Congratulations – You’ve taken the first step and have a strategy to grow your customer reviews.
You’ve started receiving emails from your Google My Business account that customers are raving about your work. Though you may want to take a moment to celebrate, don’t forget the most important step:
The importance and benefits of responding to customer reviews are endless, so let’s focus on a few key ones.
Encourages Customer Loyalty
You have a happy customer who has taken the time out of their own day to rave about your business. Show them how much you value them, encourage them to return! This drives customer loyalty and builds your base.
The review response can be short and simple – but you need to respond. And preferably within 24-48hrs
Bonus Tip: Refer to the customer by name in the response
Influences Future Customers:
When perspective clients read reviews, they are looking for an outside opinion of your business andjudging how you interact with customers.
Showing that you are interactive and appreciate your customers provides additional social validation that you are the business they want.
Think of your customer reviews as free radio advertisements, you want them to highlight you in the best way possible!
Directly Affects 15.44% of SEO Results
Moz reported that Google confirmed Reviews are the 3rd highest contributor to your SEO results, contributing 15.44% to your local search ranking. This is not only the number of reviews, but quality and action that they reviews has.
This means that Google is watching to see if other customers are “liking” this review, are you responding to it, etc.
Indirectly Affects 9.56% of SEO Results
Another contributor to your local search rankings is the Behavioral Signals Google tracks. A large piece of that is your click-through-rate which can be positively affected when your reviews drive customers to your site to learn more.
Don’t let negative reviews push customers away, have your positive reviews pull them in to learn more!
Flips Negative Customers
So many businesses avoid asking for reviews because they are scared of receiving a negative one – which is quite possibly the worst excuse. You are a thriving business because you have tons of happy customers!
Even if you do have one upset person, it is not to be feared. Instead, view this as an opportunity to learn about how to improve and to show other customers how you handle difficult situations.
Responding in a professional and timely manner to a negative review can have a positive influence on others by showing that you value your customer’s feedback.
Additionally, studies found that 33% of customers who posted a negative review but received a response within 48hrs submitted a follow-up positive review!
Reviews are a necessity for any business to thrive in 2019 and beyond, but they can be overwhelming. You have a business to run, personal life to live, you don’t need another item added to your To-Do list, which is why we’re here!
We want to help your business succeed by driving results without the work for you.
Call us today to learn how we can help!
