If you’re like most business owners, the thought of online reviews probably makes you sweat. Anyone can go online and make comments about your business and the service they received, but it seems like the only ones who take the time are those who are unhappy. However, there are ways to maximize your review management.
Word of mouth and reviews are still the best way for new customers to find your business. While you may cringe about people getting on Yelp or other review sites, having the right review management strategy in place can actually help you get more customers.
The Importance of Reviews
More than 90% of people read online reviews to decide if they are going to go with a company or not. They trust these reviews as much as they would trust their friends and family. Having reviews can boost your search ranking and improve your conversion rates. Thus, it’s worth your time and effort to invest in reviews.
How to Maximize Your Review Management Strategy
Now that you are aware of how important reviews are, you need to put a strategy in place to get them. You need to make it as easy as possible for customers to accomplish this task. This can be achieved by making sure your business information is claimed across all major review platforms.
The big ones are Yelp, Google, and Facebook. There may also be some local ones in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, and the surrounding areas, so do a search and see what exists. If you can’t find your business on these sites, add it. This will ensure that your customers can find you and leave a review. But that shouldn’t be the end of your strategy:
Ask for Reviews
This can be done in many different ways, including in person when a customer visits your business or through emails. If you send out a regular email, add a link to the various review sites at the bottom so the customer can decide where they want to post their review.
Respond to Reviews
Not all of your customers will take the opportunity to respond to your request for reviews, but those that do have the option of leaving a good one or a bad one. While you more than likely prefer to get a good one, that doesn’t always happen.
The way you respond to reviews—both good and bad—can speak volumes to other customers who look at your company online. If you go out of your way to try to fix an unhappy customer’s issue, this makes you look good.
Interacting with good reviews also creates a relationship between you and your happy customers. It lets them know that their opinion is being heard and that you appreciate them. This can make them lifelong customers who are more than happy to recommend you to others.
Use Reviews to Your Benefit
As part of your review management strategy, you should be using the reviews to your benefit. You can use the positive reviews in your marketing campaigns to let others know what customers think about your products or services. Highlight these in marketing materials and on your web page.
When it comes to negative reviews, you can use these to learn how to improve your company and services. Negative reviews give you a chance to fix problems, and you can show others your growth and ability to change by addressing these issues and doing what you can to make customers happy.
Conclusion
When it comes to online review management, most companies cringe at the idea. This can be an incredibly time-consuming process, but it has far-reaching implications. Having a professional help you with this can be beneficial, so connect with Digital Marketing Collective (https://dmclocal.com/) to maximize your review management strategy.