When you’re looking for the right dentist – for yourself, your child or your whole family – you often consider a lot of factors. Such factors may include state dental board certification, how you felt during your first visit, referrals from friends and family, and of course, if the dentist has all that you need and require.

While such factors are really important, reputation remains the key that ties everything else together.

The Importance of Reputation

For many dental practices, or just businesses in general, a few bad reviews is not a good sign. In fact, it’s enough of a reason for them to lose a few clients. In worse cases, bad reviews may even cause some practices to close down.

To say that reputation is everything these days is far from an overstatement.

With the internet and sites like Google+, Yelp, and even Foursquare, you, as a prospective client or patient, have access to resources to check if a particular dentist is worth your time and money.

Online, you’ll find which dental practices in your area offer the best possible dental care services. You’ll also find which ones have been put in the negative light more than a few times. While reviews are not a totally accurate means of measuring quality of service, it still tells a lot about how a dentist and his or her clinic handles patients.

The Role of Social Media

Social media, or at least how they handle themselves on such sites, says a lot about someone’s personality. This is the reason why many jobs have been lost thanks to the detrimental behavior conducted by people on such sites.

While you probably won’t find dentists and their subsequent pages on social media sites doing anything vulgar, how they handle themselves online tells a lot about them as professionals and their practice as a business.

Engaged and communicative dental practices often garner a lot of praise and generally get more clients as a result. After all, why not? They talk to their patients, both existing and those who are just interested. They also are likely to engage with them and even post photos of before-and-after treatments. Some may even go as far as to take snapshots with their patients, further boosting their image as approachable professionals.

Also, in social media, you should take particular note of negative reviews and comments. While some practices will just ignore them, there are those who put an emphasis on customer satisfaction will often reply and handle it as properly as they possibly can.

More than all these things, however, having an active and engaged social media presence means that they value their practice as professionals and what patients think about their business.

Remember, going online, especially using social media, is a double-edged sword for businesses, thanks to the amount of exposure that comes with it.

Dental practices that put an emphasis on their presence on social media and online are likely to have built a reputation, good or bad, that can easily be assessed as soon as you visit their page.

While social media is not the only factor in determining the exact reputation of a dental practice, it is a significant one.

A dentist that takes care of his or her reputation puts a premium on proper dental care. While these dental practices usually come at a slightly higher price, you do get a lot more than what you paid for.

To put simply, a reputable dental practice is likely to take better care of your teeth and gums, making reputation THE most significant factor when looking for a dentist.

We welcome new patients and encourage you to call us at 310-546-2595 to learn more about Dr. Yamada and his wonderful team! Or visit www.anthonyyamadadds.com for further information.