You haven’t received a review, good or bad, in a longtime and you feel grateful for the lack of activity on your Yelp page.
It could be worse right? You could have had a few negative reviews that effected your star rating.
Start worrying. It’s worse.
Are You Still Open for Business?
Smartphones and social media have dramatically altered the landscape of the market. Patients have become more dynamic, empowered and capable of easily voicing their opinions online. So what happens when they stop? What are new patients supposed to think when the last time someone left a review was 6 months ago? Are you doing so bad that no one wanted to say anything good about your practice for the last 6 months?
When you don’t manage your online reputation on social media sites like Yelp and Facebook you leave the power up to the new patient to picture the type of experience they will have at your practice.
Negative Reviews Aren’t Going Away
Not all patients have the same expectations of service and a percentage of patients will always have something bad to say. What about the patients who are having a great experience? How do you know if any patients are happy?
How many people are you turning away because you’re ignoring your online reviews?
How Much Are You Willing to Pay for a New Patient?
Marketing your practice is tough. Ultimately decisions about marketing come down to the return on the investment. Here are two data points to consider when looking at the ROI on your marketing decisions.
Value of a Patient
Calculating the value of your patients is critical to your practice. One method of determining value is taking the total revenue over a calendar year and dividing that by the number of patients seen.
Annual Revenue / Total Patients Seen = Average Patient Value
Ex: $1,000,000 annual revenue / 1,000 total patients see = $1,000 average patient value
Value of Marketing Program
How much does it cost to acquire a new customer? Typically the formula looks like this:
Annual marketing expenditures / number of new patients acquired = Patient Acquisition Cost
How much are you spending? Let’s look at only online marketing.
- Marketing management: $2,000 per month
- Reputation management: $250 per month
- Website monthly fees: $250 per month
- Email service provider (MailChimp): $100 per month
- Yelp advertising: $300 per month
- Google advertising: $1,500 per month
- Facebook advertising: $500 per month
- Total marketing expenditures: $4,900 per month
If this marketing program brings in 35 new patients per month then your Patient Acquisition Cost is $140 per patient.
If your average patient value is $1,000 then you’re likely making a return of $860.
$1,000 Average Patient Value – $140 Patient Acquisition Cost = $860 Return on Investment
Consider Yelp as a Patient Acquisition Tool
You need to be taking Yelp seriously. The research is showing that 61% of patients use online reviews to select a new doctor and Yelp is the most trusted source for those reviews. And if you’re letting your Yelp page languish at 2 stars then you’re really turning away business.
If you start today you can begin to build your Yelp page reputation free for the first 14 days. Even taking your practice from 2 to 3 stars increases your chances of getting the new patient by 44%!
Don’t get lost in the sea of Yelp. Take charge of your Yelp presence and start building your 5-star practice today.