When a patient looks for a new dentist, doctor, or specialist, they almost always turn to online reviews first. A strong flow of recent, positive reviews boosts your visibility in search results, and most importantly, builds trust with potential patients while reassuring your current ones that they’re in good hands. Reviews also give your staff direct feedback on how well they’re delivering care, which can be a powerful motivator.
However, here’s the challenge: consistently obtaining those reviews. Patients often forget to leave feedback, staff may not feel comfortable requesting it, and manual reminders rarely scale. Meanwhile, competitors with a steady stream of glowing reviews climb higher in search rankings and attract more new patients.
The good news? Building a reliable system for patient reviews doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right strategies and the right tools, you can create a process that makes it simple for patients to share their positive experiences, keeps staff engaged, and turns reviews into a driver of both growth and care quality.
Choosing a healthcare provider isn’t like buying a new pair of shoes or picking a restaurant. The stakes are higher. Patients often place their trust, and their health, in your hands. That’s why peer validation plays such a powerful role in their decision-making. Reviews act as modern-day word-of-mouth, giving prospective patients confidence that they’ll receive safe, compassionate, and effective care.
But reviews aren’t just about online reputation. They’re also a continuous feedback loop that helps medical practices understand areas for improvement. When managed well, reviews can transform from a marketing checkbox into a vital part of your patient experience strategy.
Here are some of the biggest benefits of patient reviews:
In short, patient reviews are the foundation of visibility, trust, and continuous improvement in today’s healthcare landscape.
As powerful as patient reviews are, most practices struggle to get them consistently. The barriers are both human, patients, and staff, and operational, because processes and tools don’t always make leaving feedback easy. These challenges are universal, whether you’re running a solo practice or a multi-location network, and they’re worth addressing if you want reviews to become a reliable growth driver.
Even patients who have a great experience may leave the office with every intention of writing a review, but never get around to it. Busy schedules, family responsibilities, and the hassle of logging into platforms can all get in the way.
Frontline staff are often the best people to encourage reviews, but many feel awkward about asking patients face-to-face. Without a clear process or support, review requests can feel inconsistent or disappear altogether.
Not every patient is tech-savvy, and if the review process feels complicated (multiple logins, unclear instructions, or too many clicks), many will abandon it. A confusing experience almost guarantees fewer reviews.
Practices sometimes hesitate to actively request reviews because they worry that unhappy patients will air their frustrations online and on social media platforms. While this concern is valid, it often prevents valuable feedback from surfacing in a constructive way.
Relying on manual reminders, whether it’s staff remembering to ask or sending follow-up emails, rarely scales. Without automation, reviews will always be sporadic, and practices will miss the chance to build momentum with a steady stream of feedback.
Overcoming these challenges is crucial. The good news is that with the right strategies and tools, it’s entirely possible to turn reviews into a dependable source of trust, insight, and growth.
The most sustainable way to increase patient reviews isn’t by chasing reminders, it’s by creating a culture where every interaction feels worthy of a review. When patients consistently experience warmth, professionalism, and genuine care, they’re far more likely to share those experiences publicly.
Patient-facing staff are at the center of this. Every review, positive or negative, is ultimately a reflection of how patients feel about their daily interactions with your team. That’s why empowering staff isn’t optional; it’s essential.
Recognition plays a big role here. Celebrating positive feedback motivates staff to repeat those behaviors, while coaching in response to negative feedback helps prevent issues from happening again. Reviews become a tool for learning, encouragement, and growth.
The key is ensuring that feedback doesn’t just sit in a database or marketing report. Sharing reviews with staff in real time turns them into a driver of frontline enablement. When teams see the direct impact of their actions, they feel connected to patient outcomes, motivated to provide excellent care, and inspired to keep delivering review-worthy experiences.
The real secret to review growth isn’t luck; it’s creating predictable, scalable, and patient-friendly systems that work every time. When you build these systems into your workflows, reviews become a natural byproduct of great patient care, not an afterthought. Here are 10+ best practices that can help your practice consistently generate more reviews while strengthening the patient experience overall.
Timing is everything. Patients are most willing to leave a review when their experience is fresh. The ideal time would be after a successful procedure, a warm interaction, or a resolved issue. AskNicely automates requests at these moments, ensuring you never miss the optimal window.
When staff know what to say, asking for reviews becomes second nature. Provide scripts or talking points that make the request feel natural and patient-focused. A confident, genuine ask helps patients feel valued rather than pressured.
Manual reminders fall through the cracks. Automation ensures that every patient gets the same opportunity to leave feedback, without relying on busy staff. With AskNicely, review requests can be triggered automatically through your practice management system.
Patients are far more likely to leave a review if it takes less than a minute. Use one-click links via email or text message (SMS), or display QR codes in your office that take patients directly to the review page. The fewer steps, the higher the response rate. AskNicely makes this easy with the “Review Request” feature that allows customers to turn their feedback into a public review with one click.
Not all reviews carry the same weight. Directing patients to platforms like Google or Healthgrades ensures that their feedback boosts your visibility where future patients are looking.
Sharing positive reviews internally reinforces the behaviors that earned them. Celebrate these moments in team meetings or through a live feed (like AskNicely TV) to keep morale high and motivate staff to keep delivering review-worthy experiences. AskNicely’s “Praise” feature allows managers to send a shoutout to team members who get positive feedback to reinforce those positive behaviors.
Not every experience will be perfect. Capturing patient concerns privately (before they hit public review sites) lets you resolve issues constructively. AskNicely’s private feedback channels give patients a safe place to share frustrations, helping you protect your reputation and improve care.
Generic messages get ignored. Personalizing your review requests (e.g, using the patient’s name, mentioning their visit, or referencing their provider) makes the ask feel thoughtful and genuine, increasing the chance of a response.
Reviews shouldn’t feel like they go into a void. Let patients know how their feedback has influenced improvements in care or service. This not only builds loyalty but also encourages them (and others) to leave reviews in the future.
What gets measured gets managed. Set clear review targets, monitor performance across locations or providers, and share progress with your team. With AskNicely’s analytics, you can see trends in real time and keep the whole practice accountable.
Reviews aren’t just for marketing; they’re a reflection of your patient experience. Make them part of your culture by tying feedback into coaching, training, and recognition. The result: quality care, happier staff, and a steady stream of authentic reviews.
Don’t rely on a single method to request reviews. Combine in-office prompts, follow-up emails, SMS messages, and patient portals to catch patients where they’re most likely to respond. Using multiple channels increases overall response rates while keeping the process convenient for patients.
No matter how exceptional your practice is, negative or mixed reviews are inevitable. What really matters is how you respond. Thoughtful, timely, and constructive responses can turn a frustrated patient into a loyal one and demonstrate to potential patients that your practice takes feedback seriously.
Acknowledging a patient’s concerns promptly shows that you value their experience. Use a calm, empathetic tone and thank them for sharing their feedback. Avoid defensive language; instead, focus on understanding their perspective and offering to address the issue.
Some concerns are better handled privately. Invite the patient to call, email, or schedule a follow-up discussion. This not only protects sensitive information but also gives you a chance to resolve the issue without escalating it publicly.
Demonstrating that patient feedback leads to real change builds trust. Whether it’s adjusting scheduling procedures, improving communication, or addressing a specific staff interaction, let patients know their voice contributes to ongoing improvements in care and experience.
By handling negative or mixed reviews strategically, your practice can turn challenges into opportunities, strengthening patient trust, improving processes, and even encouraging more positive reviews in the future.
Schweiger Dermatology Group, with 90 offices across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, realized that clinical expertise alone wasn’t enough to meet rising patient expectations. Patients wanted effective treatments and a seamless, trust-building experience; offering this helped Schweiger earn 5-star reviews, repeat visits, and referrals.
To scale patient experience across hundreds of providers and thousands of visits per year, Schweiger implemented AskNicely. Providers receive real-time feedback via phones, desktops, and iPads, helping them understand what they’re doing well and where they can improve. Positive feedback is celebrated across the company, reinforcing behaviors that drive exceptional care.
The impact on reviews was significant: positive Google reviews tripled, with an average rating of 4.5 stars, showing that a culture of feedback and staff empowerment directly translates to more patient reviews. Nearly 50% of patient providers also improved their individual NPS scores by 12 points in a year, highlighting how actionable feedback can strengthen patient experience at scale.
By integrating real-time feedback, coaching, and recognition, Schweiger Dermatology turned patient reviews into a growth engine, reinforcing both trust and loyalty while driving measurable results for the practice.
Even the best strategies for generating patient reviews can fall flat without the right tools in place. Technology enables consistency, efficiency, and scale, making it easier for practices to collect feedback, respond appropriately, and turn reviews into actionable insights. Here’s a look at the main types of tools that can help:
These tools focus on gathering patient input through surveys, forms, or email requests. They make it easier to capture structured feedback and often include automation to request reviews at the right moment in the patient journey.
Reputation management platforms help practices monitor reviews across multiple sites, respond to feedback, and maintain their online presence. While they provide visibility, they typically focus only on managing public reviews rather than integrating insights into daily practice operations.
CX platforms, like AskNicely, go beyond basic review management. They unify review collection, private feedback, analytics, and staff enablement in a single system. By connecting reviews to real patient outcomes and frontline performance, CX platforms not only help you get more reviews, they make feedback a tool for improving care, engaging staff, and building a culture of patient experience excellence.
Generating patient reviews consistently requires a system that empowers staff, automates feedback loops, and connects reviews to real patient outcomes. That’s where AskNicely comes in.
Here’s how AskNicely helps practices turn patient feedback into growth and improvement:
With AskNicely, generating more patient reviews becomes a predictable, scalable, and patient-friendly part of your practice’s overall experience strategy. Ready to see it in action? Book a demo today.
The easiest way is to build a predictable, automated system that asks patients at the right time and makes it simple for them to respond. For example, sending a post-appointment SMS with a one-click link or QR code increases response rates dramatically. Consistency matters more than volume; patients are more likely to leave reviews when the process is reliable and effortless.
Automation ensures every patient receives a review request without staff having to remember. It can trigger messages at key moments, like right after a visit, while personalizing the request for a human touch.Â
Google and Healthgrades are typically the most influential for attracting new patients, as they appear prominently in local search results. Other platforms like Yelp or Facebook can supplement visibility, but directing patients to the sites where potential patients are searching ensures your reviews have maximum impact.
Provide clear scripts and training so staff know what to say and when. Emphasize that the goal is to make it easy and natural for patients, not to pressure them. Celebrate positive feedback to reinforce good habits and make the process feel rewarding rather than uncomfortable.
Respond quickly and empathetically, acknowledging their concerns and offering to address the issue offline if appropriate. Show how you’ve acted on feedback to prevent similar problems in the future. Turning a negative review into a constructive conversation can demonstrate accountability and build trust with both the reviewer and future patients.
Yes. Many CX platforms, including AskNicely, integrate with practice management and CRM systems to automate review requests, track feedback, and provide actionable insights. Integration ensures reviews are tied directly to patient records, making follow-up easier and improving overall workflow efficiency.
ROI can be measured by tracking increases in new patient acquisition, conversion rates, and online visibility, alongside improvements in patient retention. Positive reviews often correlate with higher trust and patient loyalty, which can directly impact revenue.Â
Reviews are a key factor in local search engine optimization (SEO). Google prioritizes practices with more frequent, high-quality reviews in local searches, which increases visibility to potential patients. Practices with 4+ star ratings and a steady flow of reviews are far more likely to appear in top search results for relevant queries.
Share positive patient satisfaction feedback with your team in real time to celebrate wins and reinforce excellent behaviors. Front desk staff and clinical teams alike can benefit from seeing satisfied patients’ comments, which also provide social proof of the impact of their work. Reviews can highlight areas for coaching, turning feedback into actionable learning moments. Platforms like AskNicely help streamline this process, making it easy to display team-level metrics and create a culture where staff feel recognized, accountable, and engaged in improving the patient experience.
