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In the past, major ways we drew new patients were traditional marketing and through patient referrals of friends, family and colleagues. Now, a percentage of people who may have asked friends and family for professional referrals know they can find reviews and ratings of professional services online and many prefer to do so. This shift is especially relevant in the workplace and in adults in the 25-35 age range. The old “cubicle conversion,” co-workers exchanging information about the professionals they prefer (workplace referrals) has changed as well. Many younger, more internet savvy people don’t bother asking for recommendations from the colleague they share a wall with, preferring the recommendations of strangers on social review sites like Google Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp and elsewhere.

Referrals from friends, family and colleagues are incredibly valuable for our practices in and of themselves, and they provide a trickle of new patients into your office. Social Reviews viewed by thousands can turn the trickle into a steady stream. The time has come to ask those who refer you to become a megaphone for your practice by asking if they would review your practice online. An internet marketing strategy for a professional service such as optometry is sorely lacking if it does not include actively pursuing online reviews. If you are not marketing to your patients by proactively gaining online reviews, you are leaving valuable business on the table and taking a backseat to competitors who understand the value of this modern referral medium.

A phenomenon known as “spiraling up” is pertinent to this discussion and championed in the book of the same name by Lee Frederiksen, PhD and Aaron Taylor. Expounding on data collected by Frederiksen and Taylor, people are more likely to visit a doctor they feel is more likely to provide a desired outcome than they are to respond to a doctors’ credentials or marketing slogans. If this is the case, than it’s not too large an assumption that a positive online review of an optometrist’s office which demonstrates the desired outcome of the reviewer is at least as effective (and likely more so) in getting another patient to choose to visit that doctor as opposed to the doctor’s credentials or marketing initiatives. More positive online reviews increase a practice’s visibility, which in turn fuels further growth. Thus, social review enables doctors’ offices to sustain rapid growth and increase value at a rate much greater than word of mouth referrals alone.

If you want to increase profitability and grow faster, take the recommendation of my friend and mentor Ian Altman of “GrowMyRevenue.com”, a nationally recognized speaker, author and strategic advisor to technology and business/professional services companies, and read "Spiraling Up" – it will change the way you market.

So, how do you go about getting online reviews? Sign up for my online marketing conversation in the OnToptics group on “LinkedIn” and “Facebook” and shoot me some questions. Also be sure to pick up my book “Searchial Marketing: How Social Media Drives Search Optimization in Web 3.0”. (But do it before you pick up “Spiraling up”!)

If you are planning to go to Vision Expo West, please connect with me on Facebook, Twitter or by email at aglazier@youreyesite.com so we can meet and chat!

- Alan N. Glazier, OD, FAAO
Author: Searchial Marketing: How Social Media Drives Search Optimization in Web 3.0
Founder/CEO
Shady Grove Eye and Vision Care
Rockville, MD

Twitter Handle: @EyeInfo
Blog: http://www.youreyesite.net
Website: YourEyeSite.com

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