if your practice collects a lot of really positive reviews about tooth whitening, people searching for that treatment will see that. That peer-driven praise will help them decide your practice is the one for them.

USING REVIEWS TO SELL ADDITIONAL SERVICES

There is another very effective way to get patients interested in your service that cannot be achieved with Google, with no extra effort on your part.

For example, Working Feedback offers a service that is more impactful and direct than relying on SEO. This is the ability to promote the range of additional treatments you provide, where they create a bespoke package for the Practice so that you can tailor the questions you want during the online feedback process.

So, if a patient is filling in a review to say what they think about, for instance, their visit to the hygienist, you can include a question such as: ‘Did you know that we also offer tooth whitening?’.

Additionally, the Working Feedback system can be configured by you to offer the patient leaving a review a list of other treatments or services that are available at the practice.

Typically, that kind of promotion results in an additional £5-10k worth of opportunities each month for the dental team to follow up on.

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH FEEDBACK

Reviews provide a commanding form of social proof and are something you overlook at your peril. People are looking for someone they can trust with their dental health, and online feedback gives them confidence to choose you over others.

When you get it right, empowerment through reviews naturally follows, to the benefit of both parties.

Here to help do exactly that, Working Feedback is a top tier partner and integrates directly with Software of Excellence and Dentally.

Our solutions easily integrate with social media platforms, which means reviews can be posted directly onto sites including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Plus, clients can ask for, request, share and reply to Google reviews directly through the Working Feedback platform, as it is fully integrated with Google My Business.

If you would like to join the growing number of practices embracing the benefits of this award-winning feedback system, simply visit www.workingfeedback.co.uk, email [email protected] or call 0800 043 2100.