We put teams through training, show them exactly what to do, and give them the tool. On paper everything is set up properly. Some practices take that and run with it, while others barely move, and the difference between those two groups isn’t the system, the tool, or even the team. It always comes back to leadership.

The practices that consistently grow their reviews are the ones where the dentist or owner is actually involved. Not doing everything themselves, but setting the tone and making it clear to the team that this matters. If the approach is just “take this course and start collecting reviews,” it usually doesn’t stick. Not because your team doesn’t care, but because they’re busy. Patients coming in, phones ringing, schedules to manage. If reviews feel like one more task on a long list, they’re the first thing to fall off the plate.

What works really well is building reviews into the culture of the practice, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Something as simple as a quick 5-minute stand-up in the morning can completely change how this is approached. Bring the team together and ask a few simple questions: how many review requests went out yesterday, how many turned into actual reviews, and what’s the goal for today?

The expectation itself is straightforward: every happy patient gets asked and gets the link in real time, and the same process repeats the next day. Now it’s not a suggestion sitting in the background. It’s visible, it’s tracked, and it’s something the team is thinking about consistently.

Seeing that another practice nearby has significantly more reviews creates a different level of awareness. It’s no longer abstract; there’s a clear gap and a clear goal to work toward. Even something as simple as writing your number beside your competitor’s number on a whiteboard in the office goes a long way.

It’s not something the team hears once and forgets, it’s right in front of them every day, and it naturally creates accountability and a bit of healthy competition.

You can also layer in simple incentives. Set a target and attach a reward to it, even something modest. It helps build momentum, gets the team engaged, and gives them something tangible to work toward.

One of the biggest factors, probably the most important one, is leading by example. If you’re the dentist and you’re not using the tool yourself, it’s very difficult to expect your team to do it consistently. When you take a moment after an appointment to open the review tool and send a request while your patient is still in the chair, it does two things: it increases the likelihood that the patient actually leaves a review, and it shows your team that this is part of how the practice operates.

Your hygienists are in the perfect position to do the same. The patient is already sitting there, the experience is fresh, and it’s a natural moment to ask. When this becomes part of the workflow instead of an afterthought, that’s when you start to see consistency.

At the end of the day, this isn’t a marketing problem, it’s a behavior problem, and behavior only changes when there’s leadership behind it. You can have the best tools, the best training, and a clear strategy, but if no one reinforces it day to day, it doesn’t translate into results.

Wearing the leadership hat isn’t about doing everything yourself. It’s about making sure the right things actually get done, that your team understands why they matter, and that’s what ultimately drives success with Google reviews.