Robyn Rivera
Nine times out of 10, before a consumer takes the leap to buy a product or book a service from a new or unknown business, they’ll read their reviews first.
These days, having a strong online reputation can make or break a business’s success. To build one, you need to get reviews.
Even if you have the best, most effective strategy for getting new reviews, the kind of reviews you get will always depend on the kind of service you provide. Ultimately, your online reputation is a reflection of your service.
Customer service is incredibly important to modern-day consumers. Even if the products or services match their needs and the price is low, if a business’s customer service isn’t up to par, most customers won’t come back.
Keep in mind that everything you do can eventually come back around in the end. Make it a point to provide the kind of service that your customers will want to share.
Unfortunately, not many people will write a review unprompted — unless, of course, they’ve had a negative experience. Unless you play an active role in getting reviews, it’s easy for your online reputation to paint an unfairly negative picture of your business.
The good news is that many people are absolutely willing to write a review if they are asked. By asking, you’ll get reviews from a lot more of your happy customers rather than just the few who are unhappy.
Pro tip - Make it as easy as possible for your customers to write reviews for you. One great way to do that is to follow up via email and include a link to your review profiles.
It takes time and effort to write a review — maybe not much time and effort, but some. There are always going to be some people who won’t want to put in that time and effort unless they get something out of it.
If you’re not getting enough reviews by asking, incentivizing reviews can help quite a bit. Offer a discount or another special offer in exchange for a review.
A note about incentivizing reviews - Incentivizing reviews is against the rules on some review sites. If you do decide to incentivize, be careful that you’re rewarding all reviews — negative and positive — and that you’re not asking for specific star ratings.
Your review profiles aren’t just places where your customers can give you feedback, but they’re also places where you can interact with your customers.
Make it a point to respond to your reviews in a timely manner. This will let your customers know that they’re being heard, and it will tell any prospective customers reading your reviews that you listen to and value feedback.
It’s important to respond to both negative and positive reviews, but be careful when responding to negative feedback. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Responding to reviews is important, but a response means a lot less when it comes weeks or even months after the review was published. Stay on top of your reviews by monitoring your brand’s reputation online.
From Google to Yelp, there are many places someone may go to write a review about your business. Marketing 360®’s reputation management software can help you stay on top of your reviews on all review sites from one place.
Plus, get more reviews and harness the power of social proof to boost your conversion rate by embedding the Top Rated Local® reviews widget on your website.
Get more reviews and build a strong reputation with the Marketing 360 Reputation app. See plans and pricing.