To get reviews, ask every patient after their visit, in the same way each time and in a single step: a short text message or email with a direct link to your clinic’s profile on Google or Firmy.cz, ideally on the same day. You may not offer anything in return, staff may not write reviews and you may not ask only the patients who were happy. Reviews then help your position on the map and help patients decide, but you cannot use them in your advertising without the writer’s consent.
Why reviews show up in how often patients call
A patient looking for a dentist or physiotherapist nearby first sees a map with three clinics, each with its star rating and number of reviews. Google’s own help page on local ranking says that more reviews and positive ratings can help a business rank better in local search. So reviews work in two ways: your clinic appears on the map more often, and patients are more likely to click on it.
To see where you stand, open Google Maps and Firmy.cz, search for your main service and your district (“dentist Vinohrady”, “physiotherapy Smíchov”) and note the average rating and number of reviews for your clinic and for the top three. The gap in review count is your target for the next six months. In our projects we often find that a clinic’s care is no worse than its competitors’. It has simply never asked for reviews systematically.
When and how to ask for a review
Timing
Most reviews come in when the request arrives on the same day, while the visit is still fresh in the patient’s mind. For longer treatment (an implant, braces, a course of physiotherapy), ask once a whole stage is complete, not after the first check-up. The patient then rates the result rather than the waiting room.
A text or email after the visit
This is the foundation of the whole approach. The message goes out automatically from your booking system, or reception sends it to all of the day’s patients at closing time. For example:
Hello, thank you for visiting Clinic X today. If you have a moment, we would be grateful for your review: [link]. Clinic X reception
Notice two things. The message does not mention the treatment or diagnosis, because someone else may see it. And it does not ask for “five stars”, because Google’s rules forbid influencing the rating. Before you use contacts from your patient records in this way, check with your data protection officer which legal basis you are relying on. We cover communication with existing patients in more detail in Existing patients and email.
A QR code and a personal request
Your Google Business Profile offers a link and QR code for requesting reviews. Put the QR code on the next-appointment card or on a stand at reception so the patient can photograph it and write the review at home. Handing patients a tablet to fill in at the front desk is a bad idea: Google’s rules explicitly forbid demanding reviews or pressuring people into writing them on your premises.
What helps most is one sentence from the doctor at the end of the visit: “You’ll get a text from us with a link to leave a review. We’d appreciate your feedback.” The patient then expects the message and does not treat it as spam.
Google or Firmy.cz
Some patients in the Czech Republic search on Seznam and see ratings from Firmy.cz. Put only one link in the text message, otherwise patients hesitate and end up writing nothing. A practical solution: the main link goes to Google, the email contains both, and if you have far fewer reviews on Firmy.cz, swap the order for a few months.
What the rules forbid and where clinics go wrong
The Google Maps content policy and the Firmy.cz rules are strict here. The platforms can remove reviews that break them. The most common mistakes we see:
- Rewards for reviews. A discount on dental hygiene or a free massage “for a review” is not allowed. The same goes for rewarding someone to change or delete a negative review.
- Reviews from staff and family. Google treats these as a conflict of interest (employment, a contractual relationship, personal ties). Firmy.cz requires direct experience with the business and does not allow reviews between employees and employers.
- Asking only satisfied patients. Google forbids selectively approaching patients to collect positive reviews. Watch out for tools that first ask “Were you satisfied?” and send only those who click “yes” on to Google. That is exactly what the rules prohibit.
- Quotas for reception. Targets such as “five reviews per nurse per week”, or asking patients to name a particular doctor in their review, are also ruled out by Google’s policy.
The safe approach is simple: the same message to every patient, with no conditions and no hints about what to write.
How to reply to reviews
Reply to every review, positive and negative, ideally within two working days. Your replies are read mainly by future patients, not by the reviewer. For a positive review, a short thank you is enough.
With a negative review, medical confidentiality applies: do not confirm in your reply that the writer is your patient and do not mention any details of treatment, even if the review is unfair. A reply along these lines works well:
Hello, thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear this. We cannot discuss the details publicly, so please contact our clinic manager on [phone number] and we will be glad to talk it through.
Do not attack the writer and do not compare yourself with other clinics. We summarise what the Czech Medical Chamber (ČLK) code says about doctors’ public conduct in The ČLK Code of Ethics and advertising.
Reviews do not belong in advertising
You can collect reviews and reply to them, but you may not use them in promotion without the writer’s written consent. A review reveals that the person is your patient, and that fact is protected by confidentiality (§ 51 of Act No. 372/2011 Coll., for doctors also § 2(9) of the ČLK Code of Ethics) and by Article 9 of the GDPR (special categories of personal data). Consent from every writer is hard to get, so keep five-star review screenshots and patient quotes out of your campaigns. Leave reviews where they were written: on the map and on your profile.
How to tell whether it is working
Once a month, note down four numbers: new reviews on Google and on Firmy.cz, the ratio of reviews to visits, the average rating over the last three months and your average reply time. If you have, say, 400 visits a month and 10 patients write a review, the ratio is 2.5%. When the ratio drops, it usually means the texts have stopped going out or the doctors no longer mention reviews.
As a first step, set up an automatic text after each visit and reply to any unanswered reviews on your profile. If you would like to know how your clinic compares with competitors on the map, we can go through it with you in a free audit.
Frequently asked questions
Can a clinic delete a negative review?
Not by itself. You can report a review if it breaks the platform’s rules, for example if it contains insults, concerns another business or was written by someone with no real experience. A patient’s dissatisfaction alone is not a reason for removal.
How many reviews does a clinic need?
There is no fixed number. What matters is how you compare with the clinics shown next to you on the map. The aim is to match the top three in review count and then keep a steady flow of new ones.
Can I give a patient a small gift for a review?
No. Google forbids any incentive for a review, whether a discount, a free service or a gift. You can say thank you in your reply to the review.
