Below are resources you may find helpful for generating new patient recommendations

1. What to tell your patients
2. Sample card to hand out
3. Email template to mail patients

What to tell your patients

If you're sending patients to sites like Yelp, Angie's List or vitals.com, you're working on a web presence that's largely irrelevant to your practice  

We still think it's smart to establish a positive reviews pattern on social review sites (10+ reviews), but the best patient inquiries will come from places where people do comprehensive research, like that conducted at RealSelf.com. 

• The right time to ask a patient for a recommendation is when the procedure is still fresh in their minds.  We suggest no more than 14 days after their final visit. 

• In person requests: at the final checkup post-treatment, or when the patient won't require followup, be sure to ask for a recommendation.  Some doctors have told us that they don't want to directly solicit their patients; in these cases, they instruct their staff to provide a card with instructions on how to post a recommendation. See the card example below

• By email: Email is effective because people are more likely to take action when they are at their computers and a click away from the web form.  Additionally, practices can email their patient a link to the RealSelf recommendation form. See below for a sample email message you could send to your patient.

Example of card to provide to patients

You can use a service like zazzle.com to create simple cards like this:

Sample email template

 Below is a sample message that you're free to use in your patient outreach.

Subject line: Need your assistance

Message:

Your experience with our practice matters, and we’d like you to share your opinion using a trusted website called RealSelf.com (www.realself.com).

Here, you can decribe your cosmetic treatment and share with others (anonymously, but available to the public). The form also includes a place to recommend our practice. By mentioning us it greatly helps us get the word out about our services.

To get started, please take a minute and visit: http://www.realself.com/node/add/treatment-review

Thank you!