Unfortunately one of the questions I'm getting from Gem's Family members more and more often is how to respond to a terrible review left by an irate patient. The internet presents awesome opportunity...
It can help us in so many ways. But it also has the power to cause massive rapid damage if you let it. In the old days if a patient was ripping mad at a dentist the old adage was, "A happy patient will tell a friend and an unhappy patient will tell 10 friends."
Even 10 people hearing how terribly you treated for Mrs. Jones was cause for concern. Today an unhappy patient can tell hundreds if not thousands through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and beyond. And then there's Yelp and Google!
Should you respond to the review at all?
If there was a single EASY GEM you could deploy which requires only 30 seconds of your time, costs little or nothing, and GUARANTEES a measurable reduction in new patient no-shows and an increase in case acceptance... wouldn't you want to do this for every new patient? How can you ensure that every new patient entering your practice enjoys a case of the "warm fuzzies?!"
