About social listening

• What is social listening?
• Why is Healthpoint developing this?
• Differences compared to other online health service ratings platforms

Frequently asked questions

1. Friends and family question
2. Does the person providing feedback, know the information will be published?
3. As a service, how will I know that I have received feedback?
4. How does responding to feedback work?
5. Can services respond to feedback and how do I do this?
6. How much work will this take?
7. How do I respond to negative feedback?
8. Should I respond to positive feedback? 
9. Can I find out who made the comment?
10. Personal information or inappropriate comments placed
11. Do you collect the contact details of the people who provide feedback?
12. Can someone provide multiple feedbacks in one session, on the same service?
13. Can computer generated spamming affect ratings?
14. Can I opt out?
15. Is it possible to abuse the ratings system?
16. Can users provide feedback for a particular person?

How to respond to Feedback

Terms and conditions for people placing feedback

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1. What is the ‘Friends and Family question’?

The “Would you recommend this service to friends and family question is the single question from the Friends and Family Test (FFT). The FFT has been validated by the National Health Service (NHS) England as an effective method for providing constructive service feedback. Respondents can respond on a 5-point scale from “Extremely unlikely” to “Extremely likely”. It also includes a free text comment box.

2. Does the person providing feedback, know that information will be published?

Prior to submitting feedback for publication, the person must tick to accept terms and conditions. Here it is clearly articulated that the information will be published.

3. As a service, how will I know that I have received feedback?

The Healthpoint administrator for each service will receive an email in real time (immediately) when feedback is published. The email will contain both the feedback and a direct link to respond to the feedback. 

4. How does responding to feedback work?

Only the administrator for a Healthpoint site can respond to feedback. There is only one response, and suggestions for how to respond are in the attached Social Listening Guide. The administrator may edit their response to a feedback item over time.

5 Can health services respond to feedback and how do I do this?

An email will be sent to the administrator to respond directly to the feedback. Alternatively, an administrator may log in at any time and respond to a feedback item.

6. How much work will this take?

As a service there are no additional actions you need to do. You do have the option to respond to feedback. Although recommended, it is not required.

7. How do I respond to negative feedback?

Negative reviews can be unpleasant for your health service; however a response provides the opportunity to address any concerns generated by negative feedback. Responding to negative reviews doesn’t have to be difficult, and it can be leveraged as a positive opportunity. See How to Respond to Feedback for guidance.

8. Should I respond to positive feedback?

Responding to positive reviews is just as important as responding to negative reviews. Responding to a positive review is an easy way to engage with happy patients. This benefits both the profile of your health service and your one-to-one relationship with that patient. Positive conversations online can enhance your health service’s reputation. See How to Respond to Feedback for guidance.

9. Can I find out who made the comment?

All consumer engagement with the Healthpoint site is anonymous and we do not collect any contact details. If you want to engage with the patient it is recommended you invite the person to take the conversation off line.  “My name is…… and I am the Practice Manager. If you’d like to discuss this in further detail, please contact me on" (provide number or email address).”

10. What if there is personal information or inappropriate comments?

On each feedback item there is a flag that will enable any viewer to report if feedback is unsuitable. This feedback will be immediately removed from the site when the flag is clicked on. Healthpoint does not moderate this process, although Healthpoint may reinstate feedback if it was maliciously removed.

11. Do you collect the contact details of the people who provide feedback?

All consumer engagement with the Healthpoint site is anonymous and we do not collect any contact details. This ensures there is no risk of contact details being used for secondary purposes such as marketing.

12. Can someone provide multiple feedbacks in one session, on the same service?

The feedback question on the specific Healthpoint service page disappears after placing feedback.

13. Can computer generated spamming affect ratings?

No, prior to posting feedback there is a check (Recaptcha) which allows real users to submit feedback but will prevent automated software from engaging in abusive activity and creating spam or fake feedback.

14. Can I opt out of this functionality?

You can opt out of the social listening functionality via administration access for your Healthpoint site, and through the usual Healthpoint 2-step approval process. To opt out select "Yes" on the dropdown. You can opt back in via the same process.

15. Is it possible to abuse the ratings systems?

The objective of this system is to publish feedback rather than provide an averaged rating score. There are no incentive payments or competitions for providing feedback. Additionally, there are systems to block automated software from generating feedback.  Combined, these reduce the incentive and mechanism for abuse of the system.

16. Can users provide feedback for a particular person?

No, feedback is limited to the health service that the person works at.