How often should a medical or dental practice ask for reviews?

Requests should be part of a steady follow-up process after completed care, not a rare campaign or sudden burst. Ask eligible patients and customers consistently, without offering rewards or promising a target rating.

Can a practice ask only happy patients for Google reviews?

Selective requests can create review-gating concerns and produce a distorted picture. Use the same general invitation for everyone who completed the relevant interaction, while giving dissatisfied people a clear private path to explain the problem.

What should a doctor or dentist do about a harmful review?

Check whether the review violates platform rules, document the issue, and report it when appropriate. Post a privacy-safe response, but never confirm that the reviewer is a patient or disclose clinical facts.

How long does reputation management take to show results?

Listing corrections and better response habits can help quickly. Review recency, local visibility, trust, and booking trends usually build over weeks and months, so monthly measurement is more useful than one ranking snapshot.

Is reputation management worth the cost for a small local practice?

The value comes from protecting missed calls, improving trust before the first appointment, increasing qualified inquiries, and finding service problems early. Compare costs with booked appointments, new-patient calls, conversion rate, and retention.

What is the difference between review management and reputation management?

Review management focuses on monitoring, requesting, and responding to reviews. Reputation management also includes listings, website content, local SEO, privacy-safe communication, public mentions, service recovery, and the full online experience.