February 2016 Ceatus Chronicles
Reviews, Reviews, Reviews
All practices receive negative reviews…there’s no way to avoid it. And to add insult to injury, negative reviews hurt practice revenue. Luckily, there are ways to tackle this common problem. The best defense is a good offense; to offset negative reviews you need positive reviews — lots of them.
Over the last year, the Ceatus team has researched the most effective ways to acquire positive reviews. There are numerous programs out there, but many are cumbersome, and the reality is that staff members are busy; if a reviews program is not quick and easy to use, it won’t happen.
This is why Ceatus has created a new one-step reviews program that’s easy to implement. We are happy to report that it’s already working great for our clients! The Ceatus Reviews Manager program generates positive reviews for our clients on rating sites like Yahoo, Google, Healthgrades, Vitals and others. And unlike other programs, our reviews program differentiates between happy and dissatisfied patients, so there is no risk of encouraging an unhappy patient to post a review. Reviews are so critical to our clients’ success that we have incorporated this service into our SEO programs. Of course, we also offer the Ceatus Reviews Manager separately for a very affordable price.
We just returned from the Caribbean Eye Meeting where our CEO, Dr. David Evans, was invited to give a presentation about online marketing and review management. He outlined how effective reviews programs should work and presented one of our numerous case reports. The graphs below display the improvement a certain doctor achieved in just under six months. Across healthcare sites, his online review scores increased from 3.5 to 4.5 stars. His positive reviews now far outweigh the few negative reviews that he had, creating a significant buffer against any negative reviews he may receive in the future.
The Amazon Effect
Once you have accumulated a number of positive reviews, it’s time to use these reviews to leverage your reputation and increase practice revenue. We call this “The Amazon Effect.” When we analyzed the way large ecommerce companies, like Amazon, use reviews, we found that they publish reviews on their websites in order to increase conversion. Consumers can read the product information, then the reviews, and then make a buying decision immediately. We recommend the same strategy for medical and dental practice websites.
Publish Reviews on Your Website
Below is an example of how a full page of reviews can appear on your website. The prospective patient is able to read reviews from a variety of sources, without ever leaving the doctor’s website.
CEATUS Case Study of the Month
Text It and They Will Come
The one-step review process
As we noted in our feature article, reviews programs do not work if they are too cumbersome. Doctors and their staff members are just too busy to constantly solicit reviews and then follow up to encourage patients to post them. The solution? The Ceatus Reviews Manager, which provides a one-step texting option that is very easy to implement.
In this case study we discuss the case of a Florida eye surgeon who started using the Ceatus Review Manager’s Text Option in his practice. He was able to obtain an “A” grade on the healthcare sites just 7 months after starting the program.
How the Text Option Works
The most effective way to convince patients to write reviews is to approach them in the office when they are most happy about the procedure or service. Many practices email the patient or provide a card or brochure with links to the various public reviews sites. Unfortunately, many patients “never get around” to posting a review unless the staff constantly follows up. Staff members are too busy for this constant requirement.
The Text Option is easy, and no follow-up is required. To use the Text Option, politely ask patients during the post-operative examination if they would be so kind as to share their experiences with others. Patients almost always say yes.
Patients are provided a number to send a text to, along with the doctor’s name. Those that send the text immediately receive a message asking if they were happy with the doctor. Patients that are happy are provided a link that sends them directly to a review site where they can post a review right then. (Patients replying that they are unhappy are not linked to a review site.)
Text Option Uses Different IP Addresses
Since the review is typed in on the patient’s own phone, the practice avoids any issues associated with using a tablet or other device in the office — namely, the fact that by using a device in this manner, the same IP address will be provided for all reviews; this is a problem because the rating sites do not allow multiple reviews from the same IP address.
Text Option Success
Our Florida eye surgeon started using the Ceatus Review Manager’s Text Option in the spring of 2015, and by the end of the year had achieved a grade of A on the top rating sites. Each client that uses the Ceatus Reviews Manager receives a weekly report card showing his or her grades on the rating sites. Our Florida eye surgeon’s most recent report card is shown below.
Ask the experts
Q: What are the most important review sites for my practice?
A: Consumers attempting to evaluate and choose a doctor often use searches that combine a doctor’s name with “reviews.” Sites that rank highest for the search term “Dr. {Name} Reviews” are the most important for your review scores. These typically include Yelp, Google+, Healthgrades, Vitals and sometimes others. To find out which sites are most important for you, type “{Your Name} reviews” in the Google search bar.
Events: Maximize Your Internet Strategy
Come by the Ceatus booth for a FREE website evaluation!
Academy of Osseointegration
San Diego, CA
February 17-20, 2016
Booth 1415
Join us in our home city of San Diego to learn how to give your Internet Strategy a smile makeover.
Chicago Dental Society
Chicago, Illinois
February 25-27, 2016
Booth 4843
Looking to defy winter and heat up your website and online marketing strategy? Visit the Ceatus team at Booth 4843 for a FREE website evaluation!
Dallas Rhino Symposium
Dallas, Texas
March 4-6, 2016
Find out how to grow your practice and increase conversion from your online presence. Stop by our table to talk to a Ceatus Internet marketing expert and get a FREE Digital Strategy Review!
ASAPS – The Aesthetic Show
Las Vegas, Nevada
April 2-7, 2016
Booth 1242
Meet us in Las Vegas for the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery’s 49th Annual Meeting. The Aesthetic Meeting 2016 will be filled with the latest news, technologies and trends in cosmetic surgery.
Ceatus CEO David Evans, PhD, will be giving a presentation on how to leverage your digital presence for increased practice revenue.
“Google Ranks Websites, Not Surgeons”
Monday, April 4, 2016
3:20 – 3:30 PM
Practice Changers Theatre (Located in the Aesthetic Marketplace)
ASRS – The Business of Retina
Dallas, Texas
April 9-10, 2016
Join us in Dallas for this year’s ASRS Annual Meeting. Our Digital Marketing experts will be standing by to offer FREE digital and brand evaluations at our booth. We hope to see you there!
Not attending any of these shows? Give us a call (858-454-5505) for a FREE Digital Strategy Evaluation!
Once Upon a Western
10 Westerns You Need to Watch!
1. True Grit (2010)
This Coen brothers western is a new take on Charles Portis’s novel and the 1969 film that earned John Wayne an Oscar as the one-eyed bounty hunter Marshal Rooster Cogburn.
After an outlaw named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) murders her father, feisty 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) hires Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a boozy, trigger-happy lawman, to help her find Chaney and avenge her father.
True Grit is a harsher, more somber film than the Wayne version. The music is less jaunty and more pastoral. And though it’s not a comedy per se, it’s funnier than the original.
2. High Plains Drifter (1973)
A drifter with no name (Clint Eastwood) wanders into a small town called Lago looking for a whiskey, a shave and a bath, but instead is met with incredulity and disapproval by the townspeople. But once he shows his skills with a pistol, the locals realize he may be able to help them fend off a band of criminals who have been terrorizing the town. He agrees to help but does so with his own secret agenda.
3. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) is terrorizing 1800s Arizona, especially the Southern Railroad, until he is finally captured. Wade must be brought to trial, so Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a down-and-out rancher, volunteers to escort him to the train. Along the trail, a grudging respect forms between the men, but danger looms at every turn with the criminal’s men in pursuit.
Side note: This film is also a new take on the 1957 version starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin.
4. High Noon (1952)
Fred Zinnemann’s man-against-mob-mentality movie is deceptively sophisticated. Starring cowboy icon Gary Cooper and screen goddess Grace Kelly, High Noon’s most striking feature is its real-time plot. Cooper stars as retiring marshal Will Kane, who is about to leave town with his newly-wedded wife Amy (Grace Kelly) when he hears that his nemesis, Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), has been released from death row and is arriving on the noon train. Kane considers leaving but instead decides to stand his ground and finish business. Amy gives him a second ultimatum – she wants him with her on the noon train out – and so the 85-minute countdown begins.
5. Unforgiven (1992)
Winner of four Academy awards, including Best Picture, Unforgiven tells the story of a wronged prostitute, Delilah Fitzgerald (Anna Thomson), who becomes disfigured by a group of roughish cowboys in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, and her fellow brothel workers who have posted a reward for their murder. Much to the displeasure of sheriff Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), who doesn’t allow vigilantism in his town, two groups of gunfighters assemble, one led by aging former bandit William Munny (Clint Eastwood), the other by the florid English Bob (Richard Harris). But too many gunfighters in one place soon leads to rifts between each other and with the sheriff.
6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
One of the most well-known westerns in film history, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stars the biggest movie star of it’s time, Paul Newman, and his unlikely partner, Robert Redford, who at the time was a stage actor who had appeared in a few films but with little star power. Redford’s role was first offered to Jack Lemmon, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty, and Marlon Brando, all of whom turned it down.
But had any of them accepted, western fans would have been deprived of the remarkable friendship between the most likeable outlaw in frontier history, Butch, played by Newman, and Redford’s fabled and dangerous Sundance Kid. Expect fast draws, wild rides, a torrid love affair and train and bank robberies set to a sprawling Western backdrop.
7. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
It’s a battle of wits, guns and glory in this epic western where a revenge story becomes an epic contemplation of the western past. There’s a single piece of land with water on it and these outlaws are ready to kill for it. Rail baron Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) aims to have it, knowing his new railroad will have to stop there. He sends his henchman Frank (Henry Fonda) to scare the land’s owner, McBain (Frank Wolff), but Frank kills him instead and frames it on a known bandit, Cheyenne (Jason Robards). Meanwhile, a mysterious gunslinger with a score to settle (Charles Bronson) and McBain’s new wife, Jill (Claudia Cardinale), arrive in town. Let the games begin!
8. Tombstone (1993)
The infamous Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) and his band of brothers have left their gun slinging days behind, ready to settle down and start a business in Tombstone, Arizona. But trouble soon finds them when they become targets of a brutal and merciless cowboy gang. The Earp brothers, accompanied by Wyatt’s best friend, Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), pick up their guns and set out to restore order and justice to their lawless land.
9. Stagecoach (1939)
Winner of two Academy Awards and featuring what is considered to be John Wayne’s breakthrough role, Stagecoach is regarded as one of John Ford’s landmark westerns. Stagecoach follows a group of stagecoach passengers along their journey to Lordsburg, New Mexico, in the 1800s. An alcoholic philosophizer (Thomas Mitchell), a lady of ill repute (Claire Trevor) and a timid liquor salesman (Donald Meek) are among the motley crew of travelers who must contend with an escaped outlaw, the Ringo Kid (John Wayne), through dangerous Apache territory where threats of attack are around every corner.
10. Magnificent Seven (1960)
Based on Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, with a Western twist, The Magnificent Seven follows a group of seven hired gunfighters who band together to protect a small Mexican town from invading bandits led by the evil Calvera. The professional gunmen, first attracted to the money, soon create bonds with the villagers and decide to train them to defend themselves as well as to devise a plan to trap Calvera and rid themselves of the bandits for good.
