In the modern age, it’s no secret that consumers place a large amount of value on the opinions of their peers. This is why customer reviews are essential to the success of any business. Positive reviews help speak for themselves, but in the online landscape, you will also get negative reviews. It does not matter how good of a service you are providing; someone somewhere will leave a negative review. To keep customers coming back to your business keeping a level of transparency is key. Here are some useful tools that you can use in order to properly and successfully manage your online customer reviews.
Create or Claim Your Business Page
Sites such as Google Places and Yelp utilize public data to generate a page for your business. Some of these sites only do this once you have reviewed it. However, some do it automatically to provide complete search listings for users. Claiming your businesses page is free, and you will then have control over the information that it contains. However, if there is no page currently existing, you can create one for yourself. By claiming your page, you can improve your listing in search rankings, which will give you services such as reviews and other tools to communicate more directly with consumers.
Respond to Positive Customer Reviews
Responding to positive customer reviews allows your customers to feel more connected to your business. It is suggested that you do not offer any tangible rewards including coupons to reviewers. This can be seen as bribing customers for positive reviews, which is not a good look for your business. It is best to keep the responses simple, and make sure you end with a thank you. This way your business will seem professional but personable.
Manage Negative Customer Reviews
Many businesses are scared of receiving negative online reviews. This is because they assume that they may run customers away. However, there is always a way to turn a negative review into a positive outlook. Make sure to do the following steps in order to properly respond to a negative review.
- Empathize, apologize, and own the issue at the beginning of your response. This approach will help humanize your brand and will disarm the angry customer.
- Make sure that you come off professional yet conversational to ensure that your response comes off personal. Try responding to the customers by their name.
- Always offer a practical resolution to the customers issue.
- Thank the negative reviewer for their feedback.
If you have any questions as to how you can better manage your businesses online customer reviews, contact our team at Hometown Marketing Group today!
