Healthcare Reputation Expert Lane Houk, “Pay Attention”

(Newswire.net — December 16, 2013) Tampa, Florida — Lane Houk, CEO of Brand Equation, one of the top reputation marketing consultants in the country and a recognized subject matter expert in the field, educates physicians and medical care providers on the vital importance their online reputation has on the overall success of their practice.

“Patients make health care decisions largely on trust” says Lane Houk. “Think about yourself right now… when it comes to choosing a doctor for any type of health-related need or specialty, you want an expert, you want the best provider you can find. Most importantly, you want someone you can trust and who will take great care of you while treating you with respect and privacy.” 

Houk instructs physicians on learning from the data. “It’s really hard to argue with the statistics and physicians are very educated people so when you can get their attention for a few minutes and present them with the data that we have on patients and consumers, it’s overwhelming. People are finding just about everything they need online, often right from their smartphone; and this is especially the case when it comes to finding a local pediatrician for example, or a new primary care physician. 

People have to change doctors all the time for different reasons explains Houk. They move to a new city, their employer changes health plans, they find out their existing physician no longer accepts their insurance provider, just to name a few.

These days most people turn to Google for that information, some 80% of the entire search market belongs to Google so it’s hard to argue with the fact. Or they go to their maps application on their smartphone and get their data right on the phone itself. Searches for physicians and medical care is hyper-local. Often the reason for the fact that people use their phones to find a physician or a clinic. They want someone fairly close to their location and this makes logical sense.

But the bottom line is that people are looking to search the online directories and search engine for physicians, 24-hour medical clinics and other types of health care providers. When they find those providers that actually APPEAR in the search results they then turn to the reviews and they read them!

Yes, we love reviews as consumers. And the data says we trust them. According to the Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey Q3 2011, 70% of those surveyed said they trusted online reviews as much as word of mouth advertising. That’s huge and physicians need to get this quickly says Houk. “Word of mouth marketing is still the largest form of marketing for any business. The difference is the conversations have shifted online” teaches Houk.

According to a 2011 study from Pew Internet, 44% of Internet users look online for information about doctors or other health professionals. 

“One of the first things all physicians should do is set themselves up for a free Google Alert for their personal name and their medical practice name (if different)” says Lane Houk. You can do this for free at http://google.com/alerts

Lane Houk specializes in helping physicians build a 5-Star Reputation online and then marketing that reputation online and offline and leverage that 5-Star reputation to predictably grow their medical practice while also positioning the physician as a recognized expert in their field.