Patient reviews in France: why healthcare professionals must look after their online reputation

Today, many patients check online reviews before choosing a healthcare professional. In France, although the sector is regulated, online reviews play a key role in building the trust and reputation of a practice, a dental centre or a clinic.

For a practitioner, the subject is often uncomfortable: you didn’t choose this profession to manage stars, and you fear stepping outside the ethical framework. Yet ignoring your reviews means letting others write the first page of your practice on their own. Here is why it is urgent to pay attention to it, and how to do it by the rules.

Medical reviews are decisive in choosing a practitioner

A new patient’s journey almost always begins with a search such as “dentist” or “ophthalmologist” followed by the name of the city. Google then shows three profiles with their rating, their number of reviews and an excerpt of the comments; Doctolib, PagesJaunes or Facebook complete the picture. The patient compares two or three practitioners in a few seconds, before even seeing your website.

What they look at: the rating, of course, but also the number of reviews, their date and whether there are replies. A well-rated practitioner, with recent reviews and courteous replies, inspires confidence, especially at a time when word of mouth is going digital and people increasingly consult outside their circle of acquaintances.

An ethical framework to respect, which does not prohibit reviews

Communication by healthcare professionals is governed by the code of ethics of each professional body: fair and honest information, no comparative or misleading advertising, respect for medical confidentiality in all circumstances. This framework does not prohibit reviews: those that patients leave on Google or Doctolib are public, and the practitioner has the right to reply to them.

Three precautions are essential. Never confirm that a person is your patient and never mention any element of treatment in a reply, even if the author mentions it themselves. Comply with the GDPR when collecting the contact details used for your satisfaction questionnaires. Before any approach to soliciting reviews, refer to the recommendations of your professional body, which vary between professions: the internal satisfaction questionnaire, for its part, remains a widely accepted tool for improving the quality of care.

Centralisation: saving time and staying compliant

A practice receives reviews on several platforms, often at times when nobody is at the screen. SmileMood lets you bring all your reviews together in a single interface, follow their publication in real time, be alerted to a low rating and avoid duplicates or forgotten replies.

For busy reception teams or overstretched practitioners, it is a considerable time saving: the person in charge sees each morning what arrived the day before, replies in a few minutes and moves on. Practices that use Doctolib can link their diary to SmileMood to trigger the satisfaction questionnaire automatically after the consultation.

Personalised, compliant replies with Moodi AI

Moodi, SmileMood’s AI assistant, prepares review replies taking into account vocabulary suited to the medical field and the rules of professional ethics: no clinical details, no confirmation of the care relationship, a restrained, warm tone. Each message is a suggestion that you read over, personalise if needed and approve manually before publication.

In practice, a reply to a positive review takes two sentences: a thank-you for the trust shown and a reminder that the team remains available at the practice. Faced with a negative review, the reply stays short and courteous, and invites the person to get back in touch directly with reception, without ever going into the substance of the case.

Replying to a negative review as a healthcare professional

A negative review hurts all the more when it calls your care into question. The reply must nevertheless remain that of a composed professional.

• Don’t reply within the hour. Let the day pass, reread with a cool head, have a colleague or your reception team read it over.
• Neither confirm nor deny the treatment. Even if the author describes their consultation, your reply must contain no medical information nor suggest whether or not they are your patient.
• Keep it short and courteous. Thank them for the feedback, say that you take the comment seriously and offer a direct conversation with the practice.
• Report what needs reporting. A review that is abusive, clearly false or unrelated to the practice can be reported to the platform from your profile.
• Never threaten legal action in a public reply: it is counter-productive and harms your image far more than the review itself.

FAQ

Can a doctor or a dentist reply to Google reviews?
Yes. The reply is public and must respect medical confidentiality: a thank-you, the team’s availability, an invitation to get back in touch, with nothing about the person or the treatment.

Can you ask for a review to be removed?
Only if the review breaks the platform’s rules (abusive language, off-topic content, obviously fake review). In other cases, a measured reply remains the best protection, because it is read by every patient who comes after.

How do you get more reviews without stepping outside the rules?
Through the quality of the welcome and follow-up, a complete and up-to-date profile, and a reply to every review. For direct solicitation, refer to the recommendations of your professional body. The satisfaction questionnaire sent after the consultation, which SmileMood automates, gives you valuable feedback on your patients’ experience in any case.

Patient reviews are an extension of your relationship of trust. Managing them better means taking better care of your image, protecting your team from unfair comments and reassuring patients who are still hesitating. SmileMood is designed for healthcare professionals who want to combine efficiency, ethics and visibility.

To see how the tool adapts to a medical or dental practice, visit our page dedicated to medical professions or request a demo. The plans come with no commitment and a 7-day trial.