Reviews: The Free Marketing Tool You Can’t Ignore
I know you all are sick of hearing about reviews and the importance of them, but don’t get reviews blues! Reviews are an extremely important and crucial part to your business. Reviews directly impact your businesses online visibility, growth, reputation, and customer trust.
The more positive reviews you have increases the trust Google has in your listing to show you to potential customers online who search for those services. This is an easy FREE way to help your SEO or organic presence.
Additionally, reviews increase customer trust! I personally ALWAYS read the reviews before purchasing anything online or going anywhere. I work hard for my money, so I want to make sure I am making a responsible purchase. Your customers are doing the exact same thing. They are scrolling through your reviews to see what you are about. Checking to see if there are more positive customer experiences or negative customer experiences etc.
Google reviews can be the deciding factor for potential customers between your business or a competitor. Positive reviews can help you build trust with your audience, while negative reviews, if addressed properly, show that a business cares about its customers. Negative reviews are the most important reviews to respond to.
Handling Negative Reviews Like a Pro
Unfortunately, in life you are not going to be able to make every person happy. We learn that at a young age, right. Some customers will just be mad at you because they have to buy insurance and feel like they deserve it free. (lol) When I worked in retail, I used to refer to these types of people as the ‘unpleasables’. There are going to be upset customers and that is okay!
When dealing with negative reviews, follow these best practices:
- Acknowledge the situation from your expertise and perspective.
- Apologize that they feel that way.
- Use this experience and explain how you and your team strive to provide efficient services, how you appreciate them bringing these concerns to your attention, and how you and your team will address them to prevent similar issues in the future!
A lot of the times customers are upset it’s for something that you cannot control or simple miscommunication! You want to be respectful and take accountability but also defend your business and the actions that took place. There is nothing wrong with defending your business in a respectful way and the integrity of you and your staff members. A lot of the time once you have them call you at their earliest convenience to discuss, the issues they have can be squashed. Most things are just a huge miscommunication that gets people riled up.
More Reviews, Less Hassle
You may be sitting here reading this asking yourself: How do I encourage reviews?! Ask the customer directly! After you have a positive experience with a customer just ask them kindly if they would leave you and your business a review. You can express your appreciation to them and how it would really help you out. You can also send follow-up emails and texts to everyone if you aren’t meeting with them in person! The goal is to make it as easy as possible for your customers. The easier it is to leave you a review the more likely they are going to do so! Another easy way to have your customers leave reviews is to have a review link in your email signatures, or QR sheets displayed in your office. (Ask your account manager today if you don’t have this)
Consistency Over Quantity
While I have you here, another thing I would like to address – please, please, please when your account manager mentions that you need to get more reviews, you don’t get a huge influx of 100+ new reviews in a week. Consistency is always the best!!! The ideal amount for each agent is 1 review a week. If you think about it that way it is doable and not so scary!
Last But Not Least: Make Reviews Work for You
In conclusion, remember that all reviews that come in for your business are an opportunity to show other potential customers why they should work with you and what makes your business stand out! Don’t underestimate the power of Google reviews!!
