It's no secret that satisfied customers bring you more sales,
while unhappy customers can prevent sales. People who feel
strongly about a service they receíved or a product they
purchased are likely to tell others about their experience.
Before the internet, this effect was limited to word of mouth.
A customer could tell his family, friends and co-workers about
his great or terrible experience with your company. It took some
effort on the customer's part to get the word out, though, and
many of them wouldn't take the time. Very few of them took the
time to write a letter to the business or even tell friends
about it more than a few days after their interaction with a
business. Only if they were extremely pleased or displeased
would the word get out.
The growth of the internet has made it much easier to praise or
complain about a company in a public place. There are many online
directories that allow anyone to post a comment about a business.
Not only does this allow a customer to make their opinion of your
products and services known to many more people, it also opens
the door to abuse. Business owners pretending to be customers
can post positive reviews. Disgruntled employees can post
negative reviews. There is no verification that the information
posted is true.
All of those reviews are about to become ten times more visible
to potential customers who are looking for a local business.
Google Places, formerly Google Local Business Listings, has
displayed reviews entered by users on their site and a number of
other directories. Now Google is integrating information from
the Google Places listing into the organic search. That's right.
You've worked hard to make sure that you are one of the first
few listings that shows up when customers are looking for the
services you provide in your area. Now, right next to the organic
listing is a link to customer reviews. Immediately below your
URL is your address and phone number from your Google Places
listing. Often a snippet of a review is there too. If this
happens to be a negative review, the potential customer will
almost certainly click on a different listing. It's the online
equivalent of someone standing in front of your business with a
sign telling people not to shop there.
What can you do about it? Google won't remóve a negative review
just because you ask them to. And they won't take the time to
find out whether the information is accurate. You must encourage
positive reviews and address negative ones - with the customer
and/or online.
Encourage Good Reviews
If there are more positive reviews than negative, there's a
better chance that a review that shows within the body of your
listing will be good. Also, if a customer takes the time to look
at several reviews, they may be swayed by the happy customers.
You could encourage all of your customers to write an online
review, but that will result in more negative reviews as well
as positive. How can you approach only the satisfied customers
with a request for an online review? Here are a few ideas.
Many businesses already have a system in place to solicit
customer feedback, often in the form of a telephone follow-up
or written questionnaire. You could sort out those who have
responded favorably and send them a request for an online review.
If your request is in the form of an email, you could provide
links to your business's listings on various sites that accept
user reviews. You could provide something to your customer in
return for taking the time to post a review. A free ice cream,
10% off their next purchase from you, or some other prize could
entice them to make the effort and make them feel good about
your business at the same time.
Address Damaging Reviews
If you can contact the unhappy customer and solve whatever
problem he had, he may be willing to remove the negative review.
Whether or not you think his complaint is valid, it's in your
best interest to fix it. This may cost you money, but not doing
so could cost you even more. Think about how much you spend to
bring in new customers. Don't let a relatively small amount of
money get in your way, even if the customer is wrong and you're
right.
Sometimes it will be impossible to get the customer to rescind
his post. You can still mitigate the damage by responding to the
complaint online. Post yóur own comment explaining the situation
or apologizing to the reviewer and stating your offer to fix the
problem. If a potential customer takes the time to read the whole
story, they'll see that you are trying to make your customers
happy.
Occasionally, a review will violate the terms established by the
review site, for example using foul language. If this is the
case, you can flag the review and it may be removed.
Other Tips
Don't enter multiple positive reviews yourself. Online
directories try to prevent fraudulent reviews because they make
their site less useful to their visitors.
Google Places displays reviews from sites such as Insider Pages
and Yelp, as well as reviews posted directly to Google. If you
ask your customers for positive reviews, give them links to a
variety of review sites. It will look more natural if reviews
come from more than one site.
It has always been important for a business to cultivate a good
reputation, but not ever before has a dissatisfied customer been
able to reach the public right alongside your advertisement.
More and more consumers are bypassing the yellow pages and
turning to their favorite search engine to find a business
instead. You can no longer afford not to know what reviews are
out there or to ignore dissatisfied customers. They have more
power than ever before.
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