Make a Good First Impression with Review Management

Online reviews have been around for years, and they are more important than ever. According to BrightLocal, 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2020, an increase from 81% just the year before. What do customers see when they search for your business?

Put Your Best Foot Forward

Only 48% of consumers said they would consider using a business with fewer than four stars. When a potential customer is searching for the goods and services you provide, reviews can make or break your business. In fact, for 28% of consumers, reviews have been the deciding factor to walk in the door of a business they are already standing outside of. Don’t miss out on all of these potential customers by putting review management on the back burner.

Reviews Require Proactive, Holistic Management

Positive reviews can affect your reputation and SEO strategy and have a huge impact on the growth of your business online. Reviews not only provide useful information for consumers but also valuable feedback for your business. Local businesses that are proactive about their review management are 1.4x more likely to have an average star rating that is 4.5 or greater. Take control of your online ratings with three ways to improve your reputation management strategy:

Earn More, Quality Reviews

Don’t let good reviews pass you by. Satisfied customers expect good service, so when they experience a stellar buying process, they’re not as likely to rave about it online as those venting about a poor experience. Don’t be shy about asking for reviews though, more than 60% of consumers will leave a review when asked.

Make it simple with a review management service that leverages software like Podium to connect to your DMS and proactively ask for reviews from your sales and service customers. These automated text/email campaigns have been proven to not only increase reviews, but, more importantly, increase positive reviews. In our experience, our reputation management customers see 7x more reviews per month on average. 

Be as Attentive as Possible

More reviews require more support from your team to review and respond to in a timely manner. Just 24% of businesses regularly respond to negative reviews. Don’t make that mistake. If you do get a less than perfect rating, take the time to write a quick response. It may turn a negative experience around, but it will also make a good first impression on potential customers who may read the review. 

By writing personal, unique, professional, and timely responses, and partnering with you to address reviewers offline as needed, our digital specialists have helped countless clients turn negative ratings into positive referrals.

While it’s not possible to simply delete negative reviews, not all reviews are appropriate for your business. Did someone use hate speech, was the review off-topic, or is there some kind of conflict of interest? Our strategists can also monitor for these types of violations and request the removal of reviews as applicable.

Know What’s Working

Ensure that your proactive reputation management strategy is always working in your favor when you have a clear understanding of online sentiment. Our team will reevaluate your strategy on a monthly basis and report back to you with all the insights you need. Comprehensive reports from our digital specialists include review volume trends and star rating improvement.

If your business is ready to boost its star rating, get started with a free digital analysis to assess your current reputation management strategy and see how it compares to the competition.