Based on a PracticeCare® podcast conversation, Barbara Khozam on Asking Patients for Reviews, with Barbara Khozam, founder of Barbara Khozam Speaking and Consulting and a Certified Patient Experience Professional.
Why don’t happy patients leave reviews on their own?
Because doing a good job is the expectation. A visit that goes well just doesn’t register as something worth telling other people about. However, when something goes wrong, patients find the time.
The goodwill is already there: over 80% of patient comments turn out to be positive once a practice actually goes looking for them. The problem usually isn’t a lack of happy patients. It’s that nobody asked.
How much do reviews actually influence whether a patient chooses a practice?
A lot. Even with a strong personal referral, over 80% of patients still go online to check reviews before booking. Oddly, people trust reviews from total strangers online about as much as a recommendation from friends and family.
A page with only a handful of reviews, or reviews that are years old, raises doubt no matter how good the practice actually is. A reader may wonder whether the practice is still active, or whether its best days are behind it.
Why does a single negative review seem to carry so much weight?
On some platforms, one 1-star review can drag the overall rating down more than the math suggests. Barbara saw one client’s mix of a five, a four, and a one average out to a two. Removing a bad review usually isn’t an option; platforms make that deliberately difficult.
The real fix is volume. A single negative review with nothing around it makes a reader wonder what’s wrong with the practice. The same review buried under 40 or 50 positive ones makes a reader wonder what happened with that one person instead. The review reads completely differently depending on what surrounds it.
What’s the most effective way to actually ask for a review?
Make it a person-to-person ask, ideally coming from the provider, not just an automated text. “We’d really appreciate your feedback” lands better than a bare link, and it works best delivered face to face rather than through automation alone.
It also isn’t a one-and-done ask. Data shows 80-90% of reviews come in on the second or third request, not the first. Most people are well-intentioned but simply forget, so a single link in an email signature won’t be enough by itself.
Should a practice offer incentives, like gift cards, for leaving a review?
No. Offering a reward in exchange for a review starts to feel transactional in a way that undercuts trust rather than building it, and it can run into platform rules against incentivized reviews.
Remember, most of your patients are happy and willing to give a review. They just don’t think to do so. Ask them, and build in reminders.
Does it matter when in the patient relationship you ask for a review?
Yes. One law firm client used to ask for a review right after the first consultation, before any actual work had been done. They didn’t get much traction.
Once they moved the ask to after the work was actually finished, response rates improved. Timing the ask to a point where the patient has something real to say matters as much as how the ask is worded.
How should a practice handle negative reviews, especially with HIPAA in mind?
Get advice from a healthcare attorney before replying to any negative review. Opinions vary widely, from “never reply” to “you can reply as long as you never confirm a doctor-patient relationship existed.” The safer approach uses language that doesn’t acknowledge a specific appointment or relationship, and invites the person to reach out privately instead.
The same caution applies to reposting reviews elsewhere. Pulling a patient’s language onto a practice’s own website or ads can cross into a legal claim — a superlative like “best doctor” that isn’t backed by anything but the reviewer’s own words — and the rules around this vary by state.
What’s the simplest way for a practice to get started collecting reviews?
Make the process easy before asking for anything. Add the request as a defined step in the patient workflow, like the exit checklist, so it happens consistently instead of depending on someone remembering. Many practice management systems already have a reviews feature built in, so it doesn’t have to mean new, expensive technology.
Whatever tool gets used, confirm it’s HIPAA compliant. Collecting a patient’s name alongside a phone number or email to send a review request counts as protected health information under many healthcare attorneys’ reading of the law, and not every marketing tool is built to handle that correctly.
A final note
Reviews are most patients’ first real look at a practice before they ever call. The good news is the raw material is already there. Most patients are happy, most comments would be positive, and none of it costs extra to collect. It just requires asking, more than once, at the right moment, and making it easy enough that a busy person actually follows through.
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