Pierce Egan, a British journalist and sportswriter in the early 1800s, wrote about a variety of sports, but most of his articles concern bare-knuckle boxing or ‘bruising’ as it was once called.

In fact, Egan coined the phrase ‘The Sweet Science’ to describe boxing since successful fighters are not just aggressive, but strategic and thoughtful.

Online reviews is almost a spectator sport: you and your staff are in the arena, every day, being judged and reviewed by people who may (or may not be) real patients. And getting a bad review from a “patient” sometimes feels like you’re in a boxing match. A left-hook out of no where and you’re flat on the carpet, dazed and confused about what happened.

Yes it sucks to get a bad review, especially when it seems mean spirited, disproportionate, unreasonable. But there are some strategic and thoughtful ways you can fight back.

To help doctors ‘in the ring’, we recently co-produced a webinar with Main Street Hub to provide some “in-your-corner” coaching about ways in which medical professionals can get more reviews and become more active on social media.