Authored by Loryn Lyle
A client emailed me recently with a question I think a lot of practices will recognize:
“I have multiple providers and multiple review profiles. How do I help my team figure out where to ask patients for reviews?”
It’s a good question. Your practice has a Google profile. Your providers may have their own profiles. Then there are the other sites patients use to research you. Asking your team to support all of them at once can get confusing quickly.
Here’s where I’d start: compare your practice with similar practices in your local market. If your main practice’s Google profile is behind, make that your first priority. As it gets stronger, look at individual providers and other relevant sites. Keep revisiting that order as your needs change.
Start by seeing what patients see
Search for the services you offer in the area you serve. Look at the practices a prospective patient would realistically compare with yours. A national brand or a practice in a different market may be a poor benchmark.
For your main practice profile and a few relevant competitors, write down:
- The total number of reviews
- The average star rating
- How recently reviews have been coming in
Read some of the reviews, too. What are patients praising? What concerns keep coming up? A rating tells you where to look; the written feedback helps explain what needs attention.
There’s no magic review count that means you’re finished. A profile can look strong in one market and thin in another.
Google says reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking, but relevance and distance also matter. Having more reviews than another practice doesn’t guarantee that you’ll rank above it. Use this comparison to choose where to focus your effort.
Give your main practice Google profile a clear priority
When Google is an important way patients find you, your main practice profile is often the most sensible place to start. It gives people researching the practice a place to learn about experiences across your team.
If that profile has little recent feedback compared with similar practices, give your team one clear destination for review requests. Make sure the link opens the right profile, and test the experience on a phone.
For a practice with multiple locations, use the profile for the location the patient actually visited. A review should reflect a real experience with the business being reviewed.
Make requests part of normal follow-up
Ideally, a busy front desk shouldn’t be the only thing keeping the process going. Set up a consistent request after an appropriate visit milestone, using your practice’s approved communication tools and patient contact permissions.
Keep the message short. Thank the patient, invite an honest review and include a direct link. Let them decide whether to respond and what to say.
Be careful with systems that ask patients how happy they are before showing a public review link. Sending happy patients to Google while directing everyone else only to a private form is review gating. Google’s review policies prohibit selectively soliciting positive reviews and offering incentives for reviews.
Don’t ask patients to include keywords, name a staff member or leave a particular rating. Avoid staff review quotas and pressure to post before leaving the office. You can offer a private feedback channel to everyone without making it a filter for public reviews.
Where individual provider profiles fit
Once the practice profile has a consistent flow of feedback, look at the providers patients research by name. A new provider or someone with very little feedback may need more attention.
Google allows separate profiles for eligible individual practitioners. Those profiles serve a different purpose from the practice profile, so assess them deliberately.
Reviews on a provider’s profile build that provider’s reputation. If the provider leaves, those reviews don’t automatically become reviews on your practice profile. Keep that distinction in mind when deciding where to focus requests.
For a new hire, this can sit alongside the rest of your new provider introduction plan.
Look beyond Google when patients do
Next, look at the other review sites that matter to your patients and specialty. Start with sites appearing in searches for your practice or provider names, and places patients mention when you ask how they found you.
A sparse profile on a site your patients use may deserve attention. But check the platform’s rules before adding it to a request sequence. Yelp explicitly tells businesses not to ask for reviews, so it shouldn’t become a destination for review requests.
Also, a low rating is a reason to examine the experience behind it. If patients repeatedly mention unanswered calls, unclear fees or long waits, bring that feedback to the people who can address it. More reviews won’t fix an ongoing service problem.
When responding publicly, protect patient privacy. Keep treatment details out of replies and give people an appropriate private way to discuss concerns.
Share useful testimonials where patients already hear from you
With appropriate permission, a helpful patient testimonial can also support your website, social posts or email content. Choose feedback that answers a real question, such as what communication felt like or how clearly the team explained the next steps.
A public review isn’t blanket permission to reuse someone’s name, photo or treatment story. Follow the platform’s reuse rules and your practice’s consent process. HHS guidance generally requires written authorization before a covered practice uses protected health information for marketing, with limited exceptions.
Keep the patient’s meaning intact, and avoid turning an individual experience into a promise of results.
Use this checklist to reassess your priorities
Put a short review check on your calendar. Monthly is a practical starting point, with another look when a provider joins, a location opens or a pattern of concerns appears.
- Compare review count, rating and recent activity with relevant local practices.
- Check whether your current priority still matches where patients research you.
- Test request links and confirm the automated messages are actually going out.
- Review patient concerns with the team responsible for addressing them.
- Decide whether a provider or another permitted platform needs more attention.
- Update the request process and tell your team what changed.
This is a moving target. Your practice changes, competitors change and patients find you in different ways. A clear priority today and a regular check-in are much easier for your team to follow than a long list of profiles they’re supposed to support forever.
If you’re unsure where to focus, talk with SILVR. We can help you evaluate your review profiles and request process so your team has a clear next step.