Reputational Management

If you do find some negative malicious reviews what can you do? Actually it is easier to tell you what not to do.

Don’t Sue: As reported in the ADA News Dr. Yvonne Wong decided to file suit when she received a negative review on Yelp which she thought was false and unfair. The result Dr. Wong lost the suit, she has no legal recourse and to make it worse, much worse, she was ordered to pay over $80,000 in defendant’s legal fees.

Don’t Preempt: There are services that sell dentists and physicians contracts and patient forms that supposedly will prevent patients from posting negative online comments. There is a great deal of controversy about this such that it is not at all clear if these machinations will protect the dentist at all. However what does seem to be clear is that many patients find the contracts so objectionable they choose to seek care elsewhere.

Update: Since I wrote this original piece the whole preempt thing has come crashing down, Dr Stacey Makhnevich a NY dentist has been sued by a patient for trying to enforce an agreement preventing patients from posting negative online comments. This set off a firestorm of online news and universal condemnation from the general public. None of it is good news for Dr. Makhenvich.

Don’t Panic: As professionals our reputation is precious and we never want to see anything negative said about us. The conventional thinking is that negative comments need to be removed at all costs. On the other hand recent research indicates that a negative online review is not always bad. In the right situation it demonstrates that the reviews are legit, not just reviews from staff and family. Some negative seems to have a “blemishing effect” that actually makes the positive reviews more persuasive.