DOCTIFY DATA STORIES
The main cause of negative patient feedback
The waiting time experience is the main reason that patients leave negative reviews.
A closer look at negative feedback
Healthcare can at times be unpredictable. Everyday, great care is being provided. But, things can go wrong, despite everyone’s best efforts. When something doesn’t go as planned or as expected, it's important to learn from it. In the spirit of continuous improvement, we have looked closely at patients’ less than positive experiences to see how the sector as whole can learn from them..
Negative reviews can also sometimes feel as though they come out of nowhere. Here’s why:
Low ratings: individual professionals versus practices
Specialties with the most negative reviews
Understanding the emotions behind negative reviews
On average, only 3% of negative reviews are responded to
Negative Reviews
DOCTIFY DATA STORIES
What motivates a patient to leave negative feedback?
At Doctify, we have analysed thousands of the healthcare reviews that we help to collect and publish across the UK, UAE, Germany and Austria in order to find the answers.
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The main cause of negative patient feedback
The waiting room is where patients start their appointment journey. As they enter the space with uncertainties about their health and wellbeing, it is a time when many feel stressed and anxious. As opposed to alleviating these worries, for some, the waiting time experience intensifies these negative emotions to such a point that they leave negative feedback.
The waiting time experience is the main reason that patients leave negative reviews.
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growing community
Other factors that lead to negative reviews
The waiting time experience is not the only factor that comes up time-and-time again in the negative feedback that we collect at Doctify.
Low ratings: individual professionals versus practices
Specialties with the most negative reviews
We gather reviews for many different specialties and found that for certain specialties, a higher percentage of patients leave negative feedback.
Understanding the emotions behind negative reviews
“In times of duress, the impressions left by providers are long-lasting.” - When the Customer Is Stressed by Leonard L. Berry, Scott W. Davis, and Jody Wilmet
Our behaviour is driven by our emotions. When patients come away from appointments or procedures feeling worse than when they entered, this can lead to negative feedback. In reviews, patients often talk about how they felt both during and after their visit.
On average, only 3% of negative reviews are responded to
Why patients are
writing them
A closer look at negative feedback
Healthcare can at times be unpredictable. Everyday, great care is being provided. But, things can go wrong, despite everyone’s best efforts. When something doesn’t go as planned or as expected, it's important to take note. In the spirit of continuous improvement, we have looked closely at patients’ less than positive experiences to see how the sector as whole can learn from them.
Negative reviews can sometimes feel as though they come out of nowhere. Here’s why:
Satisfaction = Perception - Expectation
“If a patient expects a certain experience, and perceives that their appointment falls below this expectation, they will be dissatisfied.”
The Psychology of Waiting Lines by David H. Maister
Negative reviews don’t always mean that an appointment or treatment has fallen below standard. This can and does happen. But, negative reviews also occur when an experience doesn’t match a patient's expectations.
While they are subjective, it is important to understand the perceptions and expectations of patients, and why they can lead to dissatisfaction. That way you can put the right strategies in place to prevent them from affecting the trust that exists between you and your patients.
20% of negative patient feedback collected by Doctify mentions waiting rooms, wait times and delays
“The real problem isn’t just the duration of a delay. It’s how you experience that duration.”
Professor Richard Larson at MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
People expect there to be delays in healthcare, up to a certain point. They understand that they have entered a busy, high pressure environment, where things do sometimes need to change. So, rather than feeling unhappy about the delays they face, patients feel most dissatisfied with how they have to experience the wait.
Lack of communication
Frustration is often felt when the length of a wait isn’t properly communicated. When a patient faces an uncertain delay, with minimal information on when they will be seen, the delay can feel longer and more aggravating.
“If a patient in a waiting room is told that the doctor will be delayed thirty minutes, he experiences an initial annoyance but then relaxes into an acceptance of the inevitability of the wait. However, if the patient is told the doctor will be free soon, he spends the whole time in a state of nervous anticipation, unable to settle down, afraid to depart and come back. The patient's expectations are being managed poorly.” - The Psychology of Waiting Lines by David H. Maister
Front desk and administration
These teams are the first point of contact for patients, and are highly visible during the entirety of their wait. Patients often mention their lack of communication along with their communicative styles in negative reviews.
Research suggests that reception teams’ communication can sometimes lead to “negative perceptions of their behaviour”. People can feel particularly ‘put off’ when “receptionists omit interpersonal aspects of communication or fail to attend to the patient's voice, perhaps because they are concentrating on task completion or because they are adhering to entrenched verbal routines.” - Front Desk Talk: Discourse Analysis of Receptionist–Patient Interaction by Heather Hewitt, Lucy McCloughan and Brian McKinstry
Wait time versus appointment time
People are always more willing to wait for what is important to them. As such, patients are often fine dealing with a delay in order to see a someone about their health or wellbeing.
But, when a patient feels that the appointment that they have waited for doesn’t meet their expectations, it can lead to frustration and negative feedback. After waiting to be seen, people typically become dissatisfied when they believe their appointments have been rushed, impersonal or have lacked in thoroughness.
Time wasted
14% of negative reviews mentioning wait time experiences include the exact amount of time the patient was delayed.
Watching the clock is indicative of patients finding their wait non-productive and non-useful. Time flies when you are having fun, but a watched pot never boils. Similarly, people sitting in a waiting room with nothing to do but watch the minutes pass by are likely to find their waits long, frustrating and worthy of negative feedback.
Facilities and decor
A Pressganey report found that approximately 24 to 35% of a patient's overall satisfaction is influenced by the design and decor of a facility.
The physical experience of sitting in a waiting room can greatly impact a patient’s stress levels, trust and ultimately their level of satisfaction. When left to wait in a space that doesn’t feel welcoming or comfortable, it can even cause patients to doubt the standard of care provided.
Bedside manner
If and when a person has a negative experience in the waiting room, they can bring this into the appointment with them.
It can be difficult for a doctor, dentist or professional to turn this around - it’s hard to play catch up. With this negative bias, patients are more likely to notice negative stimuli and dwell on negative experiences for longer periods of time, increasing the likelihood of them leaving a negative review.
When looking at negative feedback mentioning reception areas, they often include the words “unfriendly” or “unfriendliness”.
Empty desks on arrival, dated decor and a lack of warmth are also common themes. These experiences lead to patients who are already feeling stressed becoming even more uncomfortable, confused and anxious from the very beginning of their appointments, starting them off on the wrong foot.
Time constraints placed on doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals can negatively affect the patient experience.
Our feedback shows that patients become dissatisfied when they come away from appointments feeling as though they haven’t had adequate explanations or sufficient information. They feel that they haven't been listened to, and haven’t had a chance to ask questions, leaving them feeling disappointed, uncared for and worried about their health.
Poor communication can happen throughout the patient journey. We broke down our negative reviews to find the main pain points:
Being unable to get in touch to book or confirm appointments
A lack of communication surrounding wait times and delays
Minimal information and explanations before and during treatments
Difficulties getting in contact after and between appointments
COVID-19 policies have been introduced to ensure the safety of patients and staff.
Our data shows that some patients are dissatisfied with how this is being handled within some facilities, which is resulting in negative reviews. Common mentions include policies and procedures not being up to standard, and practices appearing unorganised or unprepared, which can result in patients feeling anxious.
Fundamentally, the mindset of patients is that they are paying for a service. People are willing to pay for what is important to them, which more often than not, will include their health.
When patients are dissatisfied with short appointment times, they will often mention the cost, feeling as though they haven't had value for money. In terms of price, patients also become dissatisfied with a lack of transparency around costings and additional unknown charges.
What causes individual doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals to get negative reviews?
1. Explanation
Over a third of people who left negative reviews for their doctor, dentist or healthcare professional scored them 2 or less out of 5 for their explanation.
“In England, 42% of working-age adults are unable to understand and make use of everyday health information, rising to 61% when numeracy skills are also required for comprehension.” - Improving Health Literacy to Reduce
Health Inequalities, Public Health England
“Although healthcare professionals generally assume that the health explanations and instructions given to patients and families are readily understood, in reality these instructions are frequently misunderstood.” - Assessing and Addressing Health Literacy by Sandy Cornett
People can find it challenging to fully understand healthcare information due to medical vocabulary and the intricacies of how the body works. Stress, anxiety and uncertainty can also make it difficult for patients to take in information. Patients can then feel too ashamed to ask questions or for something to be repeated.
2. Bedside manner
27% of people who left negative reviews for their doctor, dentist or healthcare professional scored them 2 or less out of 5 for their bedside manner.
“It is unsettling how little it takes to defeat success in medicine. You come as a professional equipped with expertise and technology. You do not imagine that a mere matter of etiquette could foil you.” - Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
Patients feel fearful, anxious and uncertain, and want their healthcare professional to help calm their fears and provide hope. They want to feel safe. If they don’t feel this is achieved, it can heighten their fears and anxiety, and lead to undue stress.
What causes practices, clinics and hospital chains to get negative reviews?
1. Waiting time experience
Nearly 40% of patients unsatisfied with their experience scored their practice, clinic or hospital 2 or below out of 5 for their wait time experience.
We have found that the wait time experience is one of the major factors for negative reviews. But as discussed in this report, it isn’t necessarily the amount of time a person spends waiting that causes them to feel frustrated. Instead, it is the lack of communication, the environment in which they have to wait and the quality of their appointment following on from a delay.
2. Friendliness
A fifth of patients unsatisfied with their experience scored their practice, clinic or hospital 2 or below out of 5 for friendliness.
“How providers feel, their emotional or affective state, may exert a significant, unintended influence on their patients” - Emotional Influences in Patient Safety
by Pat Croskerry, Allan Abbass and Albert W Wu
People in healthcare work within high-pressure and emotionally-charged environments, often for long periods at a time, causing stress, frustration and fatigue. Sometimes, this can unintentionally affect how they communicate with patients.
3. Cleanliness
Just under 10% of patients unsatisfied with their experience scored their practice, clinic or hospital 2 or below out of 5 for cleanliness.
The coronavirus pandemic has increased people's awareness of the cleanliness of their environment. Within healthcare settings, people perceive a lack of cleanliness to be an indicator from which they can judge the quality of the service.
A patient's perception of cleanliness not only includes something being free of dirt. Old, outdated or worn decor and facilities gives the impression of uncleanliness. A lack of cleaning staff being visible can also impact a patient’s perception of how thoroughly and effectively the environment they are in is cleaned.
1. Orthopaedic surgery
2. Obstetrics & Gynaecology
3. Dentistry
4. Ear nose and throat surgery
5. Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology, ENT and Orthopaedic surgery
A common theme in patient satisfaction within surgery is preoperative expectation versus postoperative satisfaction. When patients come to a surgery with unrealistic expectations for the outcomes, it can leave them feeling unsatisfied and disappointed in the results.
Sometimes, the best possible healthcare outcome that can be achieved will always fall below patient expectations, and lead to dissatisfaction. A person may expect a certain symptom to be 100% gone, a complete lack of recurrence or expect to get a certain function back 100%, despite it not being achievable.
Obstetrics & Gynaecology
When healthcare is intimate in nature and has the potential for a higher emotional impact, patients expect higher levels of compassion, care and friendliness. Longer appointment times are expected too. They are times when people feel tense, nervous, uncertain and often not in control of their own bodies.
In obstetrics and gynaecology, these factors are what patients not only want but need. And, when they perceive that they do not get this care, it can leave them dissatisfied.
Dentistry
Dental anxiety, or dental fear, is estimated to affect approximately 36% of the population, with a further 12% suffering from extreme dental fear. - Why Are People Afraid of the Dentist? Observations and Explanations by Laura Beaton, Ruth Freeman and Gerry Humphris
Even for people without dental anxiety, visiting the dentist can be embarrassing and worrying, particularly for those uncomfortable with their teeth.
As a patient feels like this in the dental chair, a dentist is doing something that is common and completely straightforward for them, concentrating and problem solving at the same time. This disparity can lead to a breakdown in communication, connection and patient satisfaction.
Not managing patient expectations is also something that can lead to negative reviews. If a patient has unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved, they can become disappointed with their results.
The number one emotion behind negative reviews is disappointment. Disappointment relays back to the equation:
Satisfaction = Perception - Expectation
When an appointment or procedure doesn’t meet a patient’s expectations and they leave feeling disappointed, it is often because of the following the reasons:
They needed more or better information before their appointment
Their expectations for their health outcomes weren’t managed
They didn't receive the information or explanations needed
They didn’t have a chance to ask questions
Our data shows that patients who leave negative feedback also do so because they feel stressed, anxious and worried. They leave appointments without feeling reassured or confident in the outcomes, aftercare or the upcoming next steps. Interestingly, confusion is another common reason for negative reviews. The inherent complexity of medicine and dentistry is something that can be confusing, with patients needing clear explanations, the right level of information and a good understanding of what to do next to help alleviate their anxious feelings.
Along with verbal communication, including a healthcare professional’s choice of words and tone of voice, their body language can have a big impact on anxious customers. Information needs to be delivered in a compassionate, sensitive, detailed and easily digestible manner and through transparent, reassuring communication, to instil trust and confidence.
8% of doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals respond to their negative feedback
2% of practices, clinics and hospital chains reply to their negative reviews
At Doctify, we believe that every review should get a response, regardless of whether that review is good or bad. Knowing exactly how to reply to negative feedback can be difficult. But, with the right plan of action, you can take control and respond in the right way.
Don’t ignore your negative feedback
Don’t brush negative reviews under the carpet. It’s important to be seen participating in these conversations. Addressing negative feedback quickly and correctly gives you a higher chance of gaining trust and loyalty from the patient. A response also shows future patients that you genuinely care about every person and their experience.
Remain calm, acknowledge and offer a solution
Your future patients want to see that you listen, and that you make things right if and when someone does have a negative experience.
Within your response, acknowledge their feelings, emphasise that you want to sort the problem and provide actionable and realistic solutions. Seeing that you take the feedback seriously will help patients to recognise that you are caring, empathetic and someone who takes the initiative.
Take the conversation offline
When responding to a negative review, it is always best to direct the person offline. Give them a phone number or email address so that you can discuss their feedback in a more private setting. This dedication to getting things right will show your devotion to the delivery of a high level of care. Also, keep in touch with the person, and let them know when action has been taken to rectify the situation.
If you would like more information and advice, read our detailed blog on the best ways to respond to negative reviews.
Negative Reviews
Why patients are
writing them
What motivates a patient to leave negative feedback?
At Doctify, we have analysed thousands of the healthcare reviews that we help to collect and publish across the UK, UAE, Germany and Austria in order to find the answers.
Satisfaction = Perception - Expectation
“If a patient expects a certain experience, and perceives that their appointment falls below this expectation, they will be dissatisfied.”
The Psychology of Waiting Lines by David H. Maister
Negative reviews don’t always mean that an appointment or treatment has fallen below standard. This can and does happen. But, negative reviews also occur when an experience doesn’t match a patient's expectations.
While they are subjective, it is important to understand the perceptions and expectations of patients, and why they can lead to dissatisfaction. That way you can put the right strategies in place to prevent them from affecting the trust that exists between you and your patients.
The waiting room is where patients start their appointment journey. As they enter the space with uncertainties about their health and wellbeing, it is a time when many feel stressed and anxious. As opposed to alleviating these worries, for some, the waiting time experience intensifies these negative emotions to such a point that they leave negative feedback.
20% of negative patient feedback collected by Doctify mentions waiting rooms, wait times and delays
Why does the waiting time experience lead to negative patient feedback?
Why does the waiting time experience lead to negative patient feedback?
“The real problem isn’t just the duration of a delay. It’s how you experience that duration.”
Professor Richard Larson at MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
People expect there to be delays in healthcare, up to a certain point. They understand that they have entered a busy, high pressure environment, where things do sometimes need to change. So, rather than feeling unhappy about the delays they face, patients feel most dissatisfied with how they have to experience the wait.
Lack of communication
Frustration is often felt when the length of a wait isn’t properly communicated. When a patient faces an uncertain delay, with minimal information on when they will be seen, the delay can feel longer and more aggravating.
“If a patient in a waiting room is told that the doctor will be delayed thirty minutes, he experiences an initial annoyance but then relaxes into an acceptance of the inevitability of the wait. However, if the patient is told the doctor will be free soon, he spends the whole time in a state of nervous anticipation, unable to settle down, afraid to depart and come back. The patient's expectations are being managed poorly.” - The Psychology of Waiting Lines by David H. Maister
Front desk and administration
These teams are the first point of contact for patients, and are highly visible during the entirety of their wait. Patients often mention their lack of communication along with their communicative styles in negative reviews.
Research suggests that reception teams’ communication can sometimes lead to “negative perceptions of their behaviour”. People can feel particularly ‘put off’ when “receptionists omit interpersonal aspects of communication or fail to attend to the patient's voice, perhaps because they are concentrating on task completion or because they are adhering to entrenched verbal routines.” - Front Desk Talk: Discourse Analysis of Receptionist–Patient Interaction by Heather Hewitt, Lucy McCloughan and Brian McKinstry
Wait time versus appointment time
People are always more willing to wait for what is important to them. As such, patients are often fine dealing with a delay in order to see a someone about their health or wellbeing.
But, when a patient feels that the appointment that they have waited for doesn’t meet their expectations, it can lead to frustration and negative feedback. After waiting to be seen, people typically become dissatisfied when they believe their appointments have been rushed, impersonal or have lacked in thoroughness.
Time wasted
14% of negative reviews mentioning wait time experiences include the exact amount of time the patient was delayed.
Watching the clock is indicative of patients finding their wait non-productive and non-useful. Time flies when you are having fun, but a watched pot never boils. Similarly, people sitting in a waiting room with nothing to do but watch the minutes pass by are likely to find their waits long, frustrating and worthy of negative feedback.
Facilities and decor
A Pressganey report found that approximately 24 to 35% of a patient's overall satisfaction is influenced by the design and decor of a facility.
The physical experience of sitting in a waiting room can greatly impact a patient’s stress levels, trust and ultimately their level of satisfaction. When left to wait in a space that doesn’t feel welcoming or comfortable, it can even cause patients to doubt the standard of care provided.
Bedside manner
If and when a person has a negative experience in the waiting room, they can bring this into the appointment with them.
It can be difficult for a doctor, dentist or professional to turn this around - it’s hard to play catch up. With this negative bias, patients are more likely to notice negative stimuli and dwell on negative experiences for longer periods of time, increasing the likelihood of them leaving a negative review.
Other factors that lead to negative reviews
The waiting time experience is not the only factor that comes up time-and-time again in the negative feedback that we collect at Doctify.
When looking at negative feedback mentioning reception areas, they often include the words “unfriendly” or “unfriendliness”.
Empty desks on arrival, dated decor and a lack of warmth are also common themes. These experiences lead to patients who are already feeling stressed becoming even more uncomfortable, confused and anxious from the beginning of their appointments, starting them off on the wrong foot.
Time constraints placed on doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals can negatively affect the patient experience.
Our feedback shows that patients become dissatisfied when they come away from appointments feeling as though they haven’t had adequate explanations or sufficient information. They feel that they haven't been listened to, and haven’t had a chance to ask questions, leaving them feeling disappointed, uncared for and worried about their health.
Poor communication can happen throughout the patient journey. We broke down our negative reviews to find the main pain points:
Being unable to get in touch to book or confirm appointments
A lack of communication surrounding wait times and delays
Minimal information and explanations before and during treatments
Difficulties getting in contact after and between appointments
COVID-19 policies have been introduced to ensure the safety of patients and staff.
Our data shows that some patients are dissatisfied with how this is being handled within some facilities, which is resulting in negative reviews. Common mentions include policies and procedures not being up to standard, and practices appearing unorganised or unprepared, which can result in patients feeling anxious.
Fundamentally, the mindset of patients is that they are paying for a service. People are willing to pay for what is important to them, which more often than not, will include their health.
When patients are dissatisfied with short appointment times, they often mention the cost, feeling as though they haven't had value for money. Patients also become dissatisfied with a lack of transparency and additional unknown charges.
When someone appears rude, it is typically unintentional. They may be focused on a task, using formulaic speak or verbal routines that appear impersonal. They may even be struggling with stress, worry or sadness themselves.
Even when unintentional, rudeness can have a dramatic impact on patients. And, when a patient perceives someone is speaking or acting in a way that doesn’t align with what they think is appropriate or civil, it can leave them feeling unhappy and unmotivated. It can even cause them to become frustrated and appear rude themselves.
What causes individual doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals to get negative reviews?
1. Explanation
Over a third of people who left negative reviews for their doctor, dentist or healthcare professional scored them 2 or less out of 5 for their explanation.
“In England, 42% of working-age adults are unable to understand and make use of everyday health information, rising to 61% when numeracy skills are also required for comprehension.” - Improving Health Literacy to Reduce
Health Inequalities, Public Health England
“Although healthcare professionals generally assume that the health explanations and instructions given to patients and families are readily understood, in reality these instructions are frequently misunderstood.” - Assessing and Addressing Health Literacy by Sandy Cornett
People can find it challenging to fully understand healthcare information due to medical vocabulary and the intricacies of how the body works. Stress, anxiety and uncertainty can also make it difficult for patients to take in information. Patients can then feel too ashamed to ask questions or for something to be repeated.
2. Bedside manner
27% of people who left negative reviews for their doctor, dentist or healthcare professional scored them 2 or less out of 5 for their bedside manner.
“It is unsettling how little it takes to defeat success in medicine. You come as a professional equipped with expertise and technology. You do not imagine that a mere matter of etiquette could foil you.” - Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
Patients feel fearful, anxious and uncertain , and want their healthcare professional to help calm their fears and provide hope. They want to feel safe. If they don’t feel this is achieved, it can heighten their fears and anxiety, and lead to undue stress.
What causes practices, clinics and hospital chains to get negative reviews?
1. Waiting time experience
Nearly 40% of patients unsatisfied with their experience scored their practice, clinic or hospital 2 or below out of 5 for their wait time experience.
We have found that the wait time experience is one of the major factors for negative reviews. But as discussed in this report, it isn’t necessarily the amount of time a person spends waiting that causes them to feel frustrated. Instead, it is the lack of communication, the environment in which they have to wait and the quality of their appointment following on from a delay.
2. Friendliness
A fifth of patients unsatisfied with their experience scored their practice, clinic or hospital 2 or below out of 5 for friendliness.
“How providers feel, their emotional or affective state, may exert a significant, unintended influence on their patients” - Emotional Influences in Patient Safety
by Pat Croskerry, Allan Abbass and Albert W Wu
People in healthcare work within high-pressure and emotionally-charged environments, often for long periods at a time, causing stress, frustration and fatigue. Sometimes, this can unintentionally affect how they communicate with patients.
3. Cleanliness
Just under 10% of patients unsatisfied with their experience scored their practice, clinic or hospital 2 or below out of 5 for cleanliness.
The coronavirus pandemic has increased people's awareness of the cleanliness of their environment. Within healthcare settings, people perceive a lack of cleanliness to be an indicator from which they can judge the quality of the service.
A patient's perception of cleanliness not only includes something being free of dirt. Old, outdated or worn decor and facilities gives the impression of uncleanliness. A lack of cleaning staff being visible can also impact a patient’s perception of how thoroughly and effectively the environment they are in is cleaned.
We gather reviews for many different specialties and found that for certain specialties, a higher percentage of patients leave negative feedback.
1. Orthopaedic surgery
2. Obstetrics & Gynaecology
3. Dentistry
4. Ear nose and throat surgery
5. Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology, ENT and Orthopaedic surgery
A common theme in patient satisfaction within surgery is preoperative expectation versus postoperative satisfaction. When patients come to a surgery with unrealistic expectations for the outcomes, it can leave them feeling unsatisfied and disappointed in the results.
Sometimes, the best possible healthcare outcome that can be achieved will always fall below patient expectations, and lead to dissatisfaction. A person may expect a certain symptom to be 100% gone, a complete lack of recurrence or expect to get a certain function back 100%, despite it not being achievable.
Obstetrics & Gynaecology
When healthcare is intimate in nature and has the potential for a higher emotional impact, patients expect higher levels of compassion, care and friendliness. Longer appointment times are expected too. They are times when people feel tense, nervous, uncertain and often not in control of their own bodies.
In obstetrics and gynaecology, these factors are what patients not only want but need. And, when they perceive that they do not get this care, it can leave them dissatisfied.
Dentistry
Dental anxiety, or dental fear, is estimated to affect approximately 36% of the population, with a further 12% suffering from extreme dental fear. - Why Are People Afraid of the Dentist? Observations and Explanations by Laura Beaton, Ruth Freeman and Gerry Humphris
Even for people without dental anxiety, visiting the dentist can be embarrassing and worrying, particularly for those uncomfortable with their teeth.
As a patient feels like this in the dental chair, a dentist is doing something that is common and completely straightforward for them, concentrating and problem solving at the same time. This disparity can lead to a breakdown in communication, connection and also patient satisfaction.
Not managing patient expectations is also something that can lead to negative reviews. If a patient has unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved, they can become disappointed with their results.
“In times of duress, the impressions left by providers are long-lasting.” - When the Customer Is Stressed by Leonard L. Berry, Scott W. Davis, and Jody Wilmet
Our behaviour is driven by our emotions. When patients come away from appointments or procedures feeling worse than when they entered, this can lead to negative feedback. In reviews, patients often talk about how they felt both during and after their visit.
The most common emotions behind negative feedback
The most common emotions behind negative feedback
The number one emotion behind negative reviews is disappointment. Disappointment relays back to the equation:
They needed more or better information before their appointment
Their expectations for their health outcomes weren’t managed
They didn't receive the information or explanations needed
They didn’t have a chance to ask questions
