When it comes to your online reputation, you can’t afford not to protect your brand by being aware of your companies ratings and reviews. If you are not collecting positive case studies, testimonials, and positive experiences from your customers or clients, you are already behind your competition on the web!
Reviews are a major factor in local search rankings, such as Google Page Places.
Here are a few ratings and review tips and facts we have collected over the years:
Negative Reviews Will Happen, This is a Fact of Life!
It is almost impossible for a small business to make every single client 100% happy.
1-2% of your customers with a positive experience will leave a review (without your “request”.)
20-30% of your customers with a negative experience will leave a review (without your influence.)
When is the last time you commented about great service from your waiter? What is the likelyhood of you doing the same after suffering food poisoning? Over 77% of consumers research online before purchasing a product or service. They may purchase the service at a store, but prior to doing so the majority of shoppers spend time on the internet.
If you want to make sure bad reviews don’t show up online, you better get some good reviews.
Write it on a napkin. It doesn’t matter how you collect the review, just as long as you save them.
We often recommend using a page on your website for reviews. Such as www.smbSEO.com/reviews. Just a simple form page to collect reviews. You can use the comment section of a site. The key is to encourage clients to write SEO friendly reviews by asking them to include a description of the location of service and the type of service provided in the review.
All it takes is 5 reviews per month.
Here are a few suggestions on how to handle or respond to negative online business reviews:
- Investigate – Find the person that submitted the review or negative testimonial. Does the review look real? Contact the webmaster of the review site.
- Make Amends - Reach out and offer to resolve the complaint. Oftentimes the other party may remove or re-review the review. It is worth a shot!
- Address the Issue – Find out what the problem was and if you can’t make amends or get the reviewer to fix it, tell your side of the story. Be honest!
- Bomb the Review Site - Positive Reviews (not suggested for Google Page Places etc due to frequency and authenticity factors)
What is the big deal with online reviews?
- Online reviews are perhaps trusted even more than what friends and family say these days. “User reviews are more influential than third-party reviews.” (”Web users and web community,” Rubicon Consulting, Inc. October 2008)
- About 90% of people browse through online business reviews before buying (or not buying) your services; 90% of whom automatically trust these reviews. (Kudzu.com survey of 600 users, December 2008)
- Almost 75% of consumers read product reviews on the Internet. (Deloitte & Touche, September 2007)
- Customers consult Websites with product and service reviews, even beating out a knowledgeable friend (59%). (Marketing Sherpa, July 2007)
- Seven in 10 (69%) consumers who read reviews share them with friends, family or colleagues, sometimes exaggerating the facts to your harm. (Deloitte & Touche, September 2007)
Online ratings and reviews can appear for large or small businesses, and can be important to individuals where ratings are conducted, such as doctors, accountants, dentists, and even plastic surgeons.
Posting your own reviews can get you in big trouble! So never post your own reviews for YOUR company.
The New York Times reported last year that cosmetic surgery clinic Lifestyle Lift would pay $300,000 in civil penalties after an investigation by the New York State attorney general’s office found that employees had posed as plastic surgery patients to write glowing reviews of their own business. It’s not worth it. How many “pay per clicks” could $300,000 buy?