The importance of responding to chiropractic patient reviews online could not be more prevalent as reviews continue to grow more than ever before. Aside from the fact that reviews from patients help others decide whether they should visit a business or not, reviews are now more prevalent on search results pages—meaning a lot of eyes can see what is being said about your chiropractic office online.
The influence that reviews have on potential new patients is staggering: more than 88% of online shoppers incorporate reviews into their decisions (Webrepublic, 2015).
Chiropractors are being told to get more reviews on review websites to keep attracting new patients. With so many review websites out there, where do you even begin? You do not want to end up in one of these situations:
- receive zero reviews
- receive zero recent online reviews
- receive negative online reviews
- or, your chiropractic office simply has unmanaged online reviews across multiple review websites
If this is you, unfortunately, you are missing out. This lack of free online word of mouth is actually hurting your practice growth through inaction, because reputation drives conversion.
1) Chiropractic office reviews and social posts help shape your online reputation
In fact, one of the worst things you can do is ignore your online reviews and social posts. As easy as it is to make a mistake when handling your online reputation, it can also be easy to recover if done properly (and with apology).
While damage will inevitably happen, you can take steps to mitigate the degree of damage that can occur. The biggest mistake of all you can make is not participating in helping to shape the conversation about your chiropractic office online.
2) Chiropractic office reviews provide valuable feedback for your practice
While it can be easy for you to take negative comments to heart, it is important to recognize that reviews are constructive feedback. All in all, reviews are valuable feedback! They help you gauge your performance and see how you can improve. There is always room for improvement and a lot can be learned even from positive chiropractic office reviews. Through reviews, your can see which products or services you should be boasting, which needs work, and even discover which employees rock at customer service.
3) Your chiropractic office reviews can now appear in search results
Search engines have caught on to the popularity of reviews and are now displaying them more prominently. So, if someone searches for your chiropractic office, there is a chance that reviews from review websites could be displayed on the search engine results pages. In Google’s markup—the annotated content that appears in search—of a company or product, business reviews and ratings are now be included in search results through Google Maps. In other words, when a user performs a search on Google, Google will find and possibly display the most relevant chiropractic offices based on locations, reviews and interactions. Below is an example of how chiropractic office reviews now show up in search results with Google Maps.

How can chiropractic offices get more reviews?
There are a variety of methods your chiropractic office can employ to ask for more reviews, including emailing patients manually, using surveys, asking patients to leave reviews with codes and review sites on their receipts, or utilizing review generation software to automate the review process.
Three important review website management tips:
1) Remember to add or claim listings on the top review sites
It’s a good idea to add or claim a listing or business profile on the most popular review sites, correct your chiropractic office listing information and start getting more reviews!
2) Your chiropractic office should keep asking patients for reviews
Asking the average patient for a review can be hard work. Granted, it is often easiest to get reviews from patients that are either really happy or really unhappy with the level of service they were provided. Your chiropractic office should always remember to ask, as patients are busy creatures and will not remember unless they are asked or reminded to leave feedback.
3) Patients are more open to leaving reviews on review sites
Why not just ask for reviews or testimonials on your business’s website? Well, asking patients to leave a review on your website seems a lot more screened and inauthentic than simply asking patients to leave reviews on a trusted review site. Since the review site is a third party, it feels more open for patients to leave an honest, unbiased review.
Reviews are here to stay
There’s no getting away from reviews. The good news is that there are methods to get more reviews as well as effectively managing reviews from patients. Also, chiropractic office’s needn’t fear negative online reviews, as there are ways to negate the effect of negative reviews.
A good or bad reputation can mean the difference between a chiropractic office thriving and expanding, or closing their doors for good. In the digital age, a chiropractic office’s reputation is controlled by consumers using online review platforms like Yelp, Google and Facebook to announce the quality of their interactions publicly. The good news is that this lets chiropractic office’s easily monitor and manage their online reputation, a power they can put to good use by responding in a timely manner to the reviews they receive.
While negative reviews often get the most attention, positive reviews are as or more important! It’s important to respond to positive reviews to thank patients for taking the time to review your chiropractic office and to encourage others to do the same.
With 92% of consumers reading reviews online, chiropractic offices can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. An effective response will help ensure that a happy first time patient becomes a regular, and 70% of complaining patients will come back if you resolve the complaint in their favor.
The first step is engaging with them.
How to respond to positive reviews
It’s simple. Thank the patient, name drop, promote and tell the patient what to do!
- Say thank you and be specific. No one would let a compliment pass them by in real life. Apply that same principle to a review response! And make sure to reiterate your patient’s compliment. This let’s the paatient know that a real person took time out of their day to acknowledge them, and that feels good.
- Use your chiropractic office name and keywords. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to drive your chiropractic office up in search results—positive reviews work wonders in search. Referring to your chiropractic office name and location helps index that review online.
- Market, market, market. Is your chiropractic office famous for a certain technique? Are you having a promotion next month? A review response is a great place to get the good word out.
- Give your patient a task. Not as scary as it sounds. Invite them to try something different the next time they visit, or bring a friend!
As you can see, there’s a ton of potential hidden in a positive review response. Instead of one advertisement to rule them all, each review is an opportunity to promote your chiropractic office!
How to respond to negative reviews
Believe it or not, the same premise applies to negative review response as it does to positive reviews. How you respond to a negative review impacts not only the reviewer, but all the sets of eyes that come afterward. Seeing a chiropractic office handle a particularly challenging review online suggests that the Chiropractor is proud of their office, and willing to go the extra mile to maintain their reputation!
Make potential new patients see the light with these four steps: apologize, promote, get offline, keep it simple.
- Apologize and sympathize. The first step towards fixing a problem is acknowledging that one occurred. Regardless of what happened, a simple apology and sympathy for your patient’s experience goes a long way.
- Promote. So your front desk was not up to par the day this particular patient visited. If friendly service is what you are known for, why not reiterate that? “We pride ourselves on creating a great experience for our patients and we are sorry this didn’t happen for you.”
- Move the conversation offline. Don’t open a can of worms. Keep the lid on tight by offering the reviewer the chance to reach out via phone, email or both.
- Keep it simple. Avoid specifics and don’t ask questions. Those conversations are much better served in a space away from the prying public.
One last pro tip: leave your business name, location and category out of responses to negative reviews. You don’t want your negative reviews showing up in search!

Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? You can use software to pull in your reviews from all over the web so you can respond quickly. Check out Review Catapult on how we make this process both time efficient and simple for you (or your marketing team).