Most practices run a review push, get a dozen reviews in a fortnight, then stop when the clinic gets busy. Six months later they are back where they started. This lesson is about the system rather than the campaign.
Why campaigns fail
Three reasons, all structural rather than a matter of discipline:
- They depend on someone remembering. The first thing dropped on a full day.
- They are extra work. Anything additional loses to clinical work, correctly.
- Bursts look inorganic. A cluster of reviews after months of nothing may be filtered, and it looks engineered to patients.
Steady trickle beats periodic burst on every dimension: platform trust, patient credibility, and sustainability.
Attach the ask to something that already happens
The core principle. Do not create a new task, attach it to an existing one:
- Checkout. The card goes over with the appointment card. It is one motion, not a separate conversation.
- The follow-up email you already send. One line added, permanently.
- Reception signage. A small QR code sign asks continuously with no staff effort at all.
- The discharge or aftercare sheet patients already receive.
The reception sign deserves emphasis: it is the only method requiring zero ongoing effort, it applies no pressure, and it keeps working on your busiest day.
Remove every point of friction
- Use a short link or QR code going straight to the review form, not to a profile page the patient must navigate.
- Print it on cards, so nobody has to look anything up.
- Keep cards where checkout happens, and make restocking someone job.
- Never ask a patient to search for you.
Each extra step loses most of the people who intended to help.
Assign it to a role, not a person
Systems attached to an individual leave when they do. Write it into the role:
- Front desk hands over a card at checkout, as part of the standard closing sequence.
- One named person owns monitoring and responding, with a nominated backup.
- Include it in onboarding for new administrative staff.
- Keep the response templates somewhere everyone can find them.
Keep clinicians out of the direct ask, for the boundary reasons covered earlier in this chapter.
A sustainable target
Be realistic. Psychiatric patients decline more often than dental patients, for good reasons.
- Aim for a small, steady number each month rather than a total.
- Consistency matters more than volume. A few every month for two years builds a substantial, credible profile.
- Track the monthly count as one of your standing metrics, which chapter nine covers.
- Do not chase a number by pressuring people. The reviews you extract that way read like it.
The response rhythm
Responding is the half that gets forgotten:
- Set a fixed weekly slot to check and respond across platforms.
- Respond to everything, positive and negative, using the approved patterns.
- Keep a cooling-off rule for negative reviews.
- Escalate anything alleging harm or a privacy issue immediately.
Reviewing the system
Twice a year, check the machinery rather than the numbers: are cards actually in stock, is the sign still up and the QR code still working, is the email line still in the template, does the new staff member know the process, are the links still going to the right place?
Review habits fail quietly. A dead QR code or an empty card holder can cost you months before anyone notices. How reviews shape AI answers is next.