How To Get More Online Reviews from Your Customers by Replying Promptly
February 9, 2012 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
Knowing what customers think of your business is crucial information that every business owner wants and needs to know.
Great online reviews will boost your image and your reputation too. This will potentially lead to more business and more money. However, negative reviews could really put a dent in your plans.
Negative reviews are usually left by unhappy customers, disgruntle employees, or sabotaging competitors. Yes, that’s right… some competitors stoop really low when it comes to knocking you out of their way.
People definitely rely on online reviews when searching for a local product, service, or business. So any negative reviews out there about your business can definitely put a damper on things.
Although you can’t control the reviews your business receives, you can improve the way you handle the negative ones.
In fact, you can even turn them into “positive” reviews.
So how do you do that? It’s simple…
Reply! Reply! Reply!
It’s a good idea to reply back to any and all of your customers reviews. Being more personable will show other prospects and customers that you at least care and value the opinions of your customers.
Local business listing sites such as Google Places and Yelp are wonderful sites that allow business owners to easily see and respond to their online reviews.
Promptness Pays Off!
The sooner you reply back to your customers reviews the better. This will show that you care about the quality of your business and will definitely earn you some “brownie points” from your valued prospects and customers.
Replying back promptly will give you a better reputation and will even encourage more customers to write more reviews (hopefully, good ones).
All you need to do is stay online, see what they’re saying, and get engaged! You’ll be happy you did when you see how powerful a nice, strong, solid online reputation can be for your business.
Managing Negativity on Social Networking Sites
January 26, 2012 by Lisa Santos · 1 Comment
Everyone agrees that one way to draw attention to your business is by leveraging the power of Social Networking. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are very popular sites and could be harboring a large sum of potential customers for your business.
In fact, social networking activities calculate to about about 15% of all internet use daily – this is HUGE.
We all know about Facebook. Whether you have your own account or you know of someone else who does, you are well aware that this is the most popular online social networking sites today.
Facebook has more than 750 Million users – imagine how many of your local customers you could reach just by using Facebook!
So when it comes to building and maintaining your company’s reputation, this is one place to start.
Studies show that Facebook users spend quite a bit of time logged in each day socializing, sharing information, and responding to messages.
So let’s say you have an unhappy customer who posts negative information about your business on your Facebook Fan page. You can respond to any negativity that comes your way immediately if you manage your Fan page properly.
It’s a known fact that people do business with those they like and trust. So if you can tap into those zones, you can eventually build a solid reputation that can’t be touched.
To do so, your main goal should be to share valuable information with your followers on a consistent basis as well as provide special discount offers from time to time.
Maintaining your online reputation also involves heavily monitoring what is being said about your business online. If you don’t know that something negative has been said, you have no chance of responding to it or correcting it.
How detrimental could that be for your business?
Get Your Local Business Booming With Online Review Sites
January 10, 2012 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
A surprising amount of customers searching the internet are looking for local information. This opens up a wonderful opportunity for local business owners.
Taking advantage of the massive amount of local searches is not only smart, but it’s a necessity if you want to stand against your local competitors.
However, some businesses are still left scratching their heads trying to figure out HOW they can take advantage of the internet to produce more leads, customers, and sales.
One effortless way that businesses can do this is by signing up with Online Review Sites such as Yahoo Local Listings and Yelp!
When local consumers search for a local business online, sites such as these usually come up as well as independent business websites.
However, these review sites pack more power because they contain reviews from the company’s customers right there for everyone to see.
Now, imagine your business listing (with no reviews) sitting right above one of your competitor’s listings which happens to have 38 glowing customer reviews. Who do you think consumers will go with?
As you can see, building online customer reviews is no longer an option – it’s a necessity.
Reel Them In With Yahoo Local Listings…
This is an awesome site that can help boost your business. At Yahoo Local Listings business owners can advertise their business information for free.
As a complimentary service to this free Online Review Site, you may list your business in up to five different categories, making your business viewable to a larger amount of searchers. This is a very high trafficked site and is sure to bring more money and customers to your door!
Yelp! And They Will Come…
Here, you can view feedback about your business as well as post a response. Yelp.com is growing at a ridiculous rate so now is a perfect time to act. At the rate this Review Site is going, you’ll be sure to bring in more business if you use the site to your advantage.
In fact, your profile may even be listed there already. If so, all you need to do is make a quick phone call to claim what is rightfully yours. Now you can take control of your own profile and bring in more dough.
The Care and Feeding of Your Online Reputation
November 9, 2011 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
So you have built a strong online presence that has you climbing to the top of major search engines. Business is expanding and new leads are pouring in uncontrollably due to the work you’ve done to build your online marketing efforts.
But it doesn’t stop there….
Now, that you’ve built your online exposure to serious levels, it’s time to manage and feed it by staying on top of what is being said about your company online.
Without respect from customers and prospects you could lose everything you have built. Whether you are right or wrong, customers tend to leave in droves when negativity comes up surrounding a business.
So here is your chance to establish a plan for keeping your stellar online reputation secure.
Your website has a place for comments and suggestions which is highly recommended, but with transparency comes risk. One disgruntled customer can light a match that could potentially bring your years-long investment to ashes.
Once your company has dominated the market share and pounded the competition, the last thing you want is to teeter on the edge of defeat because of bad online publicity.
The reality of controlling your reputation online basically boils down to one thing – doing ethical business on the internet and tracking what others are saying about you.
Check your website hourly and filter all feeds into one RSS Reader for time and efficiency in monitoring. Also track your message boards and forums consistently. All of this may seem like a lot of work, but it’s not an option if you truly want to protect your online reputation.
Finally, accept the inevitable bad review but be proactive about directly addressing the concern. Leaving it unmanaged could damage your stellar reputation. Therefore, do what you have to do as a business to keep your reputation spotless and professional at all time.
What Are They Saying About YOU? (Online Reputation Managment)
September 22, 2011 by Lisa Santos · 1 Comment
Are you paying attention to what people are saying about your business online?
Along with social media networks, people will talk about your business anywhere online… both the good and bad.
Think about it… people do not hesitate to go online to voice their concerns about a business instead of contacting the business directly.
Even worse, sometimes business owners have NO idea that the content is out on the web. This can truly hurt a business’s reputation, which is unfortunately; especially when the complaints are not even warranted.
Imagine one of your potential customers Googling your business name and up pops a negative post from one of your customers about how much they hate your service.
If this is the first thing your prospects see, do you think they will be quick to do business with you? No, they won’t. In fact, most people will automatically decide against doing business with you solely based on this other person’s complaint.
It’s just a fact… people rely heavily on the opinions of others when deciding whether or not to do business with you.
This is why customer reviews and testimonials are so powerful in converting prospects into buyers. When people see that others love your products, services, or business, they will have no problem doing business with you.
On the flip side, as soon as they see unhappy customers, they will avoid you like the plague.
Is this something your business can afford during these tough economic times? You probably answered, “absolutely not” and you are correct.
So how do you, as a business owner, defend yourself from the negativity surrounding your business online?
One way is to do a Google search for your business name to see what type of information is coming up.
Another way is to join and engage in social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. People will definitely say what they feel there.
But it’s up to you to catch it and do something about it – even if it’s just to post a reply to the complaint to defend yourself. If not, you are leaving your business vulnerable to negative publicity, which is not good.
One way to combat a negative online reputation is to get your happy customers to post more positive reviews and testimonials about your business online.
This will help overshadow the negative comments and help you clean up your online reputation.
Let’s look more deeply into Online Review sites right now…
Online Review Sites
As mentioned earlier, online reviews are powerful when it comes to purchasing decisions.
People are careful when selecting businesses and if they see negative reviews about a business, they are not likely to go that way.
Think about yourself and your own online searching habits…
Let’s say you are looking for a plumber online and you come across a customer review tearing them apart.
You would probably move on to the next plumber – as would most people.
On the flip side, if your prospects see a bunch of glowing reviews about your business, they are more likely to do business with you.
Imagine having the MOST positive online reviews in your local industry?
Can you see the powerful impact this can have on your business?
Wouldn’t it be nice to knock out your competitors just by having a few extra positive customer reviews?
Therefore, online reviews are extremely important when it comes to connecting with your local prospects and customers.
You may be wondering how you can get more positive online customer reviews…
There are several local business directories where people can post reviews about businesses – this is a great place to start.
Some of the most popular are: Google Places/Maps, InsiderPages.com, Yelp.com, Yahoo Local, and Citysearch.com.
You should visit your business listing on these sites frequently to stay on top of what is being said about your business.
Not only that, but you should also direct your happy customers to these sites to post reviews about your product or service.
In addition to gathering customer feedback, these review sites are also good places to offer coupons and special promotions to help attract new customers.
Think about it… if you were searching for a local flower shop and one listing had a 50% off coupon and the other ones don’t, which one would you choose?
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you would like professional help implementing any of the methods you read about in this article, please contact me us at http://lsvirtualassistant.com/contact to setup a free consultation.
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