88% of shoppers incorporate reviews into their purchase decisions. From which restaurant to dine at, to researching a new yoga class and everything in between, a brand can thrive or die because of reviews. If you want to drive new patients and clientele for your physical therapy clinic, focus on increasing the volume (and scoring) of your online reviews.

Here’s a staggering figure. Every minute, Yelp users leave 26,380 reviews. If you consider reviews on Facebook and Google, that number jumps to potentially hundreds of thousands or reviews being left daily.

Reviews equal trust. People trust online reviews from third parties more than they trust a brand. Reviews also influence up to 10% of the search engine rankings for local searches.

So, how can your PT Clinic get more reviews?

Our 101 Advice

To entice your patients to start leaving reviews for your clinic, start by understanding what motivates people to leave reviews. Namely, people tend to leave reviews to:

• Be seen as helpful to their friends and a broader community
• Build status within a community (Yelp/Google)
• Provide feedback on ways a business can improve their experience

Keep Your Request Simple and Clear

In general, keep your review solicitations short and to the point. Make it as easy as possible for them to leave you a review by:

• Linking to the specific place where they can leave your review (Yelp, Google, Facebook, etc.)
• Providing an optional prompt to give your reviewee an idea of what their review should focus on
• Offering an incentive for completing a review (contest entry, clinic perk, etc.)

Once you know what motivates most people to leave reviews, you can start to create strategies for driving more reviews.

How Do You Get Patients to Leave A Review for Your Clinic?

Ask Them

The first step to getting more reviews, asking your patients to leave them. 70% of consumers will leave a business review if you ask. It seems a little simple, but by incorporating review asks in your patient communications you can start to drive more reviews for your clinic.

By asking patients to leave reviews, you also have more control over the type of reviews people leave. If you have patients thrilled with your clinic, ask those patients to leave reviews. That way you can start stockpiling a plethora of positive reviews to help protect your scores from any errant negative reviews that get left.

Utilize Your Email Lists

If you have a marketing email list, start your hunt for more reviews by sending regular emails to your lists asking for them to leave reviews for your clinic. Be sure to filter/scrub your list to focus on clients you know are more likely to leave a positive review for your clinic.

Leverage Your Social Media Audience

Start incorporating the occasional review solicitation as part of your social media publishing mix. Keep in mind that there’s no rule that a single person can leave multiple reviews on different platforms. If someone’s left you a 5-star review on Facebook, send them a note on Facebook with a link to leave you a review on Google.

Reviews take time to build up, remember the journey to a thousand reviews starts with a single satisfied patient. Use the power of reviews to improve your local search engine rankings, receive valuable feedback, and drive new patients through your doors.