Your online reputation is the most important factor affecting your success whether you are a hospital, doctor, clinic or pharmacy. It is also the one component of your business that differentiates your superiority over your competitors.
If you are the typical business person, you know that you have had some employees’ that did not like you. It’s also a possibility that you’ve probably had a run in or two with a vendor or patient/client.
Truth is, you don’t think much about it since this is the norm in any business environment.
At least, it used to be. That was before the internet became so prevalent as the main form of communication for you and everyone your business interacts with on a daily basis.
Discover Your Reputation
The first thing that you need to do is find out what people – clients, vendors, former staff and patients – are saying about you online.
Here are several excellent reputation-tracking programs available ranging in Free to $1500 a month. Free is better – at least for the local business with less than 50 employees.
- Free – Google Alerts – enter the name of your business and personnel; check your alerts daily and go to the links provided to see what is being said
- Free – Social Mention – includes alerts similar to Google plus the ratio of positive to negative comments, likelihood of comment repetition, and brand strength positive or negative
Medical Marketing requires creating a positive brand impression and neutralizing any negative attacks within 24-hours of such a comment being posted.
In spite of what your lawyer will tell you – and he/she will advise you to admit no wrongdoing for fear of lawsuits – if your business takes a major dive in income, a lawsuit is the least of your problems.
- Admit the problem and make amends.
- Resolve any issues that you may have with those who are commenting about you instead of making excuses, trying to explain or presenting “your side” of the problem.
- Apologize and offer some form of compensatory solution – a free product or free office visit.
Huge companies have been dropped to their knees and forced into bankruptcy following that legal advice – J.C. Penny’s and Sears are just two.
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