Social Media Review & Reputation Management Posts From Let Us Respond

Our social media experts at Let Us Respond have put together a wealth of information and best practices surrounding review and reputation management. Read all of the top blog posts from our team below.

What You Need to Know About Review Management and Reputation Management

June 19, 2020 by letusrespond Leave a Comment

Maintaining your online image is a full-time job.

Keeping up with user comments, reviews, and messages—especially if you have multiple profiles to manage—can be exhausting. Yet, it’s necessary to know what people are saying about your business.

In fact, according to a report from Edelman, when researching a new product or service online, 64% of customers trust search engine results. In other words, what people see in search results regarding your business matters a lot.

Two words that often pop up when it comes to a business’s online presence are review management and reputation management.

But what exactly are they?

They may sound the same, but they are two different components that play important roles in how a business manages its image online.

In this article, we’re diving into why both review management and reputation management are essential to driving sales, foot traffic, and the overall success of your business.

What is review management?

No question reviews play a critical role in the decision-making process of customers.

But what does it mean to manage your reviews?

Review management involves the monitoring and responding of reviews your customers leave on various channels you’ve created for your business, like Google Reviews, Yelp, Trip Advisor, and more.

According to a report from BrightLocal, 91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. What’s more, a report from Yotpo found that 43% of customers trust text over photos or videos.

Having a strategy that details how your business responds to all types of reviews is key to positive review management.

Responding to negative reviews

The truth is, not everyone is going to have something positive to say about your business. Negative reviews can quickly spiral out of control if you’re not careful. You can’t control what people choose to write in their reviews. However, you can control how your business responds to negative reviews.

Take this interaction from Hungry Howie’s Pizza, for example:

(Source: https://www.yelp.com/biz/hungry-howies-pizza-detroit-9)

The company handled the interaction well by apologizing and acknowledging the customer’s poor experience. But any brand can issue an apology; what makes this response great is the solution offered at the end. This shows both the customer in question and other potential customers that Hungry Howie’s cares about their experience and wants to make things right.

Negative reviews give you the opportunity to show that you care about your customers’ experience and that you are committed to righting the wrong (even if you did not do anything wrong). Learning to see negative reviews as a chance to show you care can be an excellent catalyst for your business.

Responding to positive and neutral reviews

In the same vein, neutral and positive reviews must also be approached with care.

The same Hungry Howie’s demonstrates the importance of responding to positive feedback, too:

(Source: https://www.yelp.com/biz/hungry-howies-pizza-detroit-9)

Responding to both neutral and positive reviews shows that you care about all your customers and that you aren’t just paying attention to the negative comments.

What is reputation management?

Review management is just one part of your overall image online. On the other hand, reputation management is how your brand or business is perceived online as a whole, in addition to reviews.

It’s a culmination of your presence online—from what your customers say about you to the content you produce and share online.

This includes variables like:

Overall online presence
Reviews and ratings
Social media channels
Forums
Blogs
Articles and news sources

Excellent reputation management involves not only knowing how best to react to what people and your customers say about you but also knowing when and how to respond or to flag a review.

There are several components to successful reputation management:

Be transparent
Make timeliness a priority
Learn from your mistakes

Successful reputation management also involves assessing your presence beyond your dedicated channels, both online and offline, such as your SEO efforts and word of mouth marketing. We’ll touch more on how to improve your local SEO later.

Having a holistic understanding of how your business is perceived online is the first step in successful reputation management, and can help you get discovered online faster.

Why are both important for your business?

Both review management and reputation management are essential components of a positive online brand image. A strong online presence involves the management of both your designated review channels and other avenues customers may use to discuss your brand. In short, you can’t have one without the other.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest reasons why both review and reputation management are essential for any business.

Create opportunities for consistency

A strong online presence involves being consistent across every channel—from your website to how you respond to user comments and messages. If your brand comes across as disjointed, it can hurt your brand as a whole.

What does consistency look like in action?

Templated review responses

This is one of the best (and easiest) ways to protect your brand from inconsistencies and from saying anything you shouldn’t say.

For example, Delta Airlines uses Twitter to streamline customer service inquiries. When responding to a customer, they use a templated response that asks for information like the customer’s confirmation number, flight routing, and other details to ensure they have everything they need to help.

(Source: https://twitter.com/Delta/with_replies)

This way, Delta confirms they’re helping the right customer, and subsequently can help more customers at a faster rate.

Frequent channel monitoring

Keeping tabs on every channel can be overwhelming. From checking each channel regularly to responding to customer complaints, reviews, and questions, it’s a lot. Hiring a team to do the heavy lifting for you can be the best option.

Hiring a team to monitor these channels ensures consistency. It also takes the pressure off you and your team to dedicate the time needed to support dependable reputation management.

Improve your local SEO

As mentioned above, reputation management and review management play a role in your search visibility (local search ranking) online. Because most customers start their search online, typically using the keyword combination of [service] + [location], it’s imperative that your online properties, like your Google My Business (GMB) listing and website, are optimized for this search.

Reviews and your overall online reputation influence your local SEO ranking, like so:

When people search for your business specifically or a term related to your business (e.g., pizza near me), the first thing they’ll see is Google the top three results from Google, as well as the Google Map. They’ll also see results for sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, and more.

Therefore, optimizing your website as well as other channels like your Google My Business listing for local search is critical. Reviews and accurate information on your Google My Business listing also help you show up in Google’s “local three-pack” results (or the first three results on the SERP), which boosts your discoverability. GMB listings are a critical part of showing up in Google’s local pack, so it’s important to make sure that it is always up to date and consistent.

It’s imperative to keep all your channels uniform, especially if you have more than one location.

Gain a big picture understanding of how your customers view your business

Rankings and reviews aside, it’s vital to know how your business is viewed from a bird’s eye view perspective. If you aren’t sure how your brand is being received on a comprehensive level, how will you know what changes you need to make or if you’re doing right by your customers?

This level of self-awareness is essential to make reputation-related decisions as well as how your efforts (both in-store and online) are performing.

Across your channels, pay attention to things like:

Direct and indirect customer sentiment
Shares, likes, and comments
Recommendations

In addition to reviews and social media, a great way to understand how your customers view your business is to send out a survey. It’s best to keep your survey short but not too short that it yields no valuable information. Also, be sure to send it out after a customer visits your store or makes a purchase, so the experience is fresh.

Review management and reputation management go hand-in-hand

How your business is perceived online has a direct impact on its growth. However, you can’t control what people say about your business.

Review management and reputation management are critical to maintaining a positive image and ensuring that your customers are heard, no matter what they have to say.

Curious about how an online reputation management service can help your business? Contact us today to schedule a demo.

Improve the ROI of Your Google My Business Listing with Better Photos

June 1, 2020 by letusrespond Leave a Comment

Except for bold colors or a headline, there’s no better way to quickly capture the attention of potential customers than with images. But when it comes to your Google My Business listing—where bold colors and catchy headlines aren’t an option—how do you stand out?

The answer is simple: visuals.

Using visuals to draw in potential customers as they’re scrolling search results could be the difference between them doing business with you or not. But we’re not just talking about any images—we’re referring to high-quality, contextual images that communicate information about your business just as much as other components of your Google My Business listing.

We pulled together a few reasons why photos are an important part of your Google My Business listing and how you can improve your current collection.

The Value of High-Quality Images For Search

Customers have a plethora of businesses to choose from thanks to search engines. According to Google, 76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day.

The thing is, how can you make sure they click on your listing?

High-quality images are an essential part of your Google My Business listing just as linking to your website and collecting reviews are crucial. Plus, the reality is that Google My Business listings with more images perform better than those that do not. In fact, 60% of consumers are more willing to consider local search results that include images, and another 23% are more likely to contact a business that has images in their business listing.

Think about it: would you click on a listing that didn’t have any images, or worse, images that were poor quality and unflattering of the location?

Take this auto shop, for example.

Google My Business Listing Example (Source: http://bit.ly/37WuqdE)

Though it has five five-star reviews, users aren’t able to learn too much about this shop based on this listing alone. Plus, there’s some critical information missing from this listing, like the full business hours and their website, aside from photos. Now, it’s important to note that this is not a “bad” listing by any means, but it could be made stronger by adding a few photos and completing the listing details.

Compare that to this restaurant’s Google My Business listing.

Reservation Feature on Google My Business

Photo Collage on Google My Business (Source: http://bit.ly/2wLXojq)

Not only is the listing complete, but it’s packed with various photos that potential customers can browse through including images of inside and outside the restaurant and menu items. From this listing, customers get a solid look at what their experience at this restaurant might be.

We know that images are critical to creating a successful Google My Business profile, but with the rise of new Google tools, like Local Guides, it’s all the more vital to make sure your listing is as strong as it can be. Though there is some difference of opinion on whether or not it’s truly a positive thing for businesses, as long as it exists, it’s important to know the potential implications.

Local Guides lets customers share photos, reviews, and other information to other users on Google Maps. It’s more or less Google’s take on Yelp or TripAdvisor.

Local Guide Review (Source: https://maps.google.com/localguides)

Because you can’t control what images appear first on your Google My Business listing, uploading quality images rather than relying on customer photos to tell your business’ story for you is always a smart idea.

How to Level-Up the Photos on Your Google My Business Listing

If your Google My Business listing isn’t where you’d like it to be, don’t stress! There’s plenty you can do to revive your listing with better photos.

Below are a few Google My Business photo best practices you can start implementing today.

Optimize your photos for SEO

Not only are photos important for customers as they search, but they’re also vital for search engines, too. According to a recent study, there is a strong connection between Google My Business photo quantity and search performance. It’s not only vital to have a larger volume of photos, but it’s also important to make sure those photos are optimized for search, too.

So how do you do that?

Start by naming your photos with keywords instead of random or default file titles. For example, let’s say you’re uploading an image of a signature coffee drink you offer. Be sure to rename that image to match the name of the drink, like Chocolate Crumble Frappuccino. This provides Google with the context of the photo. Also, make sure you categorize your photos as you add them. We’ll touch more on that later.

Add photos that give customers a detailed understanding of your business

When selecting your photos, make sure you choose ones that are not only clear and high-quality, but that provide customers with as much context as possible.

For example, if you run a restaurant chain, posting photos of your menu items is super important, but so is posting pictures of the inside of your shops.

These details help customers get a feel for if your business is right for their needs. The more information you can provide them, the better. People are searching high and low online these days before visiting a location in-person, so it’s best to give them as much information as you can.

For example, this Starbucks location does a great job of providing contextual detail through imagery.

Starbucks Location Photo Listing (Source: http://bit.ly/2wM6QmW)

In addition to food images, they also include a lot of photos from inside the store as well. From these photos, customers can see that there is plenty of seating at this Starbucks location, which may be an essential detail if they’re looking to hang out for a while.

Organize your photos by category to help users along

As we mentioned above, part of optimizing your photos for SEO is to categorize them.

Photo Category Options (Source: http://bit.ly/2wM6QmW)

Photo Category Filter (Source: http://bit.ly/2wM6QmW)

Your Google My Business listing lets you add photos in various categories like Food & Drink, Vibe, Inside, and more to help customers make sense of your photos as they search. It’s also helpful for Google when it tries to understand the context of your photos.

Google My Business Photos FAQ

How do I upload a picture to my Google My Business page?

Uploading photos to your Google My Business listing is easy.

To add photos:

Sign in to the Google My Business page you’d like to add photos to
Click the menu on the left-hand side and select Photos
In the top right corner of the page, click Post
Select the type of photo or video you’d like to upload
Upload the photo or video from your computer

To add a cover photo or logo:

Sign in to the Google My Business page you’d like to add photos to
Click the menu on the left-hand side and select Photos
Underneath the “Overview” tab:
- Click on “Logo” to add a logo
- Click on “Cover” to add a cover photo
To change a current cover photo or logo, click Edit
Choose the type of picture you want to upload
Upload the photo from your computer or choose one you’ve already uploaded

How do I remove photos from my Google My Business page?

Removing photos on your Google My Business page can be done in just a few clicks:

Sign in to the GMB page you’d like to add photos to
Click on Photos from the menu
Select the photo you want to delete
On the top right corner, click Trash

Can I choose which photos appear first?

Currently, you cannot control which photos appear first in your Google My Business listing. Still, by setting a cover photo and uploading quality pictures on your own (that are SEO optimized, of course), you set yourself up for success.

According to Google, “Set a cover photo to the top of the profile that best represents your business. In some instances, this action doesn’t guarantee the cover photo populates as the first image for your business.”

What types of photos can I upload?

You can upload the following photos to your Google My Business profile:

Exterior photos
Interior photos
Product photos
Photos at work
Food & drink photos
Common areas
Rooms
Team photos

For more details on each type of photo, visit this resource.

Ready to see how your business could grow with review management? Contact us today, and a member of our team will help find the right solution for your business.

Everything You Need to Know About Voice Search (Local Business Guide)

May 18, 2020 by letusrespond Leave a Comment

With the popularity of digital voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and Samsung’s Bixby, consumers all over the world are searching for products and services in a new way: with their voice.

eMarketer estimates that in 2019, 111.8 million people in the US alone used voice search at least once a month, which is up 9.5% from 2018.

So, where do businesses start with voice search? How can you make it work best for your business? And how much of an impact will it have on local SEO?

In this guide, we’re breaking down the essentials of voice search and how you can leverage it in your business. Before we jump in, let’s cover a few of the basics of voice search first.

What is voice search?

Voice search is a technology that allows users to search by speaking verbally into a smartphone, smart device, or computer. It’s different from a traditional search method—or typing a search query into a search engine—in that users use their voice to perform the search. Instead of reading through search results, users are read back the results by a digital assistant.

Voice search is designed to integrate into your life and make simple things—like looking up and following a recipe or finding places like a coffee shop—even simpler. This search method has grown in popularity over the last few years, thanks to the introduction of devices like the Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home.

Because users conduct voice searches with queries that primarily start with “how,” “what,” and “best,” it’s critical to make sure you optimize your digital assets for this type of search.

Why is voice search important?

Because the way consumers are searching is evolving, so must businesses and how they optimize their digital presence.

Voice search is rising in popularity for many reasons:

It’s convenient
It’s faster
It’s safer than typing in some cases, like when you’re driving
It’s fun

A study conducted by MDG Advertising found that 77% of Americans own a smartphone, which means they more than likely have access to a digital assistant and therefore are more likely to use them. With instant access via smartphone, people are more inclined to use voice search, or at least try it.

So why is this important?

Voice search is changing the way customers search and shop online. Therefore, businesses must keep up to avoid leaving money on the table.

For example, let’s say a customer asks their digital assistant, “coffee shops near me.” They’re then shown a list of coffee shops in their area courtesy of Google or whatever search engine syncs with their device.

Voice Search Listing Example for “Coffee Shops Near Me”

Voice Search Local Map Results for a Single Listing

The digital assistant pulls information based on what’s available for the businesses (whether it’s Yelp reviews or information from the company’s Google My Business profile). Users can scroll through those results to find what they’re looking for.

Now, if your online presence is slacking—like if you don’t have your website listed on your Google My Business profile—that could prevent customers from visiting your location because they don’t have the information they need.

Because customers are now getting search results in a different format, your business will need to keep up with voice SEO best practices, which we’ll get into more detail later.

Who uses voice search and how?

Voice search usage is not exclusive to one particular age group, though it is more popular among younger consumers and households with children, according to MDG Advertising.

Those that do use voice search have made it a part of their everyday lives. In fact, 65% of people ages 25-49 use their voice-enabled devices at least once a day. What’s more, of those who own voice-activated speakers, 52% keep them in their living rooms, 25% keep them in their bedrooms, and 22% keep them in their kitchens. In other words, people are using voice search all the time, whether it’s to play music, hear the weather report, or search for a new restaurant to try for dinner tonight.

Because such a significant amount of consumers use voice search to search, research products, and even purchase products, businesses that don’t optimize for voice queries are missing out on a huge opportunity.

How can your business leverage voice search?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for every business when it comes to optimizing for voice search, but there are several things you can do to ensure you’re on the right path.

Let’s take a look at a few of the best opportunities.

Optimize your site for questions

Due to the nature of voice search, adjusting your website to cater to question-based searches is ideal. As we mentioned above, questions that start with “how,” “what,” and “best” are some of the most frequent starts to search queries. Adjusting the content on your site to reflect those words and building out your FAQ page—which could be the queries your customers are searching for, verbatim—is smart.

Use conversational language in your content

Because customers are using a conversational tone in their search queries, your content must reflect a similar tone. The more “robotic” or formal language that’s used in your content, the less of a chance businesses have in appearing in voice results. It’s essential to understand your customers’ search intent to get a sense of the types of questions your customers are asking with voice search.

Over the last few years, Google has been learning how to understand natural language better. As Google gets smarter, and conversational language is something that’s accounted for, optimizing your site and other digital properties for natural language queries is imperative.

Improve your site speed

In this day and age, businesses can’t afford to work with a website with slow load time. It’s a mobile ranking factor, meaning it’s something Google and other search engines watch out for when crawling your site.

Not only does a slow site harm your rankings from an SEO perspective, but it increases the likelihood of users navigating away from your website due to having to wait too long. Voice search results are already loading faster than typical page results. Therefore, it’s all the more important to make sure your page speed is up to par.

So how can you do this?

Fixing your page speed issue can be done by doing the following:

Audit your site for duplicate pages
Reduce the size of photo or graphics files and make sure they’re in the appropriate file format
Reduce the number of HTTP requests your site makes

Embrace voice search and use it to your advantage

Voice search isn’t going anywhere, especially with the rise of digital assistants and smart home devices.

Especially for businesses with multiple locations, having a website and digital properties that are optimized to work for voice search could mean the difference between potential customers visiting your store or opting for the competition.

Not yet using Let Us Respond to manage your online presence? Contact us today, and we’ll help find the solution that’s right for you.

How to Create a Successful Multi-Location Social Media Strategy

April 24, 2020 by letusrespond Leave a Comment

These days, customers are doing their due diligence before making a purchase or visiting a location. They’re spending time comparing products or businesses, reading reviews, and asking the opinions of friends. One of their go-to channels to consult? Social media.

Consumers are turning to social media to find whatever it is they’re looking for—preferably in the closest proximity to their location. In fact, 54% of social users conduct product research on social media.

So, what does this tell us? Potential customers are logging on, scrolling, and learning everything they can about a product or service before making a decision. Thanks to online reviews and tools like Facebook pages for businesses, customers have more information readily available to them than ever before.

Plus, with there being 3.725 billion active social media users as of 2019, it’s all the more important to have a solid social media strategy in place.

In this article, we’re sharing how you can create a winning multi-location social media strategy. But before we jump into it, let’s talk a bit more about why social media is so vital for multi-location businesses.

The impact of localized social media marketing for multi-location businesses

You’re probably swamped promoting your business and fine-tuning your marketing.

The last thing you want to think about is adding another big item on your to-do list.

But the impact social media can have on your business is one that can’t be ignored. According to a study from eMarketer, 15% of all US consumers use Facebook to shop. What’s more, a whopping 83% of Instagram users report discovering new products or services on the platform, and 80% use Instagram to decide whether or not to buy a product or service.

It’s clear that consumers are not only using social media to research and consult the opinions of those they trust regarding their experience with a business, but they’re also using these channels to find new businesses.

By being present on social media, you can build a community, engage with your fans, make it easier for new customers to find you, and increase the likelihood of them turning into lifetime customers.

So what does this look like in practice?

Benefit from recommendations

Think about your own personal social media channels. How many posts do you see like this:

Or this:

People look to social media often for recommendations on just about anything. Specifically, with Facebook’s Recommendation feature, when people reply to a post, Facebook pulls information from the locations mentioned. Also, local businesses will be tagged automatically, which is visible to not only the original poster but to anyone who commented or happens to scroll by the post.

Being present on Facebook can have a significant impact on the discoverability of your business. It also allows your customers to sing your praises and share with others who might be interested.

Build your community

There’s no question that social media is the premier channel for cultivating a community (hence, “social” in “social media”). Your social media channels allow customers to share their love of your brand, find like-minded people, and sing your praises.

Posts like this one from the national grocery chain, Kroger, are a great example of the community they’ve built on Instagram. This post, in particular, reinforces to the community that Kroger fits into their everyday lives—even on National Pizza Day.

Share updates and promotions with a click

Want an easy way to reach a ton of people in a short amount of time? You guessed it—post it on social media. Avoid negative reviews by keeping your customers informed, especially during current events like the impact COVID-19 is having on your business or locations.

The viral nature of content these days can be a massive benefit to your business from a marketing perspective. It’s also a great way to communicate important details to customers. For example, maybe one of your locations is closed due to a power outage. How can you communicate that information to as many people as possible? Post it to social media.

Also, you can create demand and exclusivity by posting promotions or discounts to individual social channels. For example, you could have a BOGO offer that can be redeemed in-store, but only for customers who can show the clerk the tweet or Instagram post with the promotion details.

This is also a great way to encourage people to not only follow your brand on social media but to share your posts, too.

Create a winning multi-location social media strategy in 4 Steps

There’s no question that Google My Business (GMB) is a great place to start when building your online reputation. In fact, a report from Uberall found that businesses that increased their GMB star rating from 3.5 to 3.7 within a year saw a conversion growth rate of 120%.

But building your reputation through other channels is just as important. Channels like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and others are critical to creating your online reputation. Multi-location businesses can’t afford not to have a presence on various online channels According to Yelp, the platform has an average of 38 million monthly mobile users and had 2.6 million seated diners in Q3 of 2019. To top that, according to TripAdvisor, the platform has 460 million monthly average unique visitors and has roughly 830 million reviews and opinions.

Those numbers are hard to ignore.

So, where do you start? Let’s take a closer look.

#1: Identify your channels

Not every channel is going to be great for your business, and that’s OK. Some channels might be better for other industries or locations. It’s essential to experiment with each channel—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. to see what’s going to help you make an impact.

Facebook, however, is one to invest in, no matter your industry or business. With features like the “About,” “Community,” and “Reviews,” tabs, Facebook Pages are built specifically for businesses and supply you with the tools you need to get the most return for your marketing efforts.

#2: Build out your channels

When customers are searching for information about your business on social media, like when trying to locate your business, find your hours of operation, and other details, it’s important not to give them any reason to doubt you.

Completing your profile with a profile picture, header image, and correct handle or page name all play a role in how you’re perceived online. If customers are questioning the validity of your profile, or if it’s even the official account, you’ve got a problem.

In fact, when Hackensack Meridian, the largest non-profit hospital in New Jersey, began focusing on completing their business listings saw an increase in listing views by 243%, an increase in phone calls by 269%, and an increase in website visits by 206%.

Take the time to complete your profiles and keep them updated. This should be part of your account creation process when you start.

This Facebook profile from the coffee shop, Plymouth Coffee Bean, is an excellent example of a complete page.

Here’s why:

The page name is clear and spelled correctly
The profile image and header image are the correct sizes
The “Our Story” section is complete

They’ve added events they hosting at the shop so followers can attend or share them with others
They’ve added their address, phone number, website, and other contact information

Set aside some time to complete your profiles or go through and make sure the information on them is correct. It’s worth it!

#3: Set clear guidelines and expectations and hold each location accountable

It’s important to set expectations and standards for each social media channel you have (as well as other marketing channels as well). But it’s especially important when managing several locations’ social channels.

You want your brand to be uniform across the board, from how you respond to/engage with customers to your overall tone of voice and what you post. Everything should be consistent—that’s critical to establishing a brand that people recognize.

Have a centralized place, like a review management platform, where monitoring your location pages from one dashboard, is easy. A dashboard lets you view what’s happening with each location page and enables you to watch for consistency. It also makes it easier to manage your pages all at once.

#4: Measure your efforts

Just as you would with any other marketing effort, measuring your social channels’ growth is imperative to see what’s working and what’s not working. Social media channels have their own analytics tracking within the respective platforms, which makes it easy to see how you’re doing in a cinch.

If you’re looking for a more all-encompassing analytics tool, opt for something that allows you to sync your profiles in one dashboard. This will help you compare the performance of your channels faster and easier, as well as help you truly gauge your ROI.

Measuring your efforts helps drive your future strategy. If you aren’t sure how your social media channels are performing, it’ll be more challenging to make the best decisions for your marketing.

Social media is the key to connection

It’s essential to be where your customers are online. Providing them with several avenues to connect with you, learn about your business, or perhaps even discover your business is key to capitalizing on the power of localized search.

Want to learn more about how Let Us Respond can help you streamline your review management strategy? Contact us today, and a member of our team will help you find the right solution.

How to Build a Loyal Customer Base With Review Management

February 6, 2020 by letusrespond Leave a Comment

Customers are the lifeblood of any business. Without them, it’ll be impossible to grow. Therefore, putting them at the top of your priority list is in your best interest.

Of course, selling your products or services is essential to growth. But to sell, you must recognize the impact your customers have on your ability to do just that. No customers mean no sales, which is where a customer loyalty base comes into play.

According to American Express, satisfied U.S. customers are more likely to not only share their positive brand experiences with others, but they’ll refer an average of 11 people to a business. What’s more, a report from InMoment found that 60% of customers will purchase more regularly from their “preferred” companies.

In other words, not only can your existing customers bring you more business, but they will likely be your biggest supporters.

But what can brands do to improve their customer loyalty base? There are many ways to approach it, but one of the best methods being strategic review management.

Before we dive into how you can strengthen your customer loyalty with review management, let’s discuss the impact your customers have on your business as a whole.

How do your customers impact your business?

It’s not enough to sell to a customer then move on to finding the next prospects. There’s tons of value in your existing customer base.

Engaging with your existing customers—or building your customer loyalty base—is critical to creating a profitable business. Let’s take a look at some of the most significant ways your customers directly impact your bottom line.

Cost vs. retention

Attracting new customers is critical in growing your business, but there’s a lot of value within your existing network of customers.

According to a report from the Temkin Group, loyal customers are five times more likely to purchase again, five times more likely to forgive a poor brand experience, four times more likely to refer new customers to said brand, and seven times more likely to try a new offering from said brand. That’s a lot of value.

You spent so much time, money, and effort trying to attract those customers to your business in the first place. Letting them go—or pushing your customer loyalty tactics to the wayside—will cost you in more ways than one.

Word-of-mouth marketing

Your customers could be sharing their brand experiences with others at any given time. Those “others” could be potential customers of yours. With 77% of customers recommending companies to friends and family based on positive experiences, you want to make sure you’re on your customers’ good side.

In short, what your customers say about your business matters. It has a direct impact on the growth of your business and your reputation. Being aware of what your audience is saying about you (and engaging with them after the fact) is all the more important.

How to build customer loyalty base with review management

Each of these methods serves a different purpose, but it’s essential to keep your customers’ best intentions at the center of everything you do.

With that being said, let’s dive into how you can improve your customer loyalty base with review management.

Leverage customer feedback

How can you make impactful changes to your business or customer experience unless you know how your customers feel? Customer feedback goes far beyond praise and complaints; it’s an opportunity to learn things about your business that you may otherwise not know.

At the core, customer feedback guides business decisions and helps you make improvements for your customers (and future customers, too). Even the smallest customer suggestion can have a profound impact on your business, so it’s important to pay attention to everything.

Take the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth, Michigan, for example.

A customer left a great review on Yelp after their stay. The customer mentioned that the coffee selection could be improved—something that seems pretty minor in the scheme of things, but for the hospitality industry, this is important.

The GM of the hotel replied to the customer’s comment thanking them for their review and saying that he would take her coffee recommendation to their food and beverage team.

This is a prime example of how one customer review or suggestion can make future customers’ experiences better, which only snowballs from there.

Prioritize customer service

Listening and responding to your customers’ feedback shows you care about them and their experience with your company. Mistakes happen, but if you can show you’re working on a solution or have resolved the issue entirely, that goes a long way with customer retention.

The Hotel del Coronado, which is owned by Hilton/Blackstone Group, is a great example of customer service in action.

At the time of this review, the hotel was undergoing construction while simultaneously trying to provide customers with a fantastic experience despite the fact. One customer, in particular, was not happy with their stay.

But Hotel del Coronado was quick to reply, encouraging the customer to reach out so they could right the wrong.

Because the customers are the ones immersed in the brand experience, what you may think to be the solution may prove not to be enough, which is where customer feedback comes in handy.

With review management software, you can be sure you’re up to speed on everything your customers say. That way, you can be quick to respond and make things right or praise them for the positive review.

Manage reviews with integrated software

As your business grows (and especially if you outright encourage customers to leave reviews), it’s important to have a pulse on what your customers are saying. Plus, with 86% of customers reading reviews before they proceed with a purchase from a business, it’s all the more important to stay up-to-date on your reviews.

Whether you have multiple channels, location pages, or receive a high volume of reviews, using a review management software can make a positive difference.

Review management software helps in several ways:

Improve your response times
Organize your channels and gain insight into which are most popular for reviews
Respond to reviews all from one dashboard
Save time on review management

Use review management software to keep track of what your customers are saying about certain aspects of your business. With an all-encompassing dashboard, you’ll never miss a beat. You’ll improve your response times, and—most importantly—keep your customers happy.

Use social proof in your marketing

Social proof, like word-of-mouth marketing, plays a massive role in building brand loyalty. But how do you know about all the positive things your customers are saying about you unless you have some way of keeping tabs on it?

That’s where review management comes into play.

Cherry-picking your best reviews and using them in your marketing can make a significant impact.

For example, the direct-to-consumer turned brick-and-mortar mattress company, Casper, knows a thing or two about social proof. After all, before they opened up their first physical store, they had to convince customers to buy a mattress without having laid on it first!

From their website to their social media posts, Casper incorporates social proof at key customer touchpoints. They do a great job of not only leveraging their social proof but delivering it in a way that makes it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for all in one place.

What’s unique about Casper’s social proof usage is their ability to incorporate both helpful, tactical feedback and fun, playful feedback on the appropriate channels.

Not only does social proof validate claims your brand makes about your product or service, but it can help reduce customer objections (or the things that make customers run in the opposite direction).

Customer loyalty can make or break your business

Just as you spend time working on your products or services, you must put just as much (if not more) effort into your customer service strategy. Keeping your customers front and center of every business decision will have a sizable impact on your success.

Ready to get serious about your review management strategy? Book a call with us today, and our team will help you find the right solution.

The Definitive Guide to Google Reviews

January 9, 2020 by letusrespond Leave a Comment

Any savvy business owner knows that reputation management is essential to growing. The role reviews play in reputation management is not one to overlook.

According to the Spiegel Research Center (SRC), 95% of shoppers read reviews online before making a purchase. What’s more, the SRC also found that by displaying reviews, businesses can increase their conversion rates by 270%.

When it comes down to online reputation management, Google is king. If Google determines your site to be high-quality, as per its criteria, your ranking on the search engine results page (SERP) will improve. However, if Google deems your website to be fraudulent or if it has lots of errors—like bad links—that can harm the ranking of your site. The more issues your site has from Google’s standards, the less discoverable you are online.

In other words, Google plays a significant role in strong reputation management. So how do businesses, especially those with multiple locations, leverage Google?

In this guide, we’re breaking down everything you need to know about Google My Business Reviews and how you can get the most from this tool.

Ready to dive in?

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business (GMB) is an essential part of any brick and mortar business’ marketing plan for many reasons. GMB helps customers find your business, learn about your company, and find information like your phone number, website, hours of operation.

Also, Google My Business ensures you show up on Google Maps and that you can engage with customers through Google Reviews.

However, Google My Business only pertains to brick and mortar companies. There are a series of guidelines that outline what types of businesses can use GMB.

Why Does Google My Business Matter?

According to a study from BrightLocal, 5% of Google My Business listing views lead to a website click, direction request, or call. In short, it only makes sense that Google plays a significant role in how people find your business each time they search since it’s the leading search engine.

Showing up in local search engine results means more foot traffic, and subsequently, more business. A study from HubSpot found that 72% of customers that searched for something local visited a store within five miles of them.

To put it simply, Google My Business matters to the growth of your business. If your business doesn’t show up on Google, it won’t get seen by potential customers.

A complete GMB page helps Google understand what your business is so that when it goes to crawl your site, it gets as much relevant information as possible. The more Google knows about you, the better your SERP ranking, which we’ll talk more about later on.

The Impact of Google My Business

Google Reviews is much more than a way for customers to voice their experiences and opinions about your business. It’s a tool for companies to set themselves apart from their competitors on an organic playing field while providing customers with the information they need.

But before we dive into how businesses can leverage Google My Business, there are a few essential things to cover first.

The Power of Google’s Local 3-Pack

Though it’s every marketer’s goal to rank on the front page of Google’s SERP, what sets brick and mortar businesses apart is if they are included in Google’s Local 3-Pack.

Google’s Local 3-Pack, or the top three results a user sees when they search for something on Google, is prime reputation real estate.

The top three results are the businesses Google determines to be the most relevant to the search query based on the user’s location and other factors.

The reason why being in Google’s Local 3-Pack is such a highly sought after accomplishment is simple: it’s helping customers find you, which can lead to more foot traffic, an increase in conversions, and more. If you’re lower on the search query list, you’re competing with other businesses for customers’ attention.

Does Zero-Click Searching Mean Zero Opportunity?

The zero-click searching phenomenon has many marketers worried that, despite their best efforts, potential customers won’t click to their site.

Zero-click searching is a response to the formatting of Google’s SERP, which shows snippets of information (most likely the answers to popular search queries), eliminating the need to click on the results. This type of searching has cropped up as a response to voice and mobile searches that are typically short and quick.

There are a few types of zero-click searches:

Location-based searches: searches that involve directions and other local search queries.
Database searches: searches around dates, times, conversions, etc.
Dictionary-type searches: searches that typically start with “what is” or “what does.”

However, despite the threat of zero-click searches, if you optimize your site for featured snippets and continue to update your GMB profile when needed, you’ll provide potential customers with the information they need to act.

Adam Dorfman of Reputation.com had this to say about how customers use Google and zero-searching:

“Even if [customers] are looking for a specific business, they’re not going to your website first. They’re actually typing in your business name on Google. What that means […] is that your website is no longer your front door. Google has become so good at taking information from multiple places [and] creating what they call […] entities, which are clusters of information from different sources about a specific object—or in this case a business—and being able to deliver not just a series of links to find more information, but answers. [Google] is able to deliver [the] knowledge that people are needing right then and there right within [the] search results.”

So how can brands get the most from Google My Business Reviews? Let’s take a closer look.

How Can I Make the Most of Google Reviews?

There are several ways to leverage Google Reviews. No matter what tactics you use, it’s important to remember that being transparent with your customers and providing them with the information they need goes a long way.

Show Your Customers You Care About Their Experience

We know that people turn to Google more than any other search engine. Google Reviews for your business might be one of the first things potential customers see when they search. Therefore, excellent reputation management starts with responding to reviews.

No customer experience is going to be perfect, especially if you’re working with several locations. But if a customer does have a negative experience with your brand, there’s no better way to communicate that you care than by responding to their review and offering to make things right. This is also a great way to build trust among your customers and show them you have their back if something isn’t up to par.

The same can be said for positive reviews. Responding to reviews shows customers you see them, hear them, and care about them.

But it’s not enough to respond to reviews whenever you remember. You must do so promptly. Hiring a review management team to handle this not only means that nothing will fall through the cracks but that you’ll maintain a consistent online reputation.

Improve Your SEO Ranking

Aside from maintaining your reputation, managing your Google Reviews is an excellent way to boost your SEO.

How? If your profile is complete, meaning you’ve verified your location, update your hours of business when needed, add photos, etc., it will help Google determine what your business is as well as the associated search queries.

Local SEO rankings are important, especially for businesses with multiple locations. You must show up high on the SERP for customers to find your business, let alone consider it.

Also, it is not enough to have a stockpile of reviews. Brands must always be seeking new Google Reviews from customers. Consider relevancy in this case. Most customers deem reviews older than a month to be irrelevant. In fact, 84% of consumers agree that reviews older than three months are obsolete. As a result, it’s important to encourage new customers to leave a review.

Build Trust With Your Customers

Brands that are transparent and upfront with their customers are leading the charge when it comes to positive online reputation management. There is so much information at customers’ fingertips these days, so making honesty a priority for your business is a smart move.

You can display that transparency by engaging with your customers through Google Reviews. Plus, customers are more likely to trust the reviews of customers like them over a promise from a brand.

Gain Valuable Insight Into Your Customers’ Minds

There’s a lot of insight to be gained from your Google Reviews. Think of these reviews as short surveys, or a direct line to the mind of your customers.

Detailed reviews will often tell you a lot about what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. As we mentioned above, encouraging every new customer to leave a review helps you stay tuned on what your brand is excelling at, as well as what needs to be improved.

The insight you receive from customer reviews could be information you otherwise would not have access to (and information that can help grow your business), so it pays to pay attention to what your customers have to say.

Take this customer interaction with Domino’s, for example. A few customers expressed they had recently received cold, burnt pizza after placing an order. From this information alone, Domino’s team members can see that there’s an issue during the cooking and delivery phases in those customer areas.

Both customers were allowed to share their experiences in more detail with the Domino’s customer service team. Once the customer issue was resolved, Domino’s can use this information to contact those store locations and get to the bottom of the problem. Without that customer feedback, the Domino’s team might not have become aware of a potential problem.

Put in the Effort, Reap the Reward

Google Reviews are a crucial part of growing a brick and mortar business because they allow you to boost awareness, increase customer trust, and build a transparent brand.

Google is the most widely-used search engine, and there are countless opportunities for any brand to succeed.
Ready to take your reputation management to the next level? Our team can help. Contact us today to schedule a demo or to learn more about our services.