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Wired for Success: Three Steps for Improving Your Online Reputation by Alan A. Curtis, DDS, MS, Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

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Alan A. Curtis, DDS, MS, Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

Know where you stand

The journey of excellence starts with an understanding of where you are. Begin your online reputation by looking for yourself. See what your online reputation is — Google yourself. To quote one of my favorite bands, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”1 Your reputation exists whether by word of mouth or online. It’s guaranteed that patients are saying something about you. Make sure you know what they’re saying. Search Google, Bing, Yelp, Health- Grades, etc., to see what the community has said about you and your office.

Create an amazing experience for people to talk about

Once you know what people are saying about you, it’s time to go on the offensive. Talk with your team to discuss what you can do to make your office’s experience one that people will want to talk positively about. This does not mean you need to spend a lot of money. Great customer service (i.e., quality treatment in a friendly environment) is not difficult if you have the right strategy. Follow up bondings with phone calls and hand-written thank you notes. Call patients after extractions to see how they’ve been feeling. People don’t care how much you know or how well you correct a Class II malocclusion as much as they want to know that you and your team are looking out for them. If there is something your office does particularly well, make sure that you’re not shy about it. Talk it up and push that message out via all of your social media and internal marketing channels! Everyone has a message to send — make sure you are deliberate about what your message is. In our office, our mission statement says, “Curtis Orthodontics is committed to creating amazingly beautiful smiles with mind-blowing, patient-centered customer service.” Mind blowing customer service is what we’re all about! This exercise is not something that you do once a year. This is an exercise that needs to be choreographed every couple of months to become a part of your office’s culture.

Plan to make referrals and online reviews something that is easy for patients to do

Most patients should have a great experience in your office. The question should be: How do you make it easy for patients to review you and refer to you? If your office is like mine, people are very good at saying thank you for the things you do for them. “Wow. Dr. Curtis. Susie’s teeth look amazing…” What you do next determines whether or not that thank you turns into a positive review. Ask yourself, “What have you and your team done to make your patient refer or write a review online?” The script in our office sounds something like this: “Wow, thank you! Were so pleased that you’re happy. We work hard at creating a great experience for our patients. Gone are the days of people finding us in the phonebook … would you mind going online and sharing your positive experience?” We had business cards made with our logo and the words thank you on the front. The reverse has the logos of the most common review sites where we’d like people to review us. Additionally, we automated this request through TeleVox T-Link. Every fifth appointment an email is sent to request our patients write an online review of their experience in our office. What are you doing to create and improve your online reputation? Share your thoughts online at Orthotown.com.



  1. RUSH, “Freewill" 1980.
Orthotown Magazine
September 2025
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