Taking Advantage of Reviews will Strengthen your Bottom Line
As a customer, there are many resources available to help you find ideas when you’re looking to try a new product or service. You might reach out to friends and family for a recommendation, you might seek out an expert opinion (a food critic or tech reviewer), but, at some point, you’re likely to end up looking at reviews online. Most of those reviews come from complete strangers, people who may not share our tastes, but we take their opinions to heart anyway.
If you’re looking to try a new Italian restaurant, most of us are going to visit the one with 5 stars over the one with 3. As a business owner, you may feel like these reviews, on Google, Yelp, or Facebook, are out of your control. You may feel content letting your work speak for itself and hoping for positive reviews from happy customers. Don’t do this. Great businesses have lots of great reviews, but all businesses have a few people who had a bad experience and want to tell the world about it. As a business owner, you have to be there for the good and the bad to make sure that you’re sending the message you want, because your bottom line depends on it.
There are many reasons to respond to reviews, but the most important is because it will draw more customers to your business. According to TripAdvisor, businesses that responded to 50% or more of their reviews saw bookings increase at more than double the rate of businesses that ignored their reviews. These businesses are treating reviews as opportunities! Responding to reviews gives you the chance to correct misconceptions, advertise for upcoming events or deals, and showcase to customers that you listen to them and want to improve.
Read: 4 Steps for Responding to Online Reviews
It’s not just about the bad reviews either. If someone liked their meal at your restaurant last week, invite them back to try a new menu item next week. Social media is about community building, so take the opportunity to build a community that new customers will want to join.
TruBrand Marketing’s team of digital marketing experts can help guide you through this community building process. We can aid you in claiming ownership of your business’s online presence and beginning to form relationships with customers that can last a lifetime. Check out our social media services to learn more about what we can do as your partner.
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