Your patients are looking at reviews before they call. 84% of them check Google reviews before choosing a provider. That means your reviews are doing the work of a salesperson. If your profile looks empty or your rating is low, people move on to the next practice.
The good news? Getting more reviews isn't hard. It just takes asking at the right time and following up the right way. Most practices never build a system around this. They ask sometimes, forget to follow up, and then wonder why their review count stays flat. The difference between a practice with 5 reviews and a practice with 50 reviews often isn't that one is better than the other. It's that one actually asks for reviews on purpose, and the other leaves it to chance. When you know exactly when to ask and what to say, reviews become a natural part of how your practice grows. That's what this post covers.
Ask in Person, Follow Up by Text
The best moment to ask for a review happens right after treatment. Your patient is happy. They just finished. Your practice is fresh in their mind. That's when you ask.
Train your team to say this at checkout to every patient who had good treatment:
"Before you go, would you mind taking 30 seconds to leave us a quick Google review? It really helps us."
That's it. No pressure. No selling. Just honest and direct.
In-person asks work incredibly well. You get a response from about 57% of patients you ask. That's almost one in two people. Email and phone calls don't come close.
Most patients who say yes at checkout will forget by the time they get home. Life gets busy. That's why the text message is critical.
Send a text the same day they leave or the first thing the next morning. Not three days later. Not next week. Their good experience is still real to them right now.
Use this message:
"Hi [Patient Name], thanks for coming in! If you had a great experience, we'd love if you left us a Google review—it takes 30 seconds and helps other patients find us. Thanks! [Clinic Name]"
Keep it short. Keep it honest. If your system lets you add a link to your Google review page, include it.
Three days later, if no review has shown up, send one follow-up text:
"Friendly reminder—if you could leave us a quick Google review, we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!"
Then stop. You've asked twice. A third message starts feeling pushy. That's not what you want.
Text messages work because people open them. 82-98% of texts are opened, usually within three minutes. Emails sit in inboxes and get ignored. This is the channel that actually reaches people.
The Simple System
A working review system looks like this:
At checkout, every patient gets the in-person ask. Your team says one sentence. This happens at every visit, for every patient.
Same day or the next morning, send the text using the template above. You can set this up to happen automatically through your patient communication software, or do it by hand. Automated is better because nobody forgets.
If no review shows up after three days, send the follow-up text.
Then you're done. You've done your part. The rest is up to them.
This works because it matches how people actually behave. They're most ready to act right after treatment. Then they need a gentle reminder the next day. Then one more push on Day 3. After that, they either will or they won't.
The difference between practices that get stuck at 5 reviews and practices that reach 50 or 100 comes down to consistency. A practice that runs this system for two weeks and then stops will see a small bump, then fall back to nothing. A practice that runs it for three months straight, rain or shine, asking every patient and following up every single one, accumulates reviews week after week. The compounding effect is real. Two weeks of asking gets you maybe 8 new reviews. Three months gets you 40. The effort is almost identical, but one is a project and the other becomes a habit. Most practices fail not because the system doesn't work, but because they don't stick with it long enough to see results. The ones getting to dozens of reviews? They treat this like a regular part of the business, the same way they order supplies or answer phones.
When You Get a Bad Review
Bad reviews come. Sometimes the experience was genuinely bad. Sometimes it was a misunderstanding. Sometimes the patient is upset about something unrelated to your care. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you respond.
When a negative review comes in, write back professionally and invite the conversation offline. Use this:
"Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We're sorry your experience didn't meet your expectations. We'd like the opportunity to make this right. Please call us at [phone number] so we can understand what happened and work toward a solution."
If the review mentions something specific, acknowledge it directly:
"We appreciate your feedback and take your concerns seriously. The experience you described isn't how we want patients to feel. We've reviewed what happened and made changes to prevent it in the future. We'd welcome a call to discuss how we can rebuild your trust."
The key is: don't defend. Don't debate. Don't explain why the patient is wrong. Acknowledge. Show you care. Invite them to talk privately. That's what works.
Never delete a bad review and never ignore it, even if you think the complaint is unfair. Deletion won't erase the patient's frustration, and ignoring it sends a message to everyone reading that you don't care what patients think. A professional response to a bad review actually builds trust with future patients. They see that you take feedback seriously and that you handle difficult moments with grace. That response matters more than the original negative review ever could.
Respond to positive reviews too. Thank them and mention something specific they said. When future patients see that you reply to every review, they trust you more. They see that you pay attention to what people think.
Try to respond within 24 hours. That signals you're paying attention.
The Rules
Google has a few rules you need to know. Follow them and you're fine.
You can't pay for reviews. No gift cards. No discounts. No drawings. That's against the rules.
You also can't filter who you ask. Review gating means asking "Are you satisfied?" and only sending the Google link if they say yes. Don't do that. Ask everyone the same way or ask nobody. The fairness matters to Google.
What you can do: ask for reviews in general, mention that Google reviews help your practice, and send direct links to your review page. You can ask in person, by text, by email, or in voicemail. None of that breaks the rules. The line is incentives and filtering.
Your Next Move
This system is simple to start. Pick one patient visit and run through it. At checkout, make the ask. Send the text. See what happens. Then do it with the next patient, and the next.
If you want to automate this so your team doesn't have to remember, there are tools and services that handle it. But you don't need them to get started. You need the timing right and the message simple. Both of those are free.
Start this week. Implement the in-person ask, the Day 1 text, and the Day 3 follow-up. You'll see results within your first month.