It is invariably these clients who are ready and able to write a negative review about our program. ![]() On rare occasion, we have had to ask a client to leave our program for safety reasons or because they violated our drug and alcohol policy. She has posted multiple inaccurate and extremely hostile reviews on several social media websites. Another angry parent is unhappy with the therapeutic outcome and transfer to higher level of care and is demanding a full refund even though we provided a high level of treatment for most of the treatment cycle. But he writes reviews as though he has been a client. For example, a neighbor of one of our treatment homes repeatedly posts negative and inflammatory reviews on Facebook because he does not want a treatment center on his street. Because we are precluded from responding directly to their posts due to confidentiality and HIPAA laws (at least in cases where we have had a clinical relationship) we are unable to refute their false information. We have had the unfortunate experiences where a few former clients, family members, competitors and paid planted ‘clients’ posted distorted or even entirely falsified experiences in Yelp and other social media review sites. We entirely understand this and in the case of addiction programs, it highlights why the largest organization is called Alcoholics Anonymous! In other words, the vast majority of our clients do not want to post publicly on social media that they were in a treatment program, no matter how good their outcome was. While many of these clients have offered to speak to our prospective clients and families about their experiences, many have expressed to us that they are reluctant to post anything on a public forum, as they value their anonymity. If you look at our unedited testimonials on our own webpage you will see multiple positive and often life-changing experiences from our former clients. Our program has proven very effective over the past eight years. We have a unique treatment model and an incredibly talented and experienced staff. The majority of our clients do very well. We treat many difficult and dysregulated clients and their families. Our Yelp experience has been an increasingly frustrating one. Which brings me to why Yelp is relatively useless when reviewing treatment centers, and particularly psychological and addiction treatment centers. Although they may have some angry consumers who leave negative reviews, the many positive reviews divert customers’ attention away from the bad reviews. ![]() These types of businesses receive a large volume of customers each day and they often receive multiple reviews per day. I would contend that to a careful consumer, Yelp reviews of certain businesses such as restaurants, hotels, auto repair shops and retail shops can be useful. Some of the best clinical programs that do not advertise with Yelp have two and three star rating averages. However, it is striking that some of the worst treatment centers in our industry average 4 to 5 star ratings and are large advertisers with Yelp. It is difficult to prove as they always deflect to their “filter algorithm” and deny that advertising with them affects ratings. While Yelp denies this, there have been several class-action lawsuits around this very Issue. Some say that they do this to compel companies to advertise with them (our most negative reviews appeared after we declined advertising with Yelp). To the contrary, they have ruined some small businesses by filtering away positive reviews and featuring negative ones. Similarly, Yelp does very little to screen fraudulent or dishonest reviews. ![]() However, it has been demonstrated that many Amazon reviews are not always legitimate – some reviewers have been paid or they receive free merchandise. I use them when researching new restaurants, buying products, looking for a hotel, etc. ![]() For the most part, online reviews can be helpful. Consumers rely more and more upon social media sites to educate themselves about restaurants, electronics, movies, books and other products and services.
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