How rater8 propelled Urology for Children to the top of AI search results
2,720%
increase in new online reviews
4.93
average star rating
Urology for Children is a leading pediatric urology practice serving families across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. With four surgeons and four advanced practice providers on staff, the group maintains an active presence at a handful of hospitals, surgery centers, and outpatient offices throughout the greater Philadelphia area.
The Problem
As an independent practice, Urology for Children faced rising pressures from insurance payors and growing competition from hospital-owned groups. Without the brand recognition of a large health system, the practice had to work harder to earn the trust of referring providers and prospective patients.
The practice also found that managing multiple locations made it difficult to establish standardized workflows, monitor feedback, and roll out process improvements in response to patient sentiment. Staff and provider teams were often geographically separated, creating variability in how care was delivered and how patient experiences were managed.
Previous efforts to improve the practice’s reputation, such as distributing business cards with QR codes, fell short in generating the volume of authentic reviews needed to shift public perception, despite providing award-winning care, with accolades from Philadelphia Magazine, NJ Top Docs, and Castle Connolly Top Doctors. A limited number of reviews, often from a small subset of patients or family members, painted an incomplete and sometimes misleading picture of the care experience, not just in traditional Google search results, but increasingly in generative AI results that pull patient sentiment from online reviews.
“We had really low ratings and hardly any reviews,” said Urology for Children’s Chief Business Officer, Keith Wilson. “The only people who would post were the ones who were agitated. People would look at our Google rating and think, ‘I’m not sure I want to go there.’ It just didn’t look good.”
The Solution
To address these challenges, the leadership team at Urology for Children turned to rater8 to implement an automated, scalable solution for optimizing and managing their online reputation. With a seamless EHR integration, review requests were sent via text and email directly to patient guardians following appointments.
“Having the emails and texts go straight to patients on their mobile devices is a lot easier than asking them to take another step,” explained Wilson. “You’re not asking them to pull out their phone, they’re already on it.”
Beyond automation, rater8 provides ongoing support through quarterly strategy meetings. These sessions offer deep dives into the performance of each office location, highlighting trends and benchmarking results against other pediatric and specialty practices. Early on, the rater8 team also guided the practice in fine-tuning survey questions to uncover insights that might have otherwise gone unnoticed, such as identifying friction points in their appointment scheduling process.
“The comments that patients leave, to me, are sometimes more insightful than the rating,” Wilson said. “They might mention something about the friendly staff, or they might mention something about a specific location, so it’s the little nuggets in the comments that bring the most value.”
Today, rater8 has become a vital part of their long-term growth strategy. “To me, it’s the cost of doing business,” said Wilson. “You can’t have a bad reputation anymore. I’m happy to invest in maintaining ours because it directly impacts how patients perceive us, and there’s no doubt that we’re the qualified choice to take care of their child.”
“You can’t have a bad reputation anymore. I’m happy to invest in maintaining ours because it directly impacts how patients perceive us, and there’s no doubt that we’re the qualified choice to take care of their child.”
The Results
More Reviews and Better Ratings
Within the first year of using rater8, Urology for Children’s online rating rose from 2.70 to 4.93 stars thanks to an 2,720% increase in new online reviews. With a high volume of positive patient reviews and a consistent stream of glowing feedback, the practice’s online image now portrays a more accurate reflection of the care and experience they provide.
Local Search Visibility
Thanks to a steady influx of reviews and improved provider visibility across all major healthcare directories, Urology for Children now dominates local search results in Google’s coveted 3-Pack, appearing under popular searches such as “best pediatric urologist in Vorhees NJ.”
Generative AI Visibility
And now, in the midst of the Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) revolution, the practice is rising to the top of ChatGPT search results for similar “who is the best pediatric urologist near me” queries.
Urology for Children’s providers are also appearing prominently in Google’s featured snippets and AI Overview Summaries Searches such as “Dr. Zarine R. Balsara reviews” and “is dr jonathan a. roth a good pediatric urologist” are giving prospective patients an instant snapshot of bedside manner, sentiment, and reputation, without having to click on a provider page.
Improved Patient Satisfaction
Beyond search rankings, Urology for Children saw several meaningful operational improvements during their first year with rater8. Powered by real-time insights from rater8’s patient satisfaction surveys, the practice made targeted changes that led to measurable gains across key touchpoints: scheduling experience ratings increased from 4.6 to 4.8, staff friendliness from 4.7 to 4.9, and waiting room time from 4.8 to 4.9.
Before rater8, achieving greater online visibility while also managing a consistent patient experience across locations felt out of reach. According to Wilson, “What really sets rater8 apart is the level of expertise and partnership. They don’t just send us reports, they help us interpret that data and make decisions. They understand the healthcare space and what the industry norms are, which gives us confidence in the strategy we’re pursuing.”
Indeed, with their optimized digital welcome mat firmly in place, Urology for Children is ready to continue growing their online presence and showing up for the families who depend on their award-winning care.
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