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Business & Tech

How to Market, Improve Your Company's Reputation Online

It's crucial to get your customers to share their experiences and here's the effective way to do it.

One thing that businesses are starting to notice more and more is that consumers are relying on online reviews before making any purchasing decisions. Websites like Yelp, Merchant Circle and City Search provide shoppers with the opportunity to rate a company and offer their personal comments so other consumers have an idea of what to expect.

A recent survey by Deloitte’s Consumer Products Group found that nearly 62 percent of consumers read consumer-written product reviews online and 82 percent admitted that their purchase decisions have been directly influenced by reviews.

Fact of the matter is, consumers read and depend on these reviews whether you like it or not and they have the ability to effect whether a customer visits your restaurant or buys your product.  On a personal note, I use these sites religiously when searching for a new restaurant to try. I like being able to see the overall rating, but I also pay close attention to the comments to help me decide what dishes are popular and which ones to stay away from. 

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Here’s the problem. Many companies don’t even know that they’re on these sites and if they are, they don’t know their ratings or what’s being said about them. I’ve seen organizations lose business because of unfair evaluations. Unfortunately, there are a few negative Nancy’s out there that run straight to their keyboard once something goes awry rather than go directly to the company to resolve the issue.

Now that you know the potential and destruction that these sites can have on a business, here are five steps to get started on improving your online reputation:

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  • Determine which sites make the most sense: Before adding your company to every review site out there and asking customers to post reviews, take some time to research the various sites and determine which ones are the most popular and if it makes sense for the company to be listed there.
  • Make a plan: Once you’ve decided which sites to focus on, create a strategy for how the company is going to approach customers and request reviews. This is going to vary from business to business since some companies have access to email addresses and others don’t. For the ones that don’t, you’ll probably want to ask the customer over the phone or in person.
  • Ask for reviews: If you’re contacting customers through email, start off by first asking for their feedback. Find out if they were happy with the service or product they received. What could have made it better? This should give you a good idea if the person would be a good candidate to write a positive review or not. Obviously everyone isn’t going to be happy so this is also a good opportunity to resolve any issues and determine if it’s something the company is doing wrong and what needs to be fixed. If the customer sings your praises, respond by asking them if they’d be willing to share their experience with others on review sites. Not everyone is familiar with how these sites work and how to post so it’s important that you provide clear and concise instructions on how to do it. Even if it means writing out steps one through three. Make it as easy as possible for them to post and include the links to the sites. Also, each site requires that the reviewer to create an account with a login and password so make sure they’re prepared to sign up.
  • Provide tokens of appreciation: The majority of people are more likely to do something if there’s an incentive involved. Offer the customer something as little as a Starbucks gift card, a donation to a charity of their choice or a discount on their next purchase. While a company might be reluctant to purchase gift cards or give anything of monetary value, the impact those reviews can have on a business will far outweigh those minimal costs in the long run. Encourage the customers to send the company an email indicating which sites they posted on and provide the rewards right away.
  • Track, track, track:  So you’re getting a lot of positive reviews? That’s great, but the work doesn’t stop there. Everything these days needs to be measured. It’s a good idea to create a spread sheet and monitor how many new reviews are posted each week, including comments, ratings and any other information. For comments pertaining to a specific department or individual, make sure you share that feedback so others know that they’re doing a good job.

If your company already has a customer service department, assign this task to someone that’s already comfortable interacting with customers.  There are going to be some bad reviews every now and then. However, the goal is to have the good reviews outweigh the bad and not let those negative comments give consumers a reason to go elsewhere.

Lastly, some companies think it’s a good idea to act as customers and write their own reviews. This should be avoided at all costs because consumers can tell when this happens. Your biggest supporters will be able to give accurate reviews and hopefully lead to more business opportunities.

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