At Customer Radar we know that customer experience is the most important driver of business reputation today, particularly online. But it’s not just us, a 2018 KPMG report stated “today’s customers are better informed, better connected and more demanding than ever before. Customer experience is overtaking price and product as the number one brand differentiator.” This is even more true in 2022.
The quality of your business’s customer experience will influence its online reputation, and online reputation is critical for generating new business in today’s market. Consider these sobering stats:
- 97% of consumers have read reviews to determine the quality of a local business
- 91% of 18 - 34 year olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
- Buyers require an average of 40 reviews before believing a business’s star-rating is accurate
So, it’s important to nurture your online reputation, especially on platforms like Google reviews. But how can businesses start? And what about negative reviews? Here are some pointers, to get you started:
Capture Complaints Privately
Your customers are connected to platforms that can influence hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people. Google reviews, social media, Tripadvisor, Neighbourly, and many more platforms offer an ability to instantly critique a business - for good or bad - so it’s essential to provide a good customer experience every time.
But we know things can go awry - new staff who aren’t fully trained, a particularly busy patch in-store, or stock issues can all take the shine off a customer’s experience. Offering a platform to share issues privately, is a great way to prevent them ending up online. Using feedback software, like Customer Radar, allows businesses to make timely feedback requests to their customers and respond to complaints quickly.
Most customers don’t want to put their name against a negative review online, they just want their issue solved. By giving them the opportunity to have their complaint addressed privately, customers are much less likely to take to public platforms in search of a resolution.
Make It Easy for Customers to Give Reviews
There are a lot of great customer experiences that never get published as online reviews. Maybe customers aren’t aware they can review your business online or maybe it’s just too much effort.
Prompting your customers to share reviews online makes it much more likely to happen. Customer Radar’s feedback platform can encourage customers to post a Google review after they have submitted feedback about a business. We make it easy - the initial review is copied into Google and all customers have to do is press “submit”. One small business we work with quadrupled their Google reviews in just a few months and boosted their rating to 4.9 stars!
Respond to Negative Reviews
On occasion a negative review will surface online. In fact, some potential customers are wary of businesses with too many 5-star reviews - they worry the reviews are fake and not reflective of the experience the business provides.
Customers are much more likely to try a business that has an occasional bad review, but which takes steps to address it. In fact, 97% of consumers read business responses to online reviews; so it’s important that your business responds to negative reviews promptly by apologising, owning the issue, and taking steps to provide a solution - offline if necessary.
Request a Customer Radar demo and see how you can grow your businesses online reputation.
