Online reviews have tremendous power. Example: Last month, before dining at a restaurant that was recommended to me, I quickly googled its rating. early reviews mentioned “mushy food” and “mistake on my food”. needless to say, I never went into the restaurant (nor did I trust my friend’s restaurant recommendation again).
93% of consumers say online reviews impact their buying decision and 97% of consumers searched for local business reviews in 2017. online customer reviews have a profound impact on their business and it is important to improve your online reputation to increase your wallet share and build social proof.
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in this post, we explore 7 ways to improve your online reviews and manage your online reputation.
1. educate your customers on how to leave reviews
77% of consumers would be willing to write a review if asked, but with so many review sites, many don’t know where to leave their reviews. taking a minute to educate your customers on the value of leaving a review can be vital to your business.
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For example, you can have your account managers ask your customers to leave a review when they talk to them on the phone, or ask them to leave a review on their next invoice. You could also have a counter display at your physical location explaining how and where to leave a review, and make review cards to hand out to customers. once your advocates understand how valuable your reviews are, they’ll want to leave one.
2. provide excellent customer service
Today’s consumers are looking for a great customer experience, and it’s no coincidence that companies that provide great customer service have better reviews. customer experience should be at the center of everything you do and your customers should always feel appreciated.
according to american express, consumers tell an average of 15 people about a poor service experience, so it’s important to provide great service or those people may leave a negative review. to improve customer service, offer multiple customer support channels, optimize wait and response times, and proactively close the loop with your customers.
3. optimize listings on each platform
on each of the major review sites, you can claim your listing and create a business profile. this allows you to update the listing with current information and photos. Your description should be meaningful and invite consumers to view your product or service. optimized listings improve your online presence and search engine traffic.
4. respond to negative reviews
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No business likes receiving negative reviews, but it’s important to respond to negative reviews, as not doing so tells your customers that you don’t care about their feedback. When you respond, always let the customer know that you’re listening and that he’s willing to make it right. Offer to tune out the situation and empathize with the client. This tells your existing customers that you care about their experience with your company and gives potential customers confidence in doing business with you. it’s important to respond to negative reviews in ads and on social media.
5. constantly monitor your online presence
There are hundreds of review sites and your business could be on any of them. It’s critical that you look for reviews of your business everywhere, even if they aren’t on the sites you usually use, like Google Maps, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. This can be a time-consuming process, so using reputation management software can help you monitor your reviews across multiple sites and track trends in sentiment or topic over time. so you can see how you’re doing.
6. solicit reviews through survey requests
At the end of a survey you’ve sent out to your customers, ask them if they’re willing to leave a review on the site of your choice. If they answer “yes”, provide them with a link directly to the review platform of their choice. You’ll need a survey platform that uses survey logic to determine if the customer will leave a positive or negative review, so you can encourage only your advocates to share their experience publicly. if they’ve had a bad experience, you’ll still want to know more about it; after all, that’s how it gets better! — but be sure to give them a private channel to do so instead of popular public sites.
7. offer an incentive
Although many customers will give a review without an incentive, offering an incentive can be helpful if your business is new or you’re trying to get reviews quickly (although it can also be a red flag if you’re getting too many reviews). fast, so try to stagger them). Review sites frown on businesses that pay customers for reviews, but offering discounts, coupons, or a small freebie is perfectly fine. Also, make sure customers know that getting the incentive isn’t conditioned on leaving a positive review.
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