Reputation Management for Cosmetic Surgeons

Reputation management for cosmetic surgeons is essential for building a strong and visible healthcare provider brand image.

Cosmetic surgeons and plastic surgeon practices face many challenges as they work to improve the lives of their patients. These healthcare professionals have to work to stay abreast of industry developments, emerging technologies, and novel treatment options — they also have to manage their businesses.

Part of managing and growing any business is to create a visible digital reputation. This reputation influences potential patients’ perceptions of your clinical practice and can help you reach new audiences.

Cosmetic surgeon reputation management is a powerful digital marketing tool, regardless of your plastic surgery specialty. Whether you stand out for your expertise in butt lifts, offer cosmetic surgery restoration for accident victims, or simply help patients achieve the looks they desire, reputation management has become a significant part of the modern business world.

In our guide below, learn why cosmetic surgeon reputation management is so important, why patient reviews are make-or-break for your practice, and the reputation management tools needed to achieve your goals.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s buckle in and deeply dive into reputation management for plastic surgery practices.

Online Reviews: Shaping Customer Perceptions

Think about how you use the web when wanting to learn about businesses in your area. If you are like most people, your first step is to use Google or one of the other popular search engines (Yahoo, Bing, etc.) to find information.

Online reviews are some of the first tidbits of information in search results, and they dominate the first page of search results. After all, 93% of all consumers read reviews before purchasing, and these online reviews shape perceptions of your business.

If you’re a plastic surgeon, prospective patients search online before making healthcare decisions. Positive online reviews tip the scales in your favor; the more positive online reviews you have, the stronger your digital reputation.

The reverse is also true — if negative reviews plague your practice, you may miss out on a chance to grow your clinical practice.

How important are online reviews in shaping the perceptions of plastic surgeons in the digital environment? Consider the following statistics:

Positive Reviews

• After reading a trusted review on Google or Healthgrades, 92% of potential patients are more likely to visit your clinic.
• Positive reviews help you stand out in organic local searches by nearly 7% over competitors that do not have review profiles set up or that have negative reviews in their profiles.
• On average, patients spend 31% more on clinical services with excellent ratings and reviews.

Negative Reviews

• 94% of consumers say that negative reviews have convinced them to avoid a business — including plastic surgeons, cosmetic surgery practices, and restorative surgeons.
• Potential patients would engage with a clinic with a minimum star rating of 3.3. Only 13% of patients will consider using a clinic with only a 1—or 2-star rating.
• Negative reviews translate into customer losses. One bad review can result in losses of as many as 22% of customers; if three or more unflattering reviews appear in search results, the potential customer loss jumps to nearly 60%.

With these statistics in mind, it is clear that plastic surgeon reputation management is an essential strategy for building trust, awareness, and visibility. In the next sections, we’ll share details about online reputation management for plastic surgeons and the specific services that stand out as most important.

Why Do People Write Online Reviews?

Reviews on popular review sites like Google and Healthgrades allow people to share the positive experiences (or negative experiences) they encountered with a business. Reviews let people tell their side of the story, good or bad.

When patients leave reviews, they aim to let others know what to expect, what to avoid, and why to choose or ignore a specific practice. Great reviews and positive comments lend credibility to a given practice. In contrast, an unflattering patient experience in the form of patient reviews can erode credibility and trust — two essential pieces of the patient/practitioner relationship.

In other words, happy patients build credibility, while negative comments or reviews can keep new clients from picking up the phone to schedule their first visit.

Can you afford to miss out on new patients? Chances are, the answer is no. That’s why review management for plastic surgeons and reputation management is so vital in the modern business world.

What is Online Reputation Management?

Online reputation management (ORM) is a set of strategies designed to establish, build, preserve, and repair an online reputation. ORM professionals provide a wide range of services to help you put your best foot forward in the digital environment and gain competitive advantages. 

Plastic surgeon reputation management may include services like:

• Public relations
• Branding
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Local SEO
• Crisis management
• Google My Business/Business listing services
• Review management
• Reputation Monitoring
• Social media profile management

As with any business, your cosmetic surgery practice will have unique needs and goals. Talented ORM teams understand that “one size fits all” solutions do not work; therefore, they develop tailored strategies designed to produce the results you desire.

Online Reputation Management for Plastic Surgeons: Essential Services

Online reputation management offers various tools and strategies to shape public perceptions of your clinical practice. While each of them has its place, a few of the services stand out as essential.

If you’re a plastic surgeon or cosmetic surgery professional, the following services should be part of your plastic surgery reputation management campaign:

Branding

Branding is essential for every business, making it a valuable tool in reputation management for plastic surgeons. Branding is developing a digital identity, growing an audience, and sharing the attributes that make your cosmetic surgery practice special.

As a plastic surgeon, you may wonder if you need a brand. The answer is a resounding “yes”; building a brand is one of the key steps to take to attract more patients to your practice. Branding can create awareness and recognition, even in competitive markets. Branding touches every aspect of your digital footprint, including your clinic website, social media profiles, review profiles, and advertising materials.

Research shows that prospective patients respond to visible brands. With branding services, you can highlight your patient-first mentality, expand your digital presence, and reinforce your digital marketing channels with the content needed to tell your story.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the principles and practices that optimize web pages for maximum visibility in online searches. After all, your clinic’s website is next to useless if potential customers cannot find you on Google or other search engines. Patient acquisition is the goal of SEO and local SEO, bringing prospective clients to your clinic before they choose your competitors.

SEO uses on-page factors like keywords, image optimization, visual assets, title tags, and meta descriptions to help search engines accurately categorize and index relevant websites based on a user’s search query.

For plastic and cosmetic surgeons with growing practices, developing positive content using SEO principles and publishing it to company websites, blogs, and social media helps you build a powerful brand image and propels you to the top of search engine results for your branded keywords. This increased visibility improves “discovery,” or the ability of potential new customers to find you first.

Review Management

Because the quality and quantity of online reviews are so crucial to your online reputation, review management must be considered an essential part of your reputation management campaign.

Review management is the process of understanding what others are saying about you and then removing negative reviews that harm your business prospects. Anyone can post a bad review, even if the information is false, misleading, or defamatory.

Review management consists of four parts:

• Review generation
• Review response
• Review removal
• Review monitoring

Review generation on Google or other review sites helps to keep your business at the top of search results. You can request a review with each clinic visit or set up a review encouragement program to encourage patients to leave positive reviews. As you collect reviews, this review volume propels you to great visibility in online search engine results.

How you respond to reviews can make or break your business. Every negative review is a learning opportunity. You are restoring trust between you and your patients by developing a consistent response — even responding to bad reviews. This response also allows you to debunk unreasonably negative reviews or feedback posted by disgruntled patients.

While not every unflattering review can be removed, certain customer reviews represent unfair or inaccurate feedback. By managing your review profiles, you can flag false, fake, or defamatory customer reviews for removal.

Finally, review monitoring allows you to spot problems before they can damage your online reputation. Automated tools scan the web for recent reviews, giving insights into customer feedback and potential shortfalls in your service delivery. Constant monitoring is one of the most proactive ways for you to manage reviews and ultimately results in achieving business success.

Social Media Management for Plastic Surgeons

Social media has become a game changer not just for personal communication but also for business as well. Having an active social media presence puts a human face on plastic surgery practices, fostering a sense of engagement and trust between you and your patients.

Reputation management teams can assist you in building your social management strategy. It’s no secret that social media management has quickly become vital to plastic surgeon reputation management. Strategy for social media may include:

• Video testimonials sharing a patient experience
• Offering insights into your plastic surgery practice
• Sharing emerging technology used in your practice
• Information about how your practice works to secure patient data

Social media posts that feature patient testimonials go a long way toward building a trustworthy, visible, and engaging brand for your plastic surgery practice. Satisfied patients showcased on your social profiles work to establish the trust you need to thrive, even in competitive markets.

Social media is also good for actively gaining positive reviews and favorable online ratings, nurturing customer relationships, and building a healthy brand reputation.

Negative Content Removal

Among the essential tools for reputation management for plastic surgeons, negative content removal for medical practices stands out.

Harmful content in the form of fake reviews, defamatory social media posts, bad ratings on review sites, and unflattering brand mentions on blogs or websites can undo everything your practice has worked so hard to achieve. This negative content must be dealt with to protect your digital reputation.

Reputation management professionals use various strategies to identify harmful online content and remove it once and for all. With content removal services as part of your overall plastic surgery reputation management campaign, you can protect, preserve, and repair your reputation like never before.

Contact InternetReputation Today

InternetReputation is a leader in managing online reputations, including reputation management and monitoring services that help your healthcare operation stand out in competitive marketplaces.

Our team of reputation management experts knows what it takes to build a strong and visible brand, helping establish your practice’s online reputation as a leader in your field. From eliminating bad reviews to improving visibility in Google search results, Google Maps, and social media, we work hard to deliver the results you need for your practice to thrive.

To learn more about our reputation management services for plastic and cosmetic surgeons, contact our team today at 941-259-4554 for a free consultation with one of our representatives.