Online Customer Reviews

Transcription

1 Page 1 Online Customer Reviews A systematic process for LOCAL Businesses to Solicit Reviews

2 Page 2 Contents PROCESS FOR GETTING ONLINE CUSTOMER REVIEWS OVERVIEW 3 DESCRIPTION WHAT ARE REVIEWS VALUE OF REVIEWS IN THE ONLINE MARKETING GAME REVIEW SITES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS TO THE SEARCH ENGINES GOOD VERSUS BAD REVIEWS INCENTING YOUR EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACTORS OBTAINING CUSTOMER REVIEWS

3 Page 3 Overview Description This document will provide a clear explanation of what reviews are, how reviews apply to the online marketing game, value of reviews in basic business, discuss review sites and their implications to the search engines, and discuss good versus bad reviews. It also provides information on a new software platform that will help you get, monitor and manage customer reviews.

4 Page 4 What Are Reviews Customer reviews are nothing but consumer opinions about products and services that they buy. Surveys show that today s customers are paying more attention to reviews and getting influenced by recommendations from other customers and people they can identify with prior to making a purchase. In the online world, these reviews are customer comments and testimonials that are published on websites. Companies today can use customer online reviews to improve their product/service offerings.

5 Page 5 Value of Reviews in the Online Marketing Game Getting customer reviews is an important step in improving your rankings in the Google Local Business Results. Ask for a review anytime someone compliments your services. Implementing a customer review policy in your company could dramatically improve your rankings. Conversion A survey of more than 2,000 U.S. Internet users, conducted by comscore, a leading web research organization, revealed that consumers were willing to pay at least 20 percent more for services receiving an Excellent, or 5-star, rating than for the same service receiving a Good, or 4-star, rating. Nearly one out of every four Internet users (24 percent) reported using online reviews prior to paying for a service delivered offline. Ninety-seven (97%) percent of those surveyed who said they made a purchase based on an online review said they found the review to have been accurate. Review users also noted that reviews generated by fellow consumers had a greater influence than those generated by professionals. Service Area A business has a service area defined by where their customers utilize and purchase the local business s service. For example, a pizza delivery company may have a service area that has a 5 mile radius from its location. A courier business on the other hand may reside in a suburb of a major city but focus their core business in a major city. If this were a courier business in Chicago, they may serve a 100 mile radius whereas a courier service in Sudbury, Ontario may service only a 10 mile radius. A Medi-Spa in Los Angeles attracts customers to its location from likely a 10 mile radius. A plumber in Sacramento during a recession may be willing to travel 200 miles for business. Service areas change from industry to industry, geographical area to geographical area and include other non-measurable factors. It is practically impossible for a search engine to assume

6 Page 6 a service area and therefore we need to help a search engine determine your service area so it will show your listings for areas that are outside of your core city. By establishing a review pattern, essentially you are providing authority to the search engines in establishing your service area. Search Engine Optimization Early April 2009 Google introduced local business center results into the mainstream organic results. Since that day we have determined over 40 unique factors that influence the rankings in this area and the quantity of reviews is a top 10 factor. By establishing reviews you are suggesting to the search engines that you are in fact a business with active customers pushing marketing efforts online and off-line. Regardless of good or bad reviews the quantity of reviews are important for the search engines and are likely a factor that will help you out rank other businesses for your keywords.

7 Page 7 Review Sites and their implications to the Search Engines There are several websites where customers can leave their reviews for products/services. Some of these include Google, Yelp, local.com etc. For the major review sites, search engines like Google typically do not value reviews on their own sites over reviews on local sites such as Yelp. Therefore it really doesn't matter where your customers leave reviews. On Google Maps when you generate your first five reviews, Google adds little golden stars next to your business listing. This is one of the ways to get your business listing to stand out in the crowd. Customers are likely to click on the business listing that has this 5-star rating.

8 Page 8 Good versus Bad Reviews The reviews that a business gets from its customers might be good or bad. The better the reviews, the more likely people will contact you for your services. In case you get a bad review, there are few things you can do to get it removed from your listing. Contact the person who posted the review, find out what went wrong and offer to make things right. Take note of their complaint and ask for their suggestion on what you can do to set things right. Take steps to make things right for them and then ask them if they would be willing to edit or remove their review. Reviews are very important part of your search engine optimization and online marketing efforts. The search engines use reviews to measure a variety of factors. The search engines will never put greater weight on a five star review versus a one star review, as it is possible that a shady competitor could leave you one star reviews. Therefore, don't fret over negative reviews, attempt to determine the legitimacy of the review, and attempt to contact the reviewer and provide an offer in exchange for an updated review.

9 Page 9 Incentives for your Employees and Contractors It has been said that a referral is hands down the best source of marketing for any local, small and medium-sized business. Online review is merely a digital form of this word-of-mouth advertising and in the long run has significant impact to your business online. There are many reasons why reviews are important for both driving traffic and converting that traffic to a customer when marketing online. Because reviews are so important, it is important to ensure that your company has some form of an internal process for customer reviews. The process included in this document is merely intended for guidance. When implementing anything new, and considering the dynamics of humans to adopt change, it is suggested to provide a form of incentive to employees and contractors who helped collect reviews. We have seen different models in the past such as offering team lunches, and internal competition for monthly prize of $100 or some time off. Please consider implementing such incentives.

10 Page 10 Local Business Reviews and Review Acquisition Strategy How Can BusinessCreatorPlus Rep Boost Your Business Reputation? In the online world, reputation can be everything. That reputation comes via many factors and can take time to develop and nurture. First, you have to build that reputation by creating an online presence. You can do this in several ways, including maximizing your search engine optimization (SEO), building a social network presence and receiving valuable customer reviews. Creating an Online Presence In order to establish any credibility you have to have an online presence. If potential customers have never heard of you then they almost certainly won t go looking for you. In order to create a strong online presence you have to put yourself in a good position on the search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Yelp, Bing and others. If you re not on the first page of the search results then you probably aren t getting very many hits. BusinessCreatorPlus Rep can help you build your online presence. The Power of Social Networking Having a strong social network identity is another great way to increase your online presence and build a strong reputation amongst your customers. As your satisfied customers spread the word via Facebook, Twitter and other similar sites your reputation grows and that translates into more business for you. Managing Your Reviews The third part of building a strong reputation online is having positive reviews. There are several parts to this equation and all of them are important. First, you need as many positive reviews as you can get. Second, you need to make sure you handle any negative reviews as soon as possible and in the right way. Third, you need to know how to deal with fake reviews, and fourth, you have to promote your good reviews so others can see them. Sound like a lot of work? That s where BusinessCreatorPlus Rep comes in.

11 BusinessCreatorPlus Rep Can Help BusinessCreatorPlus Rep is designed to help you manage every aspect of your online reviews. Here s how it works: Solicit Positive Reviews unfortunately, it seems that most of the time it s the unhappy customers who decide to write reviews. Many times, satisfied customers just don t take the time to share their experience. BusinessCreatorPlus Rep not only locates and gathers all of your positive reviews in one place, but it also automatically requests reviews from current customers. Then you choose where you want those reviews to appear. Bad Reviews On the Internet, one bad review can damage a company badly. BusinessCreatorPlus Rep can help you meet your customers needs and diffuse a possible bad situation before it turns into a bad review. With BusinessCreatorPlus Rep you can respond to customer feedback and improve your service, which can even lead to a positive review. Fake Reviews - Unfortunately, some businesses don t always have the greatest ethics, which means sometimes a competitor will actually pay someone to write a bad review about your business. BusinessCreatorPlus Rep allows you the opportunity to contest these kinds of reviews and prevent them from appearing on your website as well as other sites. Promote Positive Reviews - BusinessCreatorPlus Rep also helps you promote your positive reviews and share them on your site as testimonials. It also shares them on Facebook and Twitter, where they are indexed for all of the search engines. This boosts your search engine ranking. BusinessCreatorPlus Rep also partners with some of the largest networks in the world to spread the word about your positive reviews so they appear on some of the leading mobile apps and websites. Get BusinessCreatorPlus Rep If you need help managing your online presence as well as your business reputation, then let BusinessCreatorPlus Rep help. Call Free Number today and ask one of our Marketing Specialists how BusinessCreatorPlus Rep can help grow your business.