Reputation Management | Grapevine Virtual

In my last post, What is Reputation Management and Why it’s Important, we talked about why it’s important to pay attention to your online reputation. Here are a few of the highlights in case you’ve forgotten.

In this post, we’re talking about a few Reputation Management best practices. This isn’t a comprehensive list or a full Reputation Management plan, but these 5 tips will help you make a big improvement in your online reputation over time.

Set your self up for success online

Just having a review showing up on a review site doesn’t mean you have a verified or accurate account with that review site. Most review sites allow anyone to create a profile for your business if it doesn’t already exist – meaning that person, whoever they are, gets to enter your contact information, business name, everything. Sometimes they’re accurate, but many times they aren’t (how motivated is an unhappy customer, or even worse, one of your competitors, to enter correct information for you?). If your information isn’t accurate, you stand the chance of your stellar reputation being attributed to a different business entirely if their information is at all similar to yours.

BOTTOM LINE: Set up accounts with all major and local review sites and make sure your contact information EXACTLY matches that of your Google My Business account, website and social media info.

Be Referrable

You’re probably doing this naturally already, but I would be neglegent not to mention this most important part of maintaining a stellar online reputation. People aren’t going to go out of their way to say nice things about you unless you give them a real reason to. Many service-based businesses have some real serious competition, so providing great service, and making your clients feel really special is important and necessary just to stay in business. But in order to to encourage your clients to share their experience with you, you’ve got to take it up even a notch more.

ASK!

Statistics show that 90% of typical US consumers read reviews, but only 6% write them (Local Viewpoints). Happy customers who intend on leaving a review still won’t if they forget, it’s too hard or if they’re too busy so it’s important to ask strategically, and in multiple ways, so you catch each individual during the time and in the way thats most effective for them. Here are some ways we’ve found to be the most effective, especially when used in concert throughout the customer experience.

Mention reviews early, and often. Let your customers know you love getting reviews.
Make the process easy! Offer multiple ways for customers to get to your review sites.
Print reminders: QR codes printed on business cards, receipts, and other printed materials (flyers etc) make visiting review sites easy, even after your customers leave.
Ditigal reminders: Text and email campaigns to customers as soon as your service or sale is complete.

Respond

Showing every prospective customer that you appreciate, and respond to the reviews people leave for you is a huge check in the positive column – especially if the review you’re responding to is less than stellar! Showing that you’re willing to work with those who didn’t have a perfect experience with you is HUGE. Don’t try to respond to every review, that can begin to look disingenuous, but be sure to respond to negative reviews, and those positive reviews that really stand out, or that highlight things like attention to detail or a specific service or offering you provide.

Shout it from the Rooftops

Online reviews are already available in many google searches, and whenever someone visits an individual review site, but to get the most bang for your buck, make sure that no matter where a review is submitted, it gets displayed in as many places as possible. There are various WordPress plugins that will allow this for some of the major review sites. You can also manually screen shot reviews to create social media posts. Even better, a good marketing service will provide you with the ability to stream reviews live on your website, and push reviews to your social media streams automatically – like we do ;).

Sharing is fun!

Thanks to technology, if you’re a service-based business owner, chances are you have a reputation online, whether you know it or not – and whether you WANT it or not. The question is, how much control do you want to have over your online reputation? If you choose to ignore your reputation online, you’re leaving your business to the mercy of your most unhappy customers, are you willing to do that?

Unhappy customers are 5 times more likely to leave a negative review, than happy customers are to leave a positive review. What this means is if you choose to do nothing to manage your reputation online, you’re 5 times more likely to have negative reviews online than anything else, including no reviews at all.

Here’s another thing to consider – what others say about you is 100 times more effective than what you say about yourself, even if you’re 100 times more eloquent. It makes no sense to dump your hard-earned money into marketing for your business that is in ‘your voice’, but ignore the absolute best marketing your money can buy: 4 & 5 star online reviews – written in your ideal customer’s voices.

If you’ve owned a service-based business for any amount of time at all, you’ll relate to this. When a new customer walks in your door who was referred by another happy client – you’re almost guaranteed to have a better experience with that referral than with a cold prospect (someone who finds you on their own, or responds to an ad). Referrals come to you pre-sold on your service and abilities, “If they’re good enough for aunt Tina, you know they’re good…”. They’re less likely to complain about your prices and they’re more likey to refer you to someone else they know. The benefits of referrals are clear, and you get referrals because a happy customer talked about you.

With that in mind, think about this for a moment. Research shows that 93% of consumers now read online reviews¹, and 94% of consumers would use a business with a four-star rating².

Similar studies found that 72% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations⁴ and 73% of consumers think that reviews older than 3 months are no longer relevant³.

One more huge piece of research – 4 out of 5 consumers reverse their purchase decision based on negative online reviews.⁵

This means 2 things: 1. Online reviews are now as effective as a personal recommendation (!!) and 2. If you don’t have a steady stream of 4 and 5 star reviews online, your online reputation is in trouble.

Bottom line: Reputation Management is one of the most important things in your business! The question is – how to make sure you’re tapping into the gold mine of new clients that an effectively managed online reputation can bring you. In my next post, 5 Reputation Management Best Practices, we discuss the five actions you can take right now to make sure your online reputation is the best it can be!

Stay tuned

References

1. “Poll: 93% of Respondents Check Reviews Before Dining or Shopping.” Street Fight, 2012
2. Business 2 Community
3. BrightLocal
4. Anderson, M. “Local Consumer Review Survey.” 2012; Available from: http://searchengineland.com/study-72-of-consumers-trust-online-reviews-as-much-as-personal-recommendations-114152.
5. “Online Influence Trend Tracker.” Cone Communications, 2011

Sharing is fun!