Ajay Prasad, CEO and Founder of RepuGen, was interviewed by Adam Torres of Mission Matters Innovation Podcast.
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RepuGen is an all-in-one healthcare reputation management platform that helps medical practitioners process patient reviews quickly and professionally. CEO and founder Ajay Prasad says stellar online reviews, robust digital availability, and patient satisfaction rates all play vital roles in any medical practitioner’s success.
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What mission matters to you?
Prasad says his mission is to promote great healthcare staff in a way that connects them with more patients. Doctors and medical staff can be lifesavers, he says, and their online images should reflect the way they treat their patients.
How did you get started?
Prasad has worked with the corporate world for 20 years, with steep experience in the marketing sector that led him to start his own business. Rather than marketing clients in a traditional way, he says, he wanted to move forward and meet the demands of the modern digital landscape. Currently, his company, RepuGen, focuses specifically on healthcare providers.
What advice would you give to up-and-coming entrepreneurs?
Prasad says being an entrepreneur can be difficult. “It may be not easy initially, so they need to have passion and face the reality that it’s not always a successful journey,” he cautions. “A person should do something that they’re passionate about. Their passion should have a meaning that should bring some change in society.”
Why is healthcare reputation management important?
Patients generally reject medical practitioners with a lot of negative online reviews, Prasad explains. Their years of experience and expertise may matter less to people than the general consensus that shows up online, regardless of how accurate it might (or might not) be. As a result, people factor online reviews into their decision-making processes, including those that affect medical decisions. Prasad says the imbalance should be appropriately addressed, as healthcare isn’t just an online shopping experience with products to buy and sell based on popularity.
RepuGen currently serves 1500 doctors as clients who approached the company to help them manage their reputations online. Even the best doctors with high success rates in real life can be deeply impacted by a few negative reviews online, he says.
How does RepuGen work?
RepuGen sends surveys to all its clients’ patients, from those who are completely happy with their experiences to those who are deeply dissatisfied. Anything from the doctor’s level of care to simple interactions with front desk staff can affect a patient’s perception, he explains, which can then be reflected in a review.
An interesting finding, Prasad says, is that patients who are satisfied with a doctor’s services are the least interested in writing positive reviews unless they’re particularly over the moon about their experience; those who simply found that their expectations were met are less likely to say so online. If patients are even slightly dissatisfied, however, Prasad says they’re more likely to vent online. This, he stresses, can cause an inaccurate representation of the practitioner’s value.
Prasas says the RepuGen platform is easy to use: the moment patients leave a clinic or office, they’re sent a quick survey to fill in while the experience is still fresh. Through RepuGen’s platform, practitioners and their staff can reach out to unhappy patients within 24 hours to resolve problems or alleviate concerns.
To date, the platform has received 1 million patient comments, all categorized to help practitioners understand what’s working and what isn’t. They can also compare their own reviews against those of competitors to improve satisfaction levels among their own patients accordingly.
What’s next for RepuGen?
RepuGen’s goal is to grow its client base and expand to serve hospitals with their online reviews as well. To learn more, visit www.repugen.com.