Personally call the patient. If the negative review belongs to a known patient in your practice, give the patient a call to personally listen to their feedback, sympathize, address their concerns, and ideally, resolve the issue. If you are able to identify and resolve their concerns, you may even be able to salvage the relationship and turn the negative review into a positive one by providing superior customer service.
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Ask the patient to update their online review. If the issue was able to be resolved, ask the patient if they would be willing to modify their review.
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Respond politely to the review. If you were not able to resolve the issue with the patient or the patient is unwilling to update their review, it's time to respond publicly to the online review. Especially, since 89% of consumers read businesses' responses to reviews and negative reviews stop 40% of consumers wanting to use a business. Ensure your review response is HIPAA Compliant (i.e. do not include the patient's name, diagnosis, or any other protected health information (PHI) or confirm the individual is a patient of yours). Responding to the review lets others know that you care about your patient experience and want to ensure you are providing 5-star service to everyone.
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​Example Review Response:
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"Thank you, we greatly value your feedback and are sorry to hear that your experience was not satisfactory. We care about our patient experiences and want to ensure our team is providing 5-star service to every person, every visit. If you feel that you have received anything less, we would love the opportunity to make it right! Please call our office at your earliest convenience (555-555-5555). Looking forward to hearing from you! Thank you."