THE CHALLENGE
Online reputation matters for every organization, but it’s especially critical for healthcare providers. Before they ever set foot in a waiting room, prospective patients need reassurance that they’ll receive high-quality, compassionate, and personalized care.
And no one knows that better than the team at VPFW.
In 2020, they were getting great feedback from their patient experience surveys, but it wasn’t translating into the kind of positive Google Reviews they needed to build their online reputation.
“We were using Survey Monkey as our patient experience survey, and we would get a lot of positive feedback through those surveys”, says Katherine Bullock, Marketing Manager at VPFW. “But the amount of Google reviews we had received for each location was very low.”
“The amount of Google reviews we had received for each location was very low. That meant our star ratings were lower than they should have been because one or two negative reviews were not being balanced out by the high number of potential positive reviews we weren’t capturing. And we thought, ‘Well, we’re getting all of this positive feedback from our patient surveys, but then it doesn’t go anywhere.’”
THE SOLUTION
In order to build up their online reputation, VPFW began looking into a program that would allow them to automatically invite survey participants who had submitted positive feedback to also write an online Google Review.
“If they left us good feedback on the survey, we could say, ‘Hey, thanks for your feedback, would you like to leave us a review?’” explains Katherine. “And we quickly found that we couldn’t do that through our previous software product.
Once VPFW began using Sogolytics, they quickly took advantage of the platform’s advanced features to automate their workflows and meet their goals in managing both patient experience and online reputation. In addition to using dynamic link redirects to encourage more online reviews for each location, they also leveraged automated distribution to efficiently email surveys to patients and pre-population to automatically fill in certain survey fields. This offered a faster and easier survey-taking experience for the patients who didn’t have to take time to fill in answers that we already had (like their email address, the location they visited or provider they saw) and could focus on leaving valuable feedback.
The Sogo platform also allowed VPFW to go beyond surveys and begin managing patient experience based on real-time data insights. With the power of segmentation and customizable reports, they were able to closely examine every touchpoint of the patient journey, and leverage patient feedback to improve processes and provider interactions at specific locations.
THE RESULT
More Google Reviews and Higher Ratings
VPFW switched to Sogolytics and implemented their new patient experience surveys in December of 2020.
“Our largest office had 43 total reviews back then,” says Katherine. “By July of 2022, it was up to 299.”
In addition to the six-fold increase in the number of Google reviews in less than two years, the average rating for that location also jumped from 3.4 to 4.6 stars. And that wasn’t even the most dramatic improvement among VPFW’s six locations.
“One of our offices started at a 2.5 star rating, because we just didn’t have many ratings,” Katherine recalls. “That one’s now up to 4.7 stars.”
In less than two years of using Sogolytics, VPFW was able to get all six of their locations rated 4.5 stars or above on Google.
“That was our goal, to get to 4.5,” Katherine says. “And some of them are way above that, so we’re extremely pleased with the results.”
More Insightful Reporting
Fueling Improvements to Patient Experience
Inertia often prevents organizations from changing their processes or tools. But VPFW found the transition to Sogolytics to be extremely rewarding.
“I would say that Sogo has so many more capabilities than our old survey solution,” Katherine says. “In terms of dynamic exit options—which is what I was specifically looking for—but also in terms of the reporting functions and all of the types of questions and tagging that you can do. There’s so much more that you can glean from the data that you’re collecting in these surveys, and that’s really helpful for figuring out where you can improve.”
By closely analyzing and segmenting feedback, VPFW has been able to make improvements that further delight their patients.
“Sogolytics enables us to obtain feedback from patients regarding our staff and then use that feedback to figure out what areas we needed to work on, whether it be the front desk or triage or the providers themselves,” says Jelisa Tunstall, Operations Manager at VPFW. “And we’re able to segment the data to pinpoint the exact department or location we need to work with to resolve the issue.”
For example, VPFW used specific feedback about their front desk and check-in process to make it faster and more convenient for patients.
Sogo also makes it easy to share important data insights with key stakeholders. Dynamic report links allow decision-makers to stay informed of real-time developments—or analyze performance trends over a specific time period.
“One thing we really, really love is being able to generate reports that the CEO uses when he meets with the providers for their yearly reviews,” Jelisa says. “Those are very helpful when he’s conducting those annual assessments.”
More Personalized Support for Greater Ease-of-Use
Katherine says she also appreciates all of the help she’s gotten from Sogolytics’ support team when it comes to designing and distributing surveys.
“The support from Sogolytics has been amazing,” adds Katherine.
“I get nervous making any kind of changes to a survey’s design without somebody there holding my hand and making sure I don’t break the logic. But the Sogo support team has been great at walking me through every step and helping me make edits in a ‘safe place’ where I know that I’m not going to mess anything up.”
When asked whether she would recommend Sogolytics to others, Katherine doesn’t hesitate.
“I definitely would,” Katherine answers. “It’s helped us so much with turning positive feedback into positive reviews. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to build their online reputation.”
“I’d certainly recommend Sogo to anyone who wants good, accurate, easy-to-read data,” Jelisa agrees.
“There are some really smart people working at Sogolytics, and they’ve helped us figure out the best ways to develop surveys and create the best user experience, so that we’re not taking up too much of the participants' time but still getting the information we want.”
