5 steps to building and maintaining your medical billing company’s online reputation

With so many changes in the back office for the medical billing company industry, it’s no surprise that many billers are focused on operational shifts. But the front-facing stuff matters, too. 

In 2023, medical billing companies are dealing with a unique set of risks directly related to customer acquisition. In Tebra’s “​​State of the U.S. Medical Billing Industry” study, 43% of billing companies said that customer consolidation under larger firms posed a significant risk. Of medical billers, 1 in 4 believes that increased competition is a challenge.

There are a few ways that a medical billing company can differentiate itself in the market and offset these risks. Providing additional, complimentary services or marketing to a single type of medical practice can attract customers. So can building and maintaining a stellar online reputation.

When medical billing companies manage their online presence, they do more than just marketing or advertising. A carefully curated online reputation can tell a story and offer social proof — both of which drive referrals.

The big why: Your online reputation matters

Whether you know it or not, your company has an online presence. And if you aren’t maintaining it, you have no control over how potential clients see your business. As a billing company, it’s important to understand how to take care of your online presence, engage with clients, and manage your reputation.

Consider review sites like Yelp. Customers and leads can review your business for clients and prospects to read. So, if your billing company has little to no presence online, or a negative presence, you run the risk of looking risky — at least compared to competitors who have high reviews and customer comments.

Let’s dig into the numbers to see how much online reputation affects your business. 

Tripadvisor and Ipsos MORI asked nearly 3,000 travel-related businesses listed on Tripadvisor what they thought of top industry trends for their businesses. This 2018 report revealed that:

• 97% believe online reputation management is important to their business
• 98% believe online reviews are important to their business
• 92% believe social presence is important to their business

Another study found that 97% of consumers use online media to shop locally, and 4 out of 5 consumers will change their minds about a business after reading negative reviews. Ouch. 

But it’s not all bad news. Proactive reputation management, combined with your stellar service, can lead to positive reviews. And good reviews may translate into revenue. Consumers are willing to spend up to 31% more when a business has positive feedback.

For your billing company to stay competitive, you need to be online, listen to what people are saying about you, and engage in meaningful conversation. Follow the 5 steps in this guide, to successfully build, enhance, and manage your online presence and reputation:

1. Update (or create) your website
2. Engage with clients and prospects on social media
3. Own online listings, rankings, and reviews
4. Be responsive to comments and reviews
5. Implement a seamless digital experience 

Potential clients increasingly look online for services to benefit their practice. People are more inclined to spread the word on social media about the businesses that are helpful to them. You don’t want to be left in the cold while other billing companies are active on social media, where they provide accurate information and connect with potential clients as well as strengthen their relationships with current ones.

 Step 1: Update (or create) your website

Your website is often the first place potential clients visit to verify your credentials. A strong and intuitive website is an excellent way to establish your online brand and build trust in your billing company.

If it’s been awhile since you refreshed your website or if you’re building one for the first time, keep the following tips in mind:

• Make sure your website design is easy for visitors to navigate and conveys a positive and professional image of your brand. Whenever possible, use custom pictures of you and your team. 
• Share your mission, philosophy about the billing industry, approach, and your personal passion for your work and for serving clients. Clients like to know who they are doing business with, so share more about yourself.
• Include all information that establishes your credibility as a billing company. This can include any awards, current clients, professional recognition, education, and degrees relevant to your business.
• Showcase anything unique about your billing company, such as additional services or a niche that can be of interest to potential clients.
• Provide links to rating sites like Yelp as well as to your social media platforms.
• If you have positive testimonials from satisfied clients, include those on your home page.
• Hire a content writer to create a blog or case studies on relevant topics on billing that speak to current and potential clients. If you have time and enjoy writing, you can do this yourself. If not, write or have your freelance writer publish a few white papers on relevant billing topics and have them available for download on your website.
• Create some short videos of you or your team discussing your process. Or even better: ask clients to film short 1- to 2-minute testimonial videos. 

5 website best practices

1. Use a content management system. You’ll need a content management system (CMS) so you can make updates and add new content once the site is done. A dynamic website improves search engine optimization (SEO) and is more engaging for clients. These sites allow you to add things like automated scheduling forms, downloadable PDFs, customer portal links, social media feeds, and client ratings.
2. Market your site. There is no point in having a website if no one can find it. Market your site via emails to clients, referral sources, and vendors, and by adding your URL to all advertising and forms. Make sure all of your social media profiles link to your website.
3. Keep it simple. It’s tempting to go all out on an innovative, creative, or comprehensive website, only to leave customers confused. Generally, it’s more helpful to keep content clear and use a standard industry layout. This helps people to navigate your website more easily.
4. Make it easy to contact you. Whether you post an email, a content form, or a link to a scheduling calendar, it’s important to provide simple and clear ways for people to reach you. Most CMS allow you to plug in different widgets for contact forms, contact information, and calendars with one click.
5. Ensure everything looks good on mobile. About 70% of B2B buyers have increased their mobile usage over the past few years. As more and more people evaluate vendors from their smartphones, it’s critical that your website loads fast and uses responsive design to look good across device types.

Step 2: Engage clients on social media

For the past 15 years, social media has continued to build in popularity and shows no signs of dying down among Americans. While Facebook and Twitter struggle to find footing among the newer generation, Instagram and TikTok continue to thrive. And for B2B deals, LinkedIn remains the main networking hub.

Demographics and user interests have changed over the years. Here is what we know about current social media trends in the post-pandemic world:

• In 2021, 13.5 new users joined social media every second
• 84% of Americans aged 18 to 29 are active social media users
• 200 million users visit at least one business profile per day
• TikTok is the fastest-growing network, with a 105% growth rate over the past 2 years
• 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn
• 60% of LinkedIn users are between 25 and 34 years old
• YouTube is the second-largest search engine

As you can see, keeping an active account on social media, especially LinkedIn, could help your company gain visibility.

The social media checklist

• Use social media sites to help establish and promote your brand. Be consistent across your website and social channels with your look and feel.
• Once you create your pages, send out an email to your clients encouraging them to “like” and “follow” you on Facebook and Twitter. You can also link to your profiles on your website, business cards, and in your email signature. Encourage your staff to like and follow your billing company and share content.
• Build your presence by liking content from and following influencers in the billing community and groups that relate to your healthcare niche.
• Post regularly and provide useful, informative, and actionable content for clients. Having a blog (or other dynamic content) on your website can make this easier. Including tools that allow patients to request an appointment and write or view reviews are also a great way to engage.
• Interact with your social media followers. Reply to their comments and like their posts. If someone brings up personal information, take it down as quickly as possible.
• Make your posts both professional and social. Clients want to be able to connect on a personal level with your business, so don’t be afraid to share the accomplishments of staff members or pictures of the business. But don’t forget that you are a business owner, so always keep it professional!

Step 3: Claim your online listings

 You need to find and own every listing you can. Gather all the publicly available information about your billing company and make sure it is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. And link to your website and social pages if you can.

How: The best way for you to find all the profiles that list your business is to conduct Google searches for your company several times over the course of 2 to 4 weeks. You should create a spreadsheet to track the sites, links, available information, and current reviews or rankings. 

Repeat the process to find them all. Once you’ve collected them, go to each one and follow the instructions to confirm the listing information or make any changes. Don’t forget about billing-related directories and online communities. There might be listings that should be updated or created.

Why: Accurate listings, particularly prominent ones like those in Google Places, help improve your ranking on search engines, which, in turn, raises your placement in online searches. In this way, taking ownership of your listings is about more than accuracy — it’s about visibility and credibility.

Step 4: Be responsive and current

Nearly 82% of smartphone users run an internet search on their phones before making an online purchase.

In other consumer research, Hubspot found that consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase from a social media referral. The opinions of friends and strangers on social media were the top purchasing influence, followed by the business’s website and price comparison.

Whether it’s a comment on your social media page or a third-party site, there are 3 things you need to do to manage your online reputation effectively:

1. Stay aware of online reviews
2. Respond to reviews and ratings whenever you can — good and bad
3. Encourage clients to post reviews

Once you own your listings, you need to check back for new reviews or ratings regularly. It’s important to know what people think of your billing company. Track what people are saying on a spreadsheet and share the reviews at regular staff meetings so everyone else is aware, too. You can use these meetings to discuss any pending issues or challenges as well as celebrate successes and good work.

How to respond to reviews online

It’s important for you to respond to what people have to say. A simple thank you for a positive review is enough. But if the review is negative, here are some options:

1. It’s a general complaint or constructive criticism about a process or procedure in your company:

• If it is a simple fix, make it and respond to the review by saying something like, “Thanks for letting us know about this problem. We value our clients’ feedback and have addressed the issue in the following ways: [be specific]. We hope you’ll give us another chance to deliver great service.”
• If it is more complex, simply say, “Thank you for letting us know. We are looking at how we can address this issue.” If you can make changes, let them know.

2. Someone is angry because of a legitimately bad experience. Respond quickly, take accountability for what went wrong, apologize, keep the lines of communication open, and offer to talk more about how to fix it and avoid having it happen again.

3. If a review is inaccurate or inflammatory, many sites will allow you to appeal it. If it is found to be inappropriate or unsubstantiated, you can get it removed.

Encourage your clients to post reviews on sites which list only verified reviews — making them more representative and trustworthy than other review sites. More often than not, your clients have good things to say about your billing company and just need a reminder to do so.

Feedback can improve overall ratings. For example, a billing company with 1 negative and 3 positive reviews listed on a business review site will receive a 66% recommendation score, while a billing company with 1 negative and 9 positive reviews will get a 90% recommendation score. That’s a big difference, and it’s just because there are 6 more reviews posted for the second billing company.

Step 5: Implement a seamless digital experience 

Finally, it often helps to go the extra mile and provide an end-to-end digital experience. Leveraging automation and machine learning technology, you can further differentiate your billing company through online patient payment options, automated reminders, and other features that reduce costs while providing value.

Why does this matter for online reputation? Because often these features directly impact the end user, the patient. And when patients have a better billing experience, this reflects positively on your clients, which in turn, comes back to you. 

More on growing your medical billing company

Using social media for your marketing efforts can benefit your billing company. Social media participation can increase client engagement, drive new clients to your business, and give you exposure as a billing expert to build positive relationships with your clients. Here are some final tips to help you with your online marketing efforts:

Digital assets, like the company website and social channels, work for both legacy and startup billing companies. But it isn’t the only way to grow your organization.

In fact, despite the challenges posed by competition and a shrinking customer base, most billers are positive about the industry. There are numerous opportunities for growth over the next 2 to 3 years. 

In Tebra’s recent survey, we asked billing companies about their upcoming operations, goals, and challenges. You can get the full story in our industry report.