Let’s start by looking at this through the eyes of a potential client or patient, who is faced with the task of sifting through dozens of local practitioners to find the best person to help them.
Why are they going to choose you?
- Qualifications? Nope. Everyone has an alphabet-spaghetti of letters after their name, whatever they mean.
- Professional Association? Nope. Everyone is a member of some organisation or other, all claiming to be the best… and some professions have just a single registering body.
- Website information? Nope. Everyone says they can help.
- Testimonials? Maybe… But we all know these are often faked or “tweaked” by unscrupulous practitioners, so they aren’t reliable.
In short, there is very little that makes you stand out from other practitioners, especially to someone who doesn’t know the intimate details of your profession.
They could ask a friend or family member for a recommendation, of course, but that relies on them being comfortable enough to talk openly about their potentially sensitive or embarrassing problem, and the fact they need professional help.
And with dozens of practitioners in the area, the odds are against you being the practitioner their friend saw.
In many respects, you would be better off being one of the 353 Million products on Amazon.
At least that way, your potential customers could use Amazon’s review system to help them decide if you are the right choice for them.
You see, reviews are the ultimate secret weapon when it comes to standing out from the crowd.
Reviews build trust which can multiply your client bookings
Reviews shine out like beacons of trust, guiding shoppers to quality products and services, the same way a lighthouse guides ships to the safety of harbour and away from the deadly rocks.
Consumer reviews turbocharge the traditional word-of-mouth process because far more people get to hear what your clients think, and this helps them build the trust they need to make a booking with you.
This is especially so for practitioners who deal with sensitive or confidential issues, where traditional word-of-mouth works much more slowly.
In fact, an analysis of 57 million reviews and 35 billion product page views in the Bazaarvoice network found that adding reviews to a website gives up to 44% increase in conversions.
What this means in practice, is that a handful of good, trustworthy, and up-to-date reviews will make potential clients far more likely to make an appointment with you, rather than wasting their time and money elsewhere.
But before you run off to get some reviews, you need to know…
Not all review sites are created equally.
We’ll talk about that next.