Bad Reviews Of Your Medical Spa? Yelp Accused Of Extortion

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Are you being extorted to keep your medical reputation clean?

Wired.com posted a story about a complaint filed in California that the online review site Yelp.com manipulates the reviews, and therefore the business ratings, through business practices that amount to extortion.

From the story:

 “Yelp’s sales tactics amount to high-tech extortion,” said plaintiff attorney Jared Beck in a press release. “The victims tend to be small businesses, such as our client, who often have no choice but to pay Yelp exorbitant sums in order to prevent further harm to their livelihoods.”

Yelp released a written statement in response to the lawsuit.

“The allegations are demonstrably false, since many businesses that advertise on Yelp have both negative and positive reviews,” the statement read. “These businesses realize that both kinds of feedback provide authenticity and value. Running a good business is hard; filing a lawsuit is easy. While we haven’t seen the suit in question, we will dispute it aggressively.”

Read the entire article here

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Keeping Your Aesthetic Patients Happy Is Good Business

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Keeping patients happy makes sense, both to avoid problems and build your reputation and referral base.

Not all patients that state they had a poor experience from another provider are signaling the proverbial red flag. Most of these patients HAVE had an experience of poor treatment outcome.

And to add salt to their wound,the previous treating provider could care less!

We must keep in mind that for most of our patients, coming in for Medical Aesthetic treatments is an exciting and much anticipated experience.

The number one reason patients state they no longer go to their previous provider is, "He was a jerk!" Oddly enough, the number one complaint I hear regarding a female provider is "I had to wait too long." This is not to say there are no female jerks or that patients don’t have to wait too long to see a male provider. These statements are simply the most common that I hear from (from) my patients.

No one is perfect. I don’t care how good you are at fillers, Botox, lasers, and surgery. We’re human, and we have bad days too. Bottom line: If you did achieve a less than desirable outcome, fix it for heaven's sake! With a smile on your face. If you're running more than 15 minutes behind, be prepared to apologize profusely and don't let it happen again. At both our clinics over 50% of our new patients are by referral. The most common reason for these referrals: “They're so nice!” Patients in general have a sense of helplessness when it comes to being treated by a provider. Do not tell a patient what they have to do. This is not life or death nor a dictatorship. Our patients know that we truly love what we do and we care. You don’t have to be all hugs and kisses, but, you'd better have a smile and a few jokes up your sleeve. You must keep in mind that this is the grown up version of a trip to Disneyland. It’s an E ticket ride with a high price tag. This is not an area of medicine of need.

This is completely a "WANT" this treatment situation. We encourage our patients to tell us what they are looking to have done and then offer safe, sane treatment options for them. This gives the patient a greater sense of control, and a decreased sense of possibly being pressured. If they can't afford all of the treatments at one time, what ever you do, never pressure a patient! If they like the one treatment you do and you personally, they’ll be back. And that’s how you keep your patients.

Free Webinar: How To Protect Your Professional Reputation Online

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Reputation Webinar

Free Webinar: How To Control & OWN Your Business & Personal Reputations Online!

While I'll be teaching this for any business or professional who needs to own their own reputation, this is especially important for physicians.

Reputation management has become an incredibly hot and relevant topic with the rise of all of the review sites that are filled with flaming physician reviews. So, I'm going to be teaching a number of techniques and strategies for physicians who need to protect and control there reputations.... By the way, this is you.

Your business or medical reputation can be hijacked in seconds by a one unhappy patient, disgruntled employee or nasty competitor... but in just one hour, you'll discover exactly how to protect and OWN your personal and business reputations online without needing a phD in geek.

Here's some of what you'll learn:

  • What you should NEVER do when you're flamed online (but what almost everyone does)!
  • How to get negative reviews and comments removed!
  • What you should do IMMEDIATELY when your reputation is attacked!
  • How to make negative reviews and comments impossible to find!
  • What legal options you have!
  • The insider tips and tricks that the pros use to protect their own reputations!
  • How to get your existing patients to give you RAVING reviews!

This is a must-see webinar for any professional or business owner.

Thanks to Ryan over at Frontdesk for putting these together and getting everyone on board.