Creating an Effective Review Management Strategy in 3 Simple Steps
About 80% of customers say they are most likely to pick a product or service over another due to favorable online reviews or rating. Clearly, what customers say about your business online can have a significant impact on your business.
You have to build an effective review management strategy with a solid online presence, nurture and manage your business’s online reviews and ratings. Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time staying relevant.
In this article, we outline three steps to creating an effective reputation management strategy that will help you remain relevant and grow your business.
Step 1: Establish an Online Presence
Besides having an up-to-date branded website, you can build a solid online presence by taking the following steps:
- Maintain a blog
A blog is one of the strongest online reputation management tools. When used consistently, it ranks highly in search algorithms. It’s also a great way for prospective customers who are researching a product or service like yours to find you. Be sure you have the resources to keep it running actively.
- Have a business Facebook page
Facebook is a top-ranking platform and thus extremely important for your business. Be sure that your page is interesting or helpful to your audience. You want them to stay engaged, share your content, and keep coming back for more.
- Have a Twitter account focused on customer service
As a small business, you should have a Twitter account that is dedicated to customer service. You want any disgruntled customers to reach out in real time and get an immediate response.
- Post videos
Videos normally rank very high in hit counts. Consider publishing short, interesting, and informative videos on various platforms including your website, Facebook, and YouTube. Executed well, video content can provide potential customers with insight into your business.
Step 2: Solicit reviews
Once you’ve established a solid online presence, you need to solicit reviews from your customers. You want at least ten reviews that have been posted not more than six months ago. Reviews that are older than six months normally don’t provoke customers’ interest.
You can achieve this by asking all customers to post a review after they purchase a commodity. Then publish the favorable reviews on your business website and social platforms. Consider offering incentives for customers that post reviews to encourage more people to write them.
You can also partner with reviews sites such as Yelp for customers to leave compliments and criticisms there. Another great idea is to invest in a review management service to help you nurture and manage these postings.
Step 3: Respond to negative reviews
Another integral component of an effective reputation management strategy is the mitigation of negative reviews. Minimize the fallout from other customers coming across negative feedbacks by recognizing and responding to them.
Unfortunately, negative reviews play a greater role in customers’ decision-making than both positive reviews and the overall business rating. Customers are more likely to post a review when they are disappointed in your product or service. However, if you handle the situation in the right manner, you could inspire the disgruntled customer to follow up with a positive review of your great customer service.
Conclusion
Reviews impact customer decisions. You must have an effective review management strategy. Small businesses that don’t have an online presence, solicit reviews, or respond to negative feedback from customers will struggle to keep up with the competition. Small businesses that invest in an effective review management strategy will build their brands and gain a competitive edge in their industry.