You are searching for a new item for your home. You jump on Amazon to look around. You have narrowed your search down to three options. What is the next thing you probably do? You check the reviews. Which one do you pick? The item that has 3 stars and 79 reviews, or the item that has 4.5 stars and 1,367 reviews?
Can you appreciate the power and value of reviews?
According to industry research:
- 92% of consumers use reviews to guide their purchasing decisions.
- Consumers expect brands to respond to reviews, and 53% expect businesses to respond to negative reviews within a week.
- 6% of consumers check reviews on Google before visiting a business
- A positive online reputation is one of the strongest marketing assets a business can have.
- Google is the review site of choice. 63.6% of consumers say they are likely to check online reviews on Google before visiting a business — more than any other review site.
- Consumers expect brands to respond to reviews—and are disappointed. 53% of customers expect businesses to respond to negative reviews within a week, but 63% say a business has never responded to their review.
- Negative reviews drive away customers. 94% say an online review has convinced them to avoid a business.
- Customers don’t trust businesses with lower than 4-star ratings. 80 percent of consumers say the star ratings they trust the most are 4.0, 4.5, and 5 stars.
As you can see from these statistics, reviews are a vital part of the success and growth of your business. A review is simply the opinion of your client regarding how your business dealt with them. It can be positive or negative. It can be hateful or friendly. It can be passionate or professional. It can help build the reputation of your business, or it can tear it down. Your responsibility is to take every review seriously and take care of all past, present and future clients.
Before the Review
You want to structure your entire customer service with this mission: Each person will eventually leave a review and what does our reputation mean to us? Knowing the power of a review, according to the research mentioned above, it would be foolish to not establish this mission into your business practice. How you treat every prospective client, what you post on your social media outlets, how you answer the phone, how you make someone feel when they ask questions, how you appear in public, and many other areas all affect a potential review. If you are only courteous and helpful to those who pay you money, you have already missed the mission. Treat everyone as a potential customer, and they may become one. Once they do, they will leave you a review.
Asking for the Review
You want to develop the habit of asking each customer for a review. This can be done in many ways and there are companies whose primary business is to help you get positive reviews with practical tools. However, if you don’t want to invest money into those helps at this time, there are still ways for you to ask for a review. You want to develop a system that makes it user-friendly for your client. If they have to spend more than 30 seconds leaving you a review, they probably won’t. For example, you could add a page to your website linked to Google Reviews. You could then generate a link or QR code to that page and add it to a business card asking them to give you a review. You could ask the client if they were pleased with your service. When they say yes, give them the card and ask them to scan the code and leave you a quick review. Or, you could pull the website up on your device and ask them to input their review at that time. If they say they are not pleased with your services, ask at that time what else you can do to leave them satisfied, and resolve it then.
After the Review
Staying proactive on your reviews is vital. Be sure to check each review and actually read it. It is important to respond personally to every review. Do not give generic “thank you for your review” answers. That sounds automated and distant. Instead, mention the person by name and change your wording each time so that you are acknowledging the importance of their opinion to the public. If there is a negative review, do not argue with them. Nothing screams unprofessional like an online fight. Instead, try to professionally resolve the issue and apologize for their negative experience. Humility is attractive personally and professionally.
Results come from where we place an emphasis. If superior customer service is a priority for your business, and intentionally asking for reviews from your clients is your practice, you will start seeing the fruits and benefits of your work. Trust from your community and respect from your customers is just about the best reward any business can have and each review will testify to that truth.
Want to learn more about how you can market your decorating and staging business. Jump on over to our Online Marketing for Decorators and Stager’s class to begin!
Sources:
- http://www.reviewtrackers.com/reports/online-reviews-survey/
- http://www.reviewtrackers.com/reports/customer-reviews-stats/
- http://www.reviewtrackers.com/blog/social-media-reviews/
TRACY FREDRYCHOWSKI
Tracy Fredrychowski is a Digital Marketing Consultant with over 25 years of marketing experience in the staging and decorating field. Tracy has spent most of her career as a small business owner, so she knows the challenges that come along with being an entrepreneur. Specializing in helping small businesses move their company to the next level, she has a keen understanding of how to successfully market a business in the digital realm.
