Review operations audit worksheet
Audit your practice's review operations across asking, responding, confidentiality, compliance and measurement. Deal-breakers such as selective review requests and replies that confirm someone is a patient are flagged automatically.
How to use it
Answer each question from what actually happens, not what the policy says. Check the last month of review requests and the last twenty or so replies before you start. Leave anything you have not checked as "Not asked yet". Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Worksheet
Asking
Is every patient asked for a review the same way, never only the ones you expect to be happy? Deal-breaker
No satisfaction survey or screening question that decides who gets the review link.
Is the request written down: which patients, when, by what channel and with what wording?
One agreed message, sent at one agreed point, so it does not depend on who is on reception.
Do patients review in their own time, with no tablet at the desk, no staff targets and no request to name anyone?
Google's policy covers pressure on the premises, staff review quotas and requests for specific content.
Responding
Is one named person responsible for replies, with a deputy for holidays?
Replies are posted as the practice, so someone has to own them.
Do you have a written reply target and does the team meet it?
Your own target, checked in the weekly routine.
Are concerns raised in a review invited offline and handled under your complaints procedure?
The public reply gives a direct contact; the detail is dealt with privately.
Confidentiality
Do replies never confirm that someone is a patient, or mention any treatment, visit or cost? Deal-breaker
This includes replies to positive reviews and to reviewers who described their own care.
Do review request messages leave out the treatment or reason for the visit?
The practice name and the link are enough.
Compliance
Is there no reward of any kind for leaving, changing or removing a review? Deal-breaker
No discounts, prize draws, gifts or free treatment in exchange for a review.
Are reviews never written by staff, family, agencies or anyone without a genuine experience? Deal-breaker
Including reviews posted by a supplier on the practice's behalf.
If you show reviews on your website, are they shown fairly, not only the positive ones?
And with a written policy on how you choose and check them.
Measurement
Do you log requests sent, reviews received, replies and themes every month?
The log is also your evidence that every patient was asked the same way.
Results
- Practice A
- No answers yet0 of 12 questions answered. Score = weighted points / maximum points for the questions answered.
A score only compares the answers you entered. Treat any deal-breaker as decisive, and do not compare two columns until you have asked both the same questions.
Why these are deal-breakers
- Asking only happy patients. Google does not allow businesses to selectively solicit positive reviews [1].
- Replies that confirm someone is a patient. The GDC says you must not post any information or comments about patients on social networking or blogging sites [3].
- Incentives. Google prohibits offering payment, discounts or free goods or services in exchange for a review [1].
- Fake reviews. Submitting or commissioning a fake consumer review is listed in Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 [2].
What to do with the result
- Fix any deal-breaker first, this week. Stop the request or reply that causes it, then change the written process so it cannot come back.
- Then take the lowest-scoring group and agree one change, an owner and a review date. I would put Asking and Confidentiality ahead of Measurement, because a log of an unfair process only records the problem.
- Keep a copy of your answers. Repeat the worksheet in a year, or after a change of practice manager or reception team, and compare.
For what each line should look like in practice, see the review collection and response process and the workflow checklist.
Sources
- Google, Maps User Contributed Content Policy: Prohibited and restricted content. Accessed 1 November 2026.
- legislation.gov.uk, Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20, paragraph 13. Accessed 1 November 2026.
- General Dental Council, Standards for the Dental Team, Principle 4: Maintain and protect patients' information. Accessed 1 November 2026.