If you’re the head of social customer service and in charge of making sure your team answers online reviews, the following scenario may sound familiar.
It’s your responsibility to make sure customers are happy, and this includes responding to all customer reviews as soon you receive them.
While the expectation is there to stay on top of a hefty task, unfortunately, sometimes it’s difficult to convince your boss to fork up enough cash to support these critical customer retention services.
If you’re looking to make a case to your boss on why it’s time to increase the budget for review management, this article is for you.
This post will take a deeper dive into the cost of skimping on review management and discuss the benefits of investing in a review management service.
What is the financial impact of customer retention (and what role do reviews play)?
Online reviews play a huge role in both customer acquisition and retention.
In terms of customer acquisition, consider the following:
- 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review.
- When higher-priced items display reviews, the conversion rate increases by 380%.
- Given two products with similar ratings, consumers are more likely to buy the product with more reviews.
These stats paint a clear story. When you put effort into capturing and displaying more reviews, new customers will make purchases.
Review management also plays a role in customer churn and retention.
It’s simple: When reviews go unanswered, you lose customers. Research shows when you don’t respond to customer reviews, it puts your company at risk of increasing churn by 15%. That’s a substantial financial loss for a task that a reputation management service could easily manage.
The opposite is also true. When you prioritize answering online reviews, customers are impressed and willing to stick with you and spend more. Stats show consumers will spend 49% more money with businesses that respond to their customer reviews.
The key takeaway for the boss: Reviews play a leading role in customer churn and retention. If you want to keep your customers, you have to save a portion of your budget for review management. And, when you boost retention rates, you make more revenue.
What is the social cost of losing a customer to bad reviews?
Reviews contribute significantly to customer retention. But what is the actual cost of losing a customer to bad reviews?
There are several consequences of letting reviews go unanswered, but one that doesn’t get talked about enough is the social cost of losing a customer.
Unhappy customers will tell their friends and coworkers about bad experiences. Americans will tell an average of 15 people about a poor service experience, and customers now have social media platforms with built-in review and sharing capabilities at their fingertips.
David Pogue from Scientific American explains the implications well. In a HelpScout report, Pogue says, “The rise of the citizen review site is a sobering development. No longer are you on top of the mountain, blasting your marketing message down to the masses through your megaphone. All of a sudden, the masses are conversing with one another. If your service or product isn’t any good, they’ll out you.”
The good news is your online review responses are influential in controlling the perception of your company. Data from HBR shows that companies that respond quickly to angry customers can turn them into loyal customers.
When you respond to reviews quickly, 65% of consumers will actually become more loyal to your company, 70% are more likely to use your products, and 25% are less likely to go somewhere else or post negative things on social media. And 75% will share a positive experience online.
Fostering a positive narrative online and across social media translates into boots in revenue. Businesses that respond to only one customer review earn an average of 4% more revenue. If a business replies to at least 25% of their online reviews, they earn 35% more revenue.
The key takeaway for the boss: Not responding to reviews has a large negative social impact, which can ruin your reputation. When you respond to reviews, you turn loud customers into loyal customers, which eventually impacts your bottom line.
What are the benefits of review response services?
Now that you’ve told your boss what the company will lose by not allocating enough budget to review response services, it’s time to state what the company will gain.
Here are the top benefits of review response services:
1. Manage Online Customer Feedback
As you already know, it isn’t easy to keep up with feedback across all customer touch points. Investing in a review management software and service ensures a trusted reputation management professional monitors when new reviews come in and that they will respond quickly and appropriately.
2. Protect Your Online Reputation
What people say about you online influences your company’s online reputation. A review response professional knows that customers are writing a review because they care. They also know how to isolate conflicts as soon as they happen, deescalate negative reviews, and provide responses that protect your reputation.
3. Improve Local Visibility (SEO)
Google reviews play a huge role in organic search listings. The more positive reviews you have, the higher Google will rank you in the search results.
The key takeaway for the boss: No matter what industry you work in, the benefits of investing in review responses are unmatched. A professional review response agent will keep their eyes on your reviews online and protect your online reputation. They will also spend the time to ask for more reviews to help improve your organic rankings.
Contact Let Us Respond for help with responding to reviews
If you’re about to head into a meeting with your boss, remember to focus on the financial and social implications involved in not allocating enough money to online review responses. Then, highlight all the advantages of hiring a review response service.
Remember 70% of people will leave a review if you ask. But, you have to have the budget to pay for a review management team to stay on top of asking for and responding to reviews. If you’re ready to try Let Us Respond, contact us today.