Online reviews and testimonials are very important, especially since they project the reputation of your business. In the online sphere, customers pay more attention to both star ratings and sentiment reviews than marketing. In fact, research shows that positive reviews will encourage more people to consider shopping from your store. Negative reviews and complaints will hurt your reputation. If you have an overall rating of 4.4 and above, you will likely get more traffic to your business. In contrast, potential customers won’t even bother to check out businesses that have a rating below 3.4. Although you have no control over what customers say about your business, you can still use reviews and ratings to grow and improve. Here is how to do so.
Start by providing the best experience you possibly can
Great reviews aren’t just given — they are earned. If you want to attract positive reviews from your customers, give them something to rave about. Provide memorable shopping experiences by offering a sleek user-friendly website. Offer high-quality products and services and add value to all interactions. When all marketing is done, all that remains to save face is how you treat your customer. If you handle every sale with respect and offer exactly what the customer anticipates, they will definitely be willing to leave some great remarks.
Give special attention to all your reviews
Whether they are left on your website, blogs or social media platforms, all reviews are important. When your name is mentioned in a review, it deserves focused attention. You can set up alerts on your business name to get notified whenever you get mentioned in an online platform, be it Yelp, YouTube, Facebook or other blogs in your niche. It is important to find these reviews and respond to all of them. Popular review sites like Ever Unfolding do their research from different platforms and provide opinions based on all information gathered. If you are only responding to reviews on your website, you may totally miss the conversations on other platforms and this can hurt your reputation, especially if the customers feel ignored.
Ask for reviews and make it easy for customers to provide their feedback
You can always appeal to your customers to leave reviews or feedback. Simply ask them to rate your service or comment on the experience. Most importantly, make it easy for them to leave a review. Include a star rating system, but ensure you ask for specific sentiments using scales such as “best”, “great”, “okay”, among others. Your review system should be simple, user friendly and engaging.
Incentives, gratitude and polite responses
If customers are not leaving reviews, you can offer an incentive to do so. It can be a coupon code, redeemable shopping credits, discounts, draw or giveaways. You should also take time to thank customers who left you positive reviews and feedback. If the feedback is not so good, respond politely and find out what the problem is. Apologize for all bad experiences and assure your customers that you are on top of the situation. Once the issue is fixed, you can ask them to adjust the review.
Customer reviews are a great tool for shaping your brand reputation. When used correctly, reviews can improve your SEO ranking. They also improve the overall business rating, which is what 80% of online customers look for when shopping. Make sure you involve the entire marketing team and all departments involved directly with customers. You can also highlight and share good reviews to boost your business credibility and reputation.
