Online Dentist Reviews

You may wonder if online dentist reviews are for real. Are they actual reviews? Are patients being incentivized to write reviews? Do they reflect truly upon the dentist being reviewed? Should you use online reviews when trying to find a dentist?
OK, I will do my best being honest and objective about this. From my personal experience, online reviews are very much real. Some review companies actually certify that the person writing a review is an actual patient of record. One such example of a company like this is Demandforce. Demandforce compares the e-mail address of the reviewer with the list of e-mail addresses they have of actual patients. My practice contracts with Demandforce to assist with sending newsletters and appointment reminders. So they already have the list of e-mail addresses to compare to a reviewer. I am sure other companies are like that. However, I only have experience with Demandforce. With Demandforce, patients have the option of posting a review when they receive communications from us. We do not incentivize patients to write reviews; we think that may create unfairness in the review process. I do know some dental practices do indeed incentivize patients to write reviews. Some dental practices may also pressure patients, in some way, to write reviews while they are still in the office. We are uncomfortable with that, so we do not do that at all. Our patients create their reviews on their own time away from my practice, and they create them on their own computers and devices.
Another company we have experience with is DoctorOogle. While they do not certify patients with their own database, they do allow us to eliminate reviews when we find they are not written by actual patients. We can monitor this on our own. With DoctorOogle, patients can create reviews within the dental office. However, as stated earlier, we do not allow patients to do this in office. We do not want to unfairly control or bias the process. Patients can create their reviews on their own time.
Other companies exist as well like Angies List, Google Business, Yelp, LinkedIn, among others,  that allow for reviews to be created. I do see value in these reviews as well when searching for a dentist. I do think the reviews for the most part are just that; objective reviews written by actual patients about the actual practice. Some businesses may incentivize patients to create these reviews. Some may not. As I indicated, I am not comfortable with being involved with this process for the sake of maintaining its purity and truth.
These days, reviews can indeed reflect accurately on a business. I do think that, for the most part, these reviews accurately reflect how patients feel about their dental office. If some practices have a significantly huge number of reviews compared to others, they may in fact be providing incentives for the reviews. I think this applies to any business.  There is a chance that incentives may create better reviews.
I hope this helps; reviews seem to be quite accurate. If you like our reviews and are interested in meeting us, we would welcome you making an appointment by calling us at (972) 250-2580. We also welcome your perusing our website. Thank you for your interest in this post.