••• health care research
Doctors worry about bad online reviews
In a survey of 200 health care professionals, 80 percent rated their online reputation as very or extremely important and 90 percent expressed concern about the risks of negative feedback. But only 46 percent of respondents were planning to put resources toward improving that reputation in the next year. The survey was commissioned by PatientPop, a digital health company. Respondents were most likely to see their reviews on Google or Healthgrades, with 46.5 percent seeing their reviews on each of those sites. Yelp trailed just barely with 45.8 percent and Facebook came in at 37.3 percent.
Providers worried about negative reviews for a number of reasons. Forty percent feared they would give people the wrong impression of their practice. Thirty percent feared they would be unfair or inaccurate. Fourteen percent were afraid bad reviews would keep their practice from acquiring new patients. Sixty-two percent of the full sample said they had received at least one negative review but 73 percent of providers who tracked their reviews said they were all or mostly positive.
Thirty-six percent of respondents said they followed up with patients who left negative reviews. Forty-six percent intended to invest in improving their online reputation management. Most planned to do this by assigning their current staff to spend more time on reputation or by acquiring new technology or services. Only a few planned to hire new staff. Results were collected last year from 200 providers from a wide variety of specialties and practice sizes, according to PatientPop.
••• the business of research
European consumers want to control their data
Research platform Vision Critical surveyed over 1,500 people in the U.K., France and Germany over the age of 18 who completed an online purchase within the last 12 months and found worries about data-sharing and privacy preferences.
Four out of five consumers (81 percent) believe more should be done by governments or brands to ensure the protection of their personal information. However, the vast majority of respondents (87 percent) said they would be more comfortable sharing data if they had more control over it – that is, if they could see the data being stored about them or they could easily change or delete it.
The findings suggest that when brands offer a heightened level of transparency and control around consumers’ personal data, those consumers are more likely to share information that can be used to deliver improved brand experiences, ultimately leading to an increase in affinity and loyalty.