Responding to customers online has become extremely important as reviews are continuing to increase notoriously day by day. Reviews are now more prevalent on search pages, which means that many people can see what other customers say about your company online. Reviews have a massive influence on shoppers: around 88% of online shoppers incorporate reviews on their purchase decisions (Webrepublic, 2015). Today almost every business is told to get as many reviews as possible on review sites in order to continue attracting new customers. But with so many review sites it is hard to begin. Your business may be afraid to manage customer reviews on review sites as you may not want to end up in one of these situations:

  • receive zero reviews
  • receive zero recent online reviews
  • receive negative online reviews
  • or, your business simply has unmanaged online reviews across multiple review websites

Sadly, your business is missing out. By not using the free online word of mouth that is available to you, is in fact hurting your business through inactivity, since reputation leads to conversion.

1) Social posts and business reviews help when shaping your company’s online reputation

The worst thing that your business can do is avoid comments made on your social posts and online reviews. As easy as it is to make a mistake when handling your business’s online reputation, it can also be easy to recover if done properly (and with an apology) There is always going to be a degree of damage but your business can try to minimize it as much as possible. The worst mistake your company can make is not to participate in shaping the online conversation about your company.

2) Valuable feedback for your business is well provided by business reviews

It is essential to always look at the negative reviews as constructive feedback, as all reviews can be valuable. Reviews are a helpful tool that can be used to measure your business’s performance, enabling you to find new ways to improve. It can also show you what your most popular products or services are and which ones need more work.

3) All of your business reviews can now appear in search results

Search engines and reviews are growing at the same pace. If someone were to search for your business, reviews from review websites will now display on the search engine results pages. Business reviews and ratings of a product or a company can now be included in search results in Google’s mark-up (the annotated content that appears in search).

How can your business get more reviews?

There are a lot of different ways your business can ask for more reviews, for instance, using surveys, emailing customers, asking them to leave reviews for a discount, or using a review software to automate your business review process.

Three important review website management tips:

  • Always remember to claim or add listings on the top review websites

Correct your business’s listing information and start getting more business reviews!

  • Keep on asking your customers for reviews:

Your business should always remember to ask for a review as customers are busy and will not remember unless they are asked or reminded to leave feedback.

  • Customers are more keen on leaving reviews on review sites

It feels more authentic for customers to leave a review in a review website, rather than in the business’s site as it is open for customers to leave an honest, unbiased review.

Business reviews are here to stay

In conclusion, there’s no getting away from business reviews. The good news is that there are methods to get more business reviews as well as effectively managing reviews from customers. Also, businesses needn’t fear negative online reviews, as there are ways to negate the effect of negative reviews.

Find out more about review management and how it can help grow your business, book a consultation now.