Do You Know Where To Find All Your Online Reviews?
Are you aware of all the places your business is mentioned and reviewed? How are you monitoring your reputation and responding?
The internet has become a vital tool for customers to voice their opinions, and social networking has made online consumer reviews critical for every small and mid-size business out there. The truth is that businesses who ignore Yelp, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other important review sites are really setting themselves up for trouble.
First off, let’s consider why you need reviews:
- People trust reviews. If your business has lots of them, and they’re mostly positive, more people will contact you – and they’ll already be part way sold.
- Reviews can help your rankings in local search. It’s good to have lots of reviews and it’s good to have them on lots of sites; it’s probably even better if they’re positive reviews. These are all factors that appear to influence Google’s ranking of your company in local results.
Reviews are a great opportunity to promote your business and to increase the number of links to your site — for free! Finding others to sing your praises may require some time and research, but a good review can be invaluable for your business reputation
Check out our video to see how we’re with you every step of the way, helping you to understand how to get good reviews and how to manage them.
At Xcite we love to help, and in the world of social reviews we do this by providing our clients with an awesome tool that will not only help you gather all of your business’s online reviews in one place, but it will give you the ability to monitor your reviews as they come in, set custom alerts so you know when you get a review and give you the ability to quickly respond to the reviews you receive.
Be sure to get in touch if we can help with your social review management. In the meantime, here are some tips to keep in mind about your social reviews:
Make It As Easy For Customers To Communicate & Review You
Is your Yelp information correct. Do you have a presence on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook? Is your Google Place Page, Yahoo Local listings claimed? Do you send follow-up emails with a link to your review pages? Let customers know that you value their opinion and that you welcome feedback so you can improve your business. Do you make it convenient via your marketing materials and website to find your business links to LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.?
Just How Good Are You?
Being OK isn’t enough. If you want to get more positive customer reviews, you need something exceptional. What are you Tweeting about? What’s new or unique about your business? What is featured in your latest blog or Facebook post? Almost every business has exceptional features or qualities. What makes you a competitor, the leader in your field, the underdog, or new guy on the street? Your most satisfied customers know. Engage them and they will tell you.
Take All Reviews Seriously (And Some With A Grain Of Salt)
Some customers don’t provide feedback because they assume it just gets ignored. Customers who do give feedback need to know you are listening. That is exactly why you need to show you take the reviews seriously. Responding respectfully and thoughtfully to negative reviews shows that your business cares and is not afraid to engage criticism. Taking the time to communicate and respond to the issues shows customers that you value their opinion. This resource is powerful and indelible. The digital world is like the real world, there is a chance you will never satisfy everybody. Some people only thrive on the negative; you need to get a quick sense of who they are and politely let them be.
Don’t Argue
Don’t get too upset. You don’t want to argue with the reviewer. Don’t look defensive and unprofessional. Apologize for the negative experience and find out if there’s anything you can do to fix their opinion. Maybe you can resolve the problem and possibly have the negative review deleted by the user.
Leave A Trail For Reviews But Never Bribe
Reviews need to be genuine. You cannot ethically offer your customers an incentive for giving you a positive review. No freebies or discounts. This has come back to haunt some businesses. If you bribe for positive reviews, you’ll be in violation of the policies of most review sites and many customers can see through your game. Encourage your best customers to review you, but do not reward.
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