Importance of Maintaining an Accurate Business Directory Listing for Online Reputation Management & Review Purposes
Today, most health care organizations have an online presence. Many also use additional online listings for health care provider referrals. But, potential patients (customers) won’t be able to find the providers or won’t want to visit them, if they are not listed correctly in online pages. Something called NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) should all be standardized and correct across all of your business citations.
Make sure spelling and contact information is correct. For Doctors and Medical Clinics nothing will turn a patient away faster than being given the wrong phone number for a provider. For a business or restaurant an incorrect address can really cost you a potential client. Addresses using the Profile Defenders verification software service can always be confirmed online to avoid these issues and if you are a business or medical facility you can always verify this when the appointment is made. However, if scheduling staff fail to ask new patients if they know the location, they can end up being no shows. This is not good for the financial health of a business or practice either. Address information should be checked as well, because busy staff can sometimes forget to ask patients if they have the correct address and if they show up to the wrong address more time is spent trying to help them find the location.
Online listings help health care organizations refer potential patients to the right providers and specialists. More people are using the Internet for contact information. If patients can’t find the providers you’re referring them to, they will look elsewhere or they may call back to voice their frustrations at the lack of available information. Neither of these situations is good for your health care business. Likewise, physicians need to be able to find specialists from within your network, to refer patients. If they can’t find specialists within the network easily, they may end up referring to specialists they know, that are outside the network.
A Business Directory listing or listing for a physician will often come with reviews from major health care reviewers. If you want people to contact your top performing doctors, their presence needs to be visible and the listing must show their competence. By including ratings, physicians are more likely to get calls and inquiries from potential new patients.
Online listings don’t have to be lengthy. In fact, the shorter the better. But, they need to at least provide the most important information people are looking for. Contact information, ratings, consumer reviews, and sometimes education and training backgrounds are the types of information people will search for on the Internet.
These days most patients understand how to schedule and use patient portals. This means online directory listings should lead to patients being able to schedule appointments online. It should be a seamless process, so new patients can schedule appointments right away. Some patients will still prefer to pick up the phone and call. But many would rather pick a doctor and schedule the appointment at the same time.
It’s important to check each and every business directory listing for every physician within your network. If you don’t make it convenient for new patients, they will likely go elsewhere, where finding a doctor and scheduling an appointment or asking questions is a simple process.
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