Managing Online Reviews
You care about your buyers’ experience. Of course you do.
No business will survive if it has no concern for the value it delivers to clients, customers and patients.
And you back up your sales with a customer service process to ensure any problems are managed.
Even so, it’s still possible to get a negative online review. Too often there’s a customer who’s impossible to satisfy.
Face it: eventually, you’ll get one. In fact, they say there are only two kinds of business: those who’ve received a negative review and those who will.
The problem, of course, is that negative review could strongly influence how prospects see your business. Studies show that 88% of consumers trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation.
Like it or not, you really have only two choices: ignore reviews and suffer their impact, or proactively manage your reputation, using a service like Review Investigator.
Online Reviews
That’s because the huge growth of online reviews is rapidly changing the marketing landscape. Business owners are losing control of their reputation, as prospective customers, clients, or patients rely on the experience of previous buyers.
You see, to save time, the line of least resistance for a potential buyer is to search for customer reviews. They’re looking for “social proof” – a psychological phenomenon, sometimes called herd behaviour, where people look to others for clues.
That’s just a fancy way of saying that potential customers trust the opinions of previous customers. On its own, that’s nothing new. Smart business owners have always used testimonials. They understand that nothing beats an endorsement from a happy customer.
The difference is that you no longer have the power to edit their comments. You can’t choose which opinions to promote and which to ignore, especially if the feedback isn’t flattering. We’ve all had that one customer who never seems satisfied – but now they can do enormous damage to your business, simply by sharing their opinion online.
These days, when potential clients, customers or patients are looking for a local business they look online. They “Google” it. Or they might go to Yelp, Trip Advisor, Zomato, or one of the many other review and directory sites.
In fact, the widely recognized BrightLocal study shows that 95% of new customers use a search engine to find a local service. And 90% of them say online reviews influence their purchases.
New evidence
However, the most powerful evidence for the growing importance of online reviews appeared just last month, when Google made significant changes to the layout of their online search results.
Until early August 2015, searching for a local business brought up a “seven-pack” of possible suppliers, with their contact details.
Now there’s just a “snack-pack” of three businesses, without contact details, and clicking ‘More’ brings up a Google map with a longer list of possible suppliers. But again, contact details aren’t shown.
What replaced the contact details, you ask? The answer: Customer reviews!
These changes echo expert opinion that “many companies need to dramatically shift their marketing strategies to account for the rising power exerted on future customers by the opinions of existing customers” – according to a February 2014 article in the Harvard Business Review.
Your online reputation
What can you do to manage your online reviews and ratings? Here are six simple steps:
- Assess your systems and customer service practices
Obvious as it may seem, the first step is to make sure every customer is happy and has no reason to complain.
- Encourage reviews
Unfortunately, you can’t remove bad reviews. Instead, you can dilute their effect with positive reviews – so encourage customer feedback. Studies show you need at least ten recent online reviews.
- Filter positive and negative feedback
Use software such as Review Investigator which sends negative feedback sent to you, first, so you can deal with any issues before the customer leaves a review.
- Stay alert to what’s being said about your business
In the digital era, one of the worst things that can happen is for someone to post an online review and you’re not aware of it. Set up a Google Alert to notify you when your business is mentioned anywhere online.
- Respond to all reviews
Responding to reviews is a great way to build goodwill. Your reply to a good review can reinforce a positive customer experience, while answering a bad review shows you care about customer concerns.
EXTRA CONTENT:
Just click here for my free guide: “How to Respond to Online Reviews”
- Build your online reputation BEFORE marketing your business
If you invest in marketing without managing your online reviews, you may just end up sending your prospects to read bad reviews about you. It’s better to have a system in place, first, to manage and respond to feedback.
Summary: Revise your marketing strategy
Yes, you should you care what people say about their experience AND what they say about it. So now’s the time to incorporate reputation management into your marketing. Why wait until you’re forced into damage control?
Remember: at best, a bad review left unanswered will cause damage to your reputation. At worst, it’ll break your business.
UPDATE: The 2015 Local Consumer Review Survey has been released (see here) and, interestingly, 26% of consumers say it’s important that a local business responds to its reviews! Get my Free Guide: “How to Respond to Online Reviews”
