Everything has been moving towards the web for many years now, displacing everything from business directories, like the Yellow Pages, to actual in-person commerce. Included in that shuffle is how word-of-mouth—one of the most critical ways your business’s reputation is measured—is spread. While chat around the office cooler or in your neighborhood is still potent, many of your customers will turn first to the Internet to read what reviewers have said about your business. This migration is now being hastened even faster by the coronavirus pandemic, as we all try to operate in the little-to-no contact world of social distancing.
First impressions of our businesses are no longer the towering exterior signs or the smiling faces of our employees greeting passers-by. It’s how we’re rated online.
Stars Matter
Let’s take a look at an example. Hop on Google and search for something broad like “hardware stores near me”. What’s the first thing that jumps out at you when the list of results appears? The answer, of course, is those splashes of color from the yellow stars beneath each business’s name, right? Even without realizing it, don’t you feel compelled to look at the stores that have a higher rating (say, 4.5 out of 5 stars) than lower ones?
Also important is the number in parentheses to the right of those stars. That’s the total number of reviews. What do you trust more? A store with three reviews of 5 stars, or one with three-hundred reviews of 4.8 stars? A lot of customers are savvy to this, meaning that both quality and quantity are important.
Gatekeepers
If you click on any of the business names that are displayed with their star ratings, you’ll see that you’re not taken to that company’s website. Instead, you’re taken to a listing page that has all of the written reviews available by merely scrolling down or clicking the prominently displayed Google reviews link.
Consider that even before you’re able to review the exact location and contact information, hours of operation, and so on, you’re invited to reading what the commenters have to say about that business. If a business is marred by low-stars and prominent reviews that describe its employees as difficult or unhelpful, you can bet that this customer will hit their browser’s back button and click on the next business down on the list.
Soliciting Reviews
Despite the power these online reviews seem to wield, we cannot fear them. Instead, we must embrace this public discourse and even seek out more reviews when possible. Sadly, we must also remember that people who have a particularly negative experience are more likely to take the time to write a review than those who have a positive one. As such, we must encourage as many people as we can to offset that tendency. Here are a few tips:
- Reach out to your most loyal clients and ask them to leave you feedback on sites like Google, Yelp, or Facebook.
- Employees should get in the habit of reminding customers to leave reviews as they conclude their interactions.
- Consider running a contest where a randomly selected reviewer receives a gift card or some other kind of incentive. (Just don’t specify that they have to leave positive reviews in order to qualify, as you don’t want to get in trouble by breaking these websites’ terms of service. Those sites could delist you, which is a worse fate than a bad rating.)
Final Thoughts
Of course, all of this is for nothing if your employees are failing to deliver top-notch customer service each and every time. If they’re soliciting reviews while also being unhelpful (or even rude), then you’re only courting disaster. You’re trying to leverage these online reviews, not be buried by them.
Remember that we’re in an unusual time where our sales and customer service processes are adapted to COVID–19 health-and-safety restrictions, and we’ll likely continue to have to do so for a while longer yet. Nevertheless, we must expect the best from our staff, despite these changes. If you want to make sure you’re getting great reviews and lots of stars, keep your focus on the customer experience.
Do so today by reaching out to The Brandt Group, and we’ll custom-tailor a mystery shopping program that will detail what those experiences are like without having to wait to see what the public writes on Google, Yelp, or Facebook. Our reviews are for your eyes only, so take advantage and fine-tune your customer experience without the risk to your reputation. Let’s get started today!
