One way to boost your name and reputation in the weeks before Valentine’s Day is to take advantage of online praise you may have received over the recent holidays.
Why?
- Review sites are terribly popular. Yelp, for instance, receives 142 million unique viewers a month.
- Reviews are deemed highly credible. Studies have found that 88 percent of people use online reviews to research a business and 73 percent trust them as much as they do a recommendation from a relative or close friends.
Because of these two points, “you need to highlight your good reviews as much as possible,” says Daniel Lemin, who runs the consulting firm One Good Brand.
In a recent article for Convince and Convert, he shared two incredibly simple and effective ways to capitalize on these reviews.
RESPOND!
“Your customers want to interact with you,” Lemin said. “One of the best ways to let them is to come up with an insightful and gracious response via rating-and-review sites.”
Check what people are saying about you on Yelp, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc., and take a minute or two to acknowledge the nice things people say about you.
- Don’t be generic; instead, reply directly to what they mention in their message. It makes a difference. Read the two different approaches and ask yourself which one sounds warm and genuine.
“Thank you for your patronage.”
“Thanks for the compliment! We had so much fun replicating your wife’s wedding bouquet and are honored you let us be a part of your 10th anniversary celebration!”
- If the review includes any constructive criticism, address it politely and succinctly. (“Thanks for drawing this to our attention. We’ll discuss it at our next staff meeting and make sure it never happens again.”)
- Don’t forget to use their user names. (“Come back soon, trackchico44!”)
POST AND PROMOTE PRAISE
Three words: Copy and paste.
Take those glowing reviews and put them on your website and social media pages.
“Posting positive reviews builds credibility through an outsider opinion while highlighting a selling point of your business you may not have considered,” Lemin said.
And as for any negative reviews…
“Use them as fuel,” Lemin says. “Feedback like this is invaluable—any trends should be examined. If you are seeing constant complaints about a certain aspect of your business, it’s time to re-evaluate how you handle that aspect of your trade.” And it’s so much better to nip those problems in the bud before all cupid thrusts you in the spotlight.