How to Get Patients to Leave Online Reviews
- The Patient Whisperers
- 15 hours ago
- 4 min read
Why is it so hard? (Spoiler: It doesn't have to be.)
As published in the March/April 2026 issue of Administrative Eyecare. To subscribe or view the entire publication, visit their website.
If you read our last article, you get it. Social proof, like online reviews, is the most powerful seal of approval our practice can have. Yes, patients are now searching on TikTok and Instagram for real-life experiences, but your online reviews are where that “bottom funnel” consumer goes when they’re ready to consider your practice as a potential option for their procedure or service.
Now, how do we get patients to go from “Sure, I’ll leave a review!” to ... well, actually doing it?
You’ve tried everything, and we did, too! Surveys, texts, emails, asking in person, handing out QR codes — you name it. They say they will follow through, and then very few actually do.
So, what’s the secret? We figured it out, and we don’t gatekeep.
First, here’s our story
Years ago, our practice leadership let go of a team member. In a rally of support, hundreds of made-up one-star reviews flooded our Google profile. Our review score went from 4.8 to 3.2 overnight. We still feel a little sick thinking about it! None of the information was true, but Google wouldn’t take down the reviews. We had to figure out how to get a steady flow of new reviews, and fast.
Here’s what we did:
Set clear goals and shared them with the team
Gamified it and created an incentive and celebration program
Kept it front of mind
Figured out the right way to ask and taught our team so they would feel confident asking.
Our system not only worked for us, but it’s also working now: a practice that recently gave it a try went from 94 Google reviews (a 4.6 rating) to 422 reviews (4.9 rating) in one year!
How to ask for reviews
Today, let’s focus on the ask. If you’re thinking, “We already ask,” that’s great! But if you’re not seeing as many follow-throughs as you’d like, it’s time to tweak how your team asks. (It probably goes without saying, always make sure the patient is happy.)
First, tell them why.
People don’t do something if they don’t feel it matters. We found that two reasons tend to resonate with people:
It helps other people. For example, “Online reviews from our patients really help other people decide if they want to have this procedure/come visit us. Since you’re so happy with your results/experience, would you be willing to share that in a Google review to help other people make their decision?”
It helps you. If they have a great connection with you or have fallen in love with your practice, they will want to help you. (Congratulations, by the way, because this means you’ve created something pretty special.) For example, “My review is coming up. Would you be OK with mentioning my name? It really reflects on my performance and shows how much I love my patients. Thank you so much!” or “We have a little competition going on this week. If you have time to do it, that would be wonderful! I’m neck and neck in the lead for winning most reviews!” or “We’re trying to grow and help more people. Online reviews help us so much because they’re better than anything we can say about ourselves.”
Multiple studies back this up, showing that one of the main motivators in writing reviews is to help others, specifically, to find or avoid an experience or product.¹⁻³
Second, make it easy.
People don’t do anything that feels complicated, overwhelming, or unclear. When my (Christine’s) mother-in-law had cataract surgery at our practice, I asked her to leave a review, and she said she’d love to. She wanted to help me and help other people know it was way less scary than she thought it would be!
Weeks later, I asked about it, thinking she’d forgotten. What she said was the light bulb moment that helped me change how we asked. “I think about it all the time and want to leave you a good review. But every time I go to do it, I don’t know what to say.” She felt pressure to say the “right” thing and didn’t know what that was.
Obviously, we can’t and shouldn’t tell patients what to say. But there is a way to help them overcome this paralysis. After that, every time our team would ask a patient to leave a review and they said yes, our staff would immediately follow up with, “Thank you so much! Please don’t overthink it. Even two points are great: what you want other people to know and how you feel about your experience with me/us is perfect!”
Another strategy to ease the process for patients is to create a card you hand to them after their visit. Not only should it have a QR code (linking directly to Google reviews) but also can prompt them with two or three simple questions they can answer in their review. You can also include space for team members to write their names so the patient remembers to mention them.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Feel free to steal our exact program to make your life easier and hit us up with any questions.
When asking for reviews, make sure everyone on your team does so in a way that gives patients a motivating reason. This removes the paralysis of “I don’t know what to say.” Now go watch your reviews roll in!
REFERENCES
Llorens-Marin M, Hernandez A, Puelles-Gallo M. Altruism in eWOM: Propensity to Write Reviews on Hotel Experience. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research. 2023; 18(4):2238-2256.
Magno F, Cassia F. Bonfanti A, Vigolo, V. The effects of altruistic and egoistic motivations on online reviews writing frequency. In Proceedings of the Excellence in Services International Conference, Paris, France. 2018; 447-455.
Li Y, Li Y, Ma K, Zhou X. Consumer Online Knowledge-Sharing: Motivations and Outcome. Front Psychol. 2022; 13:871518. Published June 3, 2022.
Co-Founders, The Patient Whisperers & upSKILLery
