A review request flow that discloses nothing
How to ask, when to ask, and how to respond without confirming that a named person is a patient.
7 min read
Reviews decide the map pack and they decide the phone call. The constraint in healthcare is that a practice cannot confirm publicly that a named individual received care, which rules out most of what generic review software does by default.
None of what follows is legal advice. Your own compliance counsel signs off before it goes live.
- 01
Pick the moment, and make it later than feels natural
Not the day of the fitting. One to two weeks afterwards, once the adjustment period has done its work and the person has heard something that mattered to them.
The day-of ask captures relief. The two-week ask captures the grandchildren, and it is a different review.
- 02
Send it from a person, not a system
A short message from the audiologist who did the fitting, in their own voice, is answered far more often than a branded template.
One ask. If they do not respond, that is the answer, and a second reminder costs more goodwill than the review is worth.
- 03
Make the ask specific
If it would help someone else deciding, would you mind saying what the appointment was like. That is a better prompt than please leave us a review, and it produces reviews with detail in them, which are the ones that convert.
Never suggest what rating to leave. Never offer anything in return.
- 04
Write the response templates before you need them
Praise: thank the reviewer warmly, reference the team rather than their care, confirm nothing.
A fair complaint: acknowledge the feeling, apologise for the experience described, give a phone number, and move it off the platform. Do not correct the record publicly, however tempting.
A review that is not yours: report it through the platform, and post a brief neutral response saying you cannot find a record matching it, without asserting anything about who they are.
- 05
Keep it steady
A handful a month indefinitely is worth more than a burst. Bursts are visible and discounted, and they leave a gap afterwards that looks worse than never having done it.
Build it into the fitting workflow so it is a habit rather than a campaign somebody has to remember.
- 06
Read them quarterly as operational data
In aggregate, reviews are the cheapest feedback a practice gets: recurring notes about the wait, the front desk, or how pricing was explained are worth more than the star average.
Where this goes wrong
- Public responses that acknowledge the reviewer as a patient
- Generic review software configured with its default templates
- Incentives of any kind
- Review bursts before a marketing push
- Correcting a complaint publicly with clinical detail