Patient review requests and reply templates

Every practice owner has stared at a one-star review and typed a reply they did not send. This guide is the practical companion to our Google Business Profile guide for doctors and dentists: a review request process your team can run the same way every day, and reply templates you can copy, written so they never confirm that the reviewer is your patient. For patient social posts that tag the practice, see reposting patient posts and tags.

This is general information, not legal advice. If your practice is a HIPAA covered entity, have your privacy officer approve your reply templates before your team uses them. The sources are listed at the end. If you also run a satisfaction survey, our guide to patient satisfaction surveys and survey results in ads explains how to keep it separate from review requests. For ratings left in Apple Maps, see Apple Maps listings for medical practices. For replies to neighbors on Nextdoor, see our guide to Nextdoor for medical practices. Yelp’s own terms for businesses, its Consumer Alerts and its ads are covered in our guide to Yelp for medical practices. If your intake forms or membership terms say anything about reviews, check them against our guide to review gag clauses in patient agreements.

The rules in one paragraph

The FTC’s Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465) prohibits fake reviews, incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, undisclosed reviews by officers and managers, and using groundless legal threats, intimidation or false public accusations to stop or remove a review. Google’s Maps content policy goes further: no incentives of any kind in exchange for a review, no reviews from people with a conflict of interest such as employees, and no discouraging negative reviews or selectively asking for positive ones. And if you are a covered entity, the HIPAA Privacy Rule limits what your reply can disclose about a patient. Everything below is built on those three.

A review request process anyone on your team can run

Everyone gets the same requestSend it to every patient after every eligible visit, automatically if your system allows it. No one decides who is “happy enough” to ask. Selective asking is exactly what Google’s policy does not allow.
No survey gate in front of itDo not ask “How did we do?” first and send only the four- and five-star answers to Google. That is review gating. If you want internal feedback, send it separately and send the review request to everyone regardless of the answer.
Nothing in returnNo discount, raffle, gift card or free whitening for a review, positive or not. Google’s policy does not allow incentives for any review. Staff should not be rewarded for review counts either.
Use Google’s own linkGoogle lets you share a review request link or QR code from your Business Profile. Use it in the message and on a card at checkout, so the patient lands in the right place.
Keep staff and family outEmployees, their relatives and anyone with a business tie to the practice should not review it. Google treats that as a conflict of interest.

Request wording you can use

Text message: “Thank you for choosing [Practice name]. If you would like to share your experience, you can leave a review here: [Google review link]. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Email: “Thank you for choosing [Practice name]. Reviews help other people in [City] find a [dentist / chiropractor / clinic] that fits them. If you would like to share your experience, good or bad, you can do it here: [Google review link]. Questions about your visit or your bill? Call us at [phone] and we will help.”

Notice what the wording leaves out: no “if you were happy”, no suggested star rating, no reference to the treatment the patient had. Keep health details out of review requests entirely. Texting patients also has its own consent rules; your practice software vendor or adviser can tell you what applies to your messages.

Yelp is different

Google allows you to ask for reviews as long as you ask without incentives or bias. Yelp does not want you to ask at all. Its support page says not to ask anyone to review your business, and that its software may not recommend reviews that seem to have been requested by the business. So do not put a Yelp link in your review request. Patients who use Yelp will find you there on their own.

Why Google’s general reply advice needs adjusting for healthcare

Google’s tips for review replies are good advice for most businesses: keep replies short, be polite, address the reviewer by name and acknowledge their specific feedback, admit mistakes, and ask people to contact you privately when a situation is complex. Google also says never to share a reviewer’s private information.

For a practice, “acknowledge their specific feedback” is where the risk sits. Confirming that someone was seen, when, by whom or for what is patient information. The reviewer chose to post about themselves; that does not give the practice permission to add to it. The HHS Office for Civil Rights has settled with dental practices that disclosed patient information in replies to online reviews; the cases are linked at the end and in our Business Profile guide.

The test for every reply: would it read exactly the same if the reviewer had never been to your practice? If yes, it is probably safe to post. If it only makes sense because you know who they are, rewrite it.

Do not say “thank you for visiting”, “your appointment”, “your treatment”, “your bill” or “our records show”.
Do not name the provider they saw, the date, the service or anything about their health, even to correct them.
Do not argue the facts in public. Move the conversation to the phone.
Sign off with a role (“Office Manager”) or initials, not a clinician’s name tied to the reviewer’s care.

Reply templates

Adapt these to your voice, but keep the structure. Each one would read the same whether or not the reviewer is a patient.

Positive review

“Thank you for taking the time to share this. Our team works hard to make [Practice name] a welcoming place, and kind words like these mean a lot to everyone here.”

Rating only, no text

A reply is optional. If you reply: “Thank you for your rating. If there is ever anything we can do better, please call our office manager at [phone].”

Wait times or scheduling

“Thank you for raising this. We know everyone’s time matters, and we keep working on how we schedule and how we communicate delays. We would welcome the chance to talk; please call our office manager at [phone].”

Billing or insurance

“Thank you for letting us know. We cannot discuss account details in a public forum, but we want to help. Please call our billing team at [phone] so we can look into this with you directly.”

Unhappy with care or results

“We are sorry to read this. Privacy rules mean we do not discuss anyone’s care online, and we take concerns like this seriously. Please call our practice manager at [phone] so we can listen and respond properly.”

Rude staff or front desk

“Thank you for telling us. Everyone who contacts us should be treated with respect, and we will share this with our team. If you are willing, please call our office manager at [phone] so we can hear more.”

You cannot find any record of them

Use the same reply as for any other complaint. Saying “this person was never our patient” is itself a statement about who is and is not a patient. If the review appears to break Google’s policies, report it instead (see below).

Reviewer shares their own health details

Do not repeat or respond to the details. “Thank you for sharing. We do not discuss anyone’s care online, but we would be glad to talk. Please call us at [phone].”

Fake, abusive or off-topic reviews

Google says you can report any review, but only reviews that break its policies are eligible for removal, and you should not report a review just because you disagree with it. Spam, conflicts of interest (for example, a competitor or former employee), offensive content and reviews about a different business are the kinds of problems that qualify. You can flag a review from your Business Profile or through Google’s Reviews Management Tool, and check the status there. Google says evaluation typically takes several days.

What not to do: threaten the reviewer with legal action, pressure them to take it down, or offer anything in exchange for removing or changing it. The FTC rule specifically prohibits groundless legal threats, intimidation and knowingly false public accusations aimed at preventing or removing a review, and Google’s policy does not allow incentives to revise or remove one. If a review is defamatory, talk to your attorney before you do anything public. If you watch review sites and social platforms with alerts, our guide to social listening for practices covers what to do when you recognize a patient.

Showing reviews on your own website

Many practices embed reviews on their site. The FTC rule (16 CFR 465.7(b)) prohibits a business from misrepresenting that the reviews shown in a review section of its website are most or all of the reviews submitted when reviews are being suppressed because of their ratings or negative sentiment. A widget that shows only five-star reviews under a heading like “What our patients say” can give exactly that impression. The safe options are to show all reviews, show a recent sample regardless of rating, or link to your Google profile so people can read everything there. Using a patient’s review as a testimonial in your own marketing raises separate HIPAA authorization questions; our practice website checklist covers those.

How we approach it

Review requests and reply templates are part of our local SEO for practices. We set up a request every patient gets the same way, write reply templates with your privacy officer, and show your team how to report reviews that break Google’s policies. We never write reviews, buy them, gate them, or filter who gets asked.

Frequently asked questions

Should a practice reply to every Google review?

You do not have to. Google suggests focusing replies where you can add something useful rather than sending the same thank-you to everyone. Whatever you reply, use wording that would read the same whether or not the reviewer is a patient.

Can we use the reviewer’s name in our reply?

Google’s general advice is to address reviewers by name, but for a practice a greeting by name next to “thank you for your visit” confirms the person is a patient. If your privacy officer approves using the public display name at all, keep everything else in the reply general.

Is it review gating to send a satisfaction survey first?

It is if only the people who answer positively are then asked for a public review. Google’s policy does not allow selectively soliciting positive reviews. Send your review request to every patient, whether or not you also run a survey.

Can we enter patients who leave a review into a prize drawing?

Not for Google reviews. Google’s policy does not allow incentives such as payment, discounts or free goods or services in exchange for posting any review, whatever the rating. The FTC rule separately prohibits incentives conditioned on a positive or negative review.

Can we ask Google to remove a negative review?

Only if it breaks Google’s policies, for example spam, a conflict of interest or offensive content. Google says not to report reviews just because you disagree with them. Never pressure or pay a reviewer to remove a review.

Sources

More in Local SEO and reviews for practices

Patient reviews: how to ask, and reply templates that protect privacy