Reputation Management Blog

How Can Customer Reviews Help SEO

Posted on April 5, 2019 | by admin

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the center of an online business. It is how you increase the quality and quantity of traffic to your business or website via organic search engine results. Many business owners invest large funds, time, and effort to get their business to rank higher. Usually, SEO involves inbound links, content creation, and much more. So, it might surprise you to learn that customer reviews can help you with SEO.

When it comes to customer reviews, most business owners don’t like to get into it. Customer reviews are hard to acquire and even when you have clients who leave reviews, you have to worry about those who drop bad ones. As an online business owner, you must know other customers depend on your existing reviews to guide them in a decision to buy from you. In fact, statistics show 92% of customers read online reviews and another 68% will trust your business more if they find online reviews from other customers. These reviews function as peer-to-peer talk in your internet marketing campaign. They help customers speak to each other rather than worry about trusting a business’ bias advertising.

For SEO, the most important way customer reviews can be a game changer for your business is keywords and relevance. Believe it or not, customers use keywords in their reviews. It’s easy to find phrases like ‘best electrical contractor in Utah’ in customer reviews and these words can help Google present you before more customers during a web search. If you did a practical test and searched these words on the web, you will notice the results that appear contain these words in bold letters.

To Google, fresh consistent reviews show relevance, authority, and authenticity. They help to keep your content updated with little effort or maintenance needs from your end. Some potential clients spend time reading these reviews as soon as they pop up from their search. They are also tempted to visit the entire website and get a feel of your business. This gives you traffic and higher conversion rates, and the best part is, you didn’t have to pay for it.

Google favors highly rated sites. If you use the internet as much as you sell on it, you would find that search engine result pages are shorter now. They are primarily occupied by highly rated sites for your search results. So, even when you didn’t come to buy, those visible star ratings keep on calling to you.

Customer reviews don’t just provide fresh user-generated content, but they also give you ranking for products. Customers will give a better, unbiased description of your product along with mentioning its name. This improves visibility and ranking for your products. Customer reviews are good for overall local SEO.

Knowing how customer reviews help SEO is exciting, but getting the reviews in question might be another thing entirely. A few tips include:

Encourage customers to leave reviews but never force them.
Reply to each review
Have an automated way to collect reviews.
Sign up with the best third-party review sites.

The Review Generator is here to help businesses grow their online reviews. Through our program, our clients have seen an increase in reviews on Yelp, Google, and Facebook. Learn more by contacting us via our website, email, or by calling (818) 588-0097.

How to Respond to Negative Online Reviews

Posted on March 20, 2019 | by admin

A bad review is something no one wants to see. It is upsetting and has the wrong effects on your business. New customers may get the wrong idea and your ratings may fall giving your competitors an edge. The problem is negative reviews are inescapable. Now and then they appear suddenly, giving you a scare.

Ignoring negative reviews hoping they can get buried under positive ones is not the solution. Rather it damages your online reputation more. Read on to learn the professional ways to respond to negative online reviews.

Take the calm approach
We recognize that negative reviews can be upsetting enough to make you tempted to lash out at your client. The effects of such an action can be almost irreversible. The first step to responding to negative reviews is to take a calm approach. If possible, read the review and try to forget it for a few hours. By the time you are ready to respond, your annoyance would have been reduced. This helps you think with a clear and constructive mind.

Do it as quick as possible
Negative reviews are like a red flag in the middle of the road; they stand out! If the customer felt it was necessary to drop a negative public review, then you must show you are equally active in your business. Respond within 24-48 hours to show other customers you care.

Take responsibility
It is important to know Negative reviews have two sides; it’s either the customer is being impossible or was truly dissatisfied with the service. Regardless of which it is, you must take responsibility for the review. Show you can be accountable for your actions or services. However, don’t run down yourself or your brand, add dignity to your response. A good example of this is:

“I’m sorry to learn about your dissatisfaction. We always aim to provide exceptional service and this is why most clients love us. We will work on getting it right next time. Thank you.”

Politeness is key
Yes, bad reviews can sound like a personal insult and some customers take it to extreme levels with their words. One of the ways to overcome this negative feedback is with politeness. Be civil in your response and refer to the cause of the problem rather than the unsavory statements.

Offer to correct the issue
Don’t just stop at the polite response to the review. Offer to make it up to the customer by giving a free service or going for a do-over. Usually, such clients do not take the free offers, but the aim is to show that you are willing to please and correct your mistakes. Future customers need to see this.

Ask for a second opinion
Negative reviews can be tricky too. Sometimes a few seemingly harsh words may read differently to you than someone else. Give the reviews to another employee or a friend to read and tell you what they think it means. This can influence your response.

Your Veterinary Practice Just Got A Negative Review, Now What?

Posted on March 14, 2019 | by admin

Your veterinary practice works hard to provide the best care at competitive prices for your neighborhood’s furry family members. You work day after day, performing a variety of tasks from clipping toenails to major surgeries. The majority of your clients rave about your services, but sometimes you get that bad feedback. Oftentimes that feedback is displayed in the form of a public negative review. What can you do when you get that email notifying you that someone has left a negative review for you on a site like Yelp or Google My Business?

Well, the first thing you should do is remain calm.

vomiting boxer — Don’t worry, Sophia recovered! [link]

You’ve been through a lot. You know how to handle stress. When a 70 lb boxer starts emptying out his stomach contents right in your observation room, you don’t flinch. Remain calm and gather some facts:

Is this even your actual customer?
If so, what is the complaint about?
Are they mistaken in their complaints?
Do you have facts to back this up?

If the review isn’t even from one of your customers, you might be in the clear. Check your records for the name of the reviewer and make sure that situation hasn’t happened at your company. If it seems like this reviewer is just out to get you or is coming from a competitor, leave a response similar to this:

“Hey there [name], we’re sorry you had a negative experience and would like to make things right. Unfortunately, we can’t seem to find your information in our system. If you could contact us at [phone/email], we would love to discuss what we can do to make this situation better for you!”

Helpful Hacks:

Reporting reviews on:

Facebook
Yelp
Google

*remember! only report reviews that are not intended for your company!

If this reviewer has been mistaken and left the review for the wrong company, is a competitor trying to stir the pot, or is just a spammer, report the review to the site it was left on. That site should be able to take a look at the review and determine that it was not legitimate and remove it.

Many times when a company receives a negative review, it comes because a customer was in an elevated state of anger. Leaving reviews gives your customer a way to vent and, since it’s out there for all to see, makes them feel heard. If you have received a negative review from an actual customer, take a look at what they’re complaining about. We’ve noticed that a lot of negative reviews for veterinarian practices contain the following:

Cost
Unauthorized Care
Unrealistic Expectations
Bedside manner

Assess what they’re complaining about and find them in your system. Try to reach out to them privately to fix the problem. Many times customers just want to feel like they’re being heard and reaching out to them privately to help will make them happy. Work things out with the customer privately, if possible, and no matter the outcome, leave a calm and sensitive public reply.

If you are able to reach the client and resolve the issue, make sure your public response is factual and supportive. Note that you reached out to them to help and offer additional support if needed. Reaching out to your unhappy customers to resolve the issue will oftentimes result in a change of their negative review. We have even seen 1-star reviews turn into 5-star reviews!

If you are unable to reach the client, leave a calm response inviting them to reach out to you:

“[Name], we are truly sorry that you had a negative experience at [practice name]. It is our goal to ensure the best care for all of our clients. We would love the opportunity to make things right. If there is anything we can do to support you or your fur-babies, please let us know.”

This will not only show that client you are trying to make things right but will also show your potential clients you are honest and try to make your clients happy.

6 Ways to Monitor Online Reviews Effectively

Posted on March 7, 2019 | by admin

Online reviews are a key element in business success. They are powerful enough to make or break your business. Online reviews directly affect your reputation and the trust new or existing customers can develop. Hence, it is important to learn how to monitor and manage them.

It is surprising to find that some business owners neglect online reviews in the beginning only to pay closer attention when something goes wrong. To avoid this, here are 6 ways to help you monitor online reviews.

Delegate the task
The reason online reviews are not taken seriously by business owners is that they never delegated the task to anyone. You can start by assigning this responsibility to customer service, PR, or marketing departments. This will lead to proper planning for monitoring online reviews.

Claim your listings
Your website is not the only place customers leave reviews. Check review sites like Yelp to know if you are listed there. Platforms like Yelp allow anyone and not just owners to list businesses. Claim these listings wherever you find them and let the assigned team monitor these spaces for any reviews.

Check Social Media
It is vital to have social media accounts for your business, but they must be checked frequently for comments. Now and then people might leave positive or negative comments and you have to be available to handle them.

Learn to respond to negative comments
Positive comments promote a good reputation and can increase sales. However, negative comments can have the wrong effects on your business. These effects can be minimized if you respond properly. Ensure your response is quick, professional, polite, and positive for your reputation. As much as customers love to see positive reviews, they sometimes refer to the negatives to vet honesty.

Use tools
It might overwhelm you to monitor and respond to all online reviews using manual methods. Thankfully, there are several tools that provide companies with assistance in monitoring reviews. Check the options available and pick one or more suitable ones. They include:
- Google Alerts – This is a popular online reputation monitoring tool that gives efficient free tools to marketers. You will get emails of reports on your mentions according to the frequency you set on the tool.
- Social Mention – social mention is used by several social media sites. It is free and offers categories such as strength, passion, reach, and sentiments.
- SentiOne – This tool provides both real-time and historical data. It allows you to review from the past up to the present.
- The Review Generator – The Review Generator is a very specific review monitoring tool. Not only does it ensure you can monitor online reviews across the internet but it also allows you to reach out to your customers the leave reviews online.

Create user generated FAQ
Rather than let customers drop online reviews wherever and however they please, make the process more engaging and profitable for your business. Create FAQs that users can answer as a way of delivering their feedback. This is a great help in monitoring reviews and managing them to promote your business reputation. Keep the FAQs alive by responding to user’s comments.

How to Build Online Reputation Management

Posted on February 18, 2019 | by admin

Online reputation management (ORM) describes the process of controlling and improving the way your brand is perceived by others- especially potential customers. It is probably one of the most difficult parts of an online business. Several business owners find online reputation management difficult because the internet gives every one extreme freedom of speech. It is a broad community that reaches everywhere your business is represented.

Thankfully, there are ways to build online reputation management for your business. Some of them involve incorporating new practices and using developed ORM tools. Read on to learn more.

Know the keys
The first thing you must understand as an online business owner is people (clients, prospects, competitors, and everyone else) are talking about you. This happens regardless of the size of your business, which is why online reputation management is so important.

Knowing the keys to ORM is the initial step toward building it. The keys are monitoring and response.

Monitoring: The online world is vast, to say the least. Everyone is sharing their opinions on something. Monitoring means listening to what anyone involved has to say about your brand. Where you listen depends on your business. For example, if you are an electrical contractor, you should look towards review sites like Yelp and Google Maps. Tools that can help you with this stage include Mention , The Review Generator , and Google Alerts .

Response: The aim of monitoring is to be able to do something about it. The next key is to respond to what people say to improve your reputation.
Handle negative comments properly
What do you do when customers leave a one-star review or someone drops bad comments about you on the web? Sometimes, it may seem better to ignore and wait till these negative comments get lost beneath happy clients. However, this is harmful because those comments will remain online and within view. The best option is to respond with professionalism and politeness. Try to show understanding and openness to working things out.

Transparency risk
If you have been in online business long enough, you must have heard people talk about transparency as a business. Transparency is a risk most business owners are unwilling to take because of the tricky results. Asking for feedback and one-on-one communication can quickly turn around to harm your ORM. Be transparent, but with limitations that can protect your brand identity.

Encourage positivity
It is essential to respond to positive comments and feedback from happy clients. This helps them feel a connection and improve business relationships. Thank customers for their feedback and if possible, promise to do better.

Build your online presence
Prevention always works better than having to bear the negative results when they occur. Build your online presence with positivity, authenticity, transparency, and efficiency. Constantly analyze your progress and learn from past mistakes. Yes, you might not be able to completely avoid negative comments that impact your online reputation, but you can beat them to a minimum. Use the right tools and stay informed.

5 Reasons Why Online Reviews are Important

Posted on February 6, 2019 | by admin

Online reviews are one of those factors that can make or break your online business. Research has shown that several customers check for positive and negative reviews before investing money in a product or hiring a service.

As an electrical contractor or business owner, having as many reviews (positive reviews) as possible is crucial. There are several reasons why you must take effective steps towards gaining online reviews. Here are 5 top reasons to give you some insight.

Word of mouth drives purchase
It is normal to advertise your business and show potential clients how promising your services are. Unfortunately, a large number of consumers will not take your word for it. They require better proof of your capabilities or the authenticity of your product. Hence, these customers will look to your online customer reviews. Positive online reviews mean that you have been tested and proven by people. It is also known as social proof or word of mouth. This word of mouth drives sales and encourages more clients to trust you.

Online visibility
Every niche is saturated with a high number of business owners. This makes it harder to reach customers before your competitors do. Online visibility is linked with customers’ reviews of your product and services. Search engines recognize their positive feedbacks as satisfaction which means you are relevant. This helps your business gain online visibility during web searches. It is a genuine and easy way to boost your online presence.

Build brand identity
Brand identity is recognized when you have online reviews to speak for you. Several communities within the internet will begin to recognize your relevance and brand authority. They help clients trust you and your message.

Increased sales
Online reviews do not just spur clients to trust you and buy your product, it also increases sales because customers would buy more. Statistics show that 90% of consumers read reviews before visiting a business but 31% of consumers spend more on business with excellent reviews. This means that online reviews from satisfied clients give benefits that include repeat orders, larger order sizes, and increased conversion rate.

To maintain relevance
Consumer reports and business reviews tell others that your business is relevant. It is constant proof that people make purchases every day and your service remains important. If your online reviews are sparse or old, it might seem as though your online presence is waning. Online reviews help you maintain relevance easily without much effort.

Final Thoughts
Having online reviews is wonderful for a contracting business or any business at all. However, getting these reviews from clients can be a challenge. Use effective tips such as open communication, feedback orientation, and much more.

Allow your clients feel that you care about their satisfaction. If they can open up to you about their thoughts, it becomes easier to politely and professionally ask for a review. At the same time, do not try to force or apply pressure on customers for a review.

Get More Facebook Reviews

Posted on January 29, 2019 | by admin

Facebook is a social media platform no doubt, but in the last decade, it has evolved to something much more. Several businesses have established their online presence with a Facebook page and can now reach their audience where they are.

Getting reviews on such a thriving platform provides several benefits for your business. For starters, a wide range of your target audience becomes easy to communicate with on a personal level. Most Facebook users check for reliable businesses on Facebook to make purchases from. Hence, Facebook reviews help your potential clients make purchasing decisions and impact your reputation.

How can clients leave reviews on Facebook?

As a business owner, your Facebook page must be a Facebook business page. Aside from making your business look professional, it allows the platform to offer you various tools to maximize your page. To leave a review, clients will head over to the page and find the Review button. They will click on this prompt and the other that follows to be able to leave a rating and write comments. Clients also have some control over who can see the review, and this they can adjust with a globe icon in this review page. They can submit the review and it shows on your business page.

The magic steps to getting the reviews in

Learning how clients can leave a review helps you point them in the right direction but it doesn’t solve the problem of how to get them to that point in the first place. It’s good to know it won’t be easy to convince clients to give a review. Yes, this is ironic because when it comes to liking a friend’s post, leaving a comment, or even leaving a bad review, people hardly need convincing.

Always ask and show the way.

Don’t expect clients to leave reviews on their own. While some might do this, the majority need a nudge. Send clients a thank you email or message with a reminder to leave a review. Also include the direct link to your Facebook page.

Use call to actions

Facebook posts are a chance to remind your audience of leaving reviews to express their experience with your service or product. Include CTAs in your post.

Use your local office

If you have a local office or physical location set up signs to encourage your clients to check-in and/or Facebook reviews.

Offer incentives

With this step, it is important to be careful. Incentives can take various forms but never make it look like an exchange for check-in or review. For example, don’t tell a client that you would give them some extra service only if they leave a review. Rather, offer your best service or a quality product, a discount, an upgrade, or something along with what the client purchases. This ensures the client’s happiness and makes it easier to ask for a review and check-ins.

Respond to the reviews you do get

Facebook makes it easy to respond in an engaging yet professional manner to client reviews because it is a social media platform. Responding to both positive and negative reviews encourages clients.

Reviews for Law Firms

Posted on January 21, 2019 | by admin

law firm reviews There used to be a time where reviews did not play such a vital role for law firms (at least online reviews didn’t). All you needed to get a consistent flow of clients were more of things like word of mouth, recommendations, and a solid reputation. But, what can we say; the world is ever-changing.

Now, in these times of mind-blowing advancements, reviews for a law firm matter more than before. Here are some stats to give you some perspective:

24% of people say they will not hire a lawyer who has less than an average of five-star reviews.
84% of people say they will not hire a lawyer who has less than an average of four-star reviews.
Only a small 8.54% of people say they won’t be concerned about reviews when hiring a lawyer.

We could go on and on with the stats but they will all prove the same point – reviews are vital to the success of law firms.

The downside to all of this is that the whole business of reviews can be both tricky and frustrating. In fact, you could be one of these right now:

You have zero reviews.
You have too many negative reviews, strong visibility, and spend a lot of money trying to decrease the effects of these negative reviews.
You have imbalanced reviews such as reviews on one review site but not on the other.
You have positive reviews but not enough.
You have negative reviews from a large number of needy, insatiable, wrong clients.

These are all issues that can be solved with the same thing – a large number of positive reviews in the right places.

What you should look out for

It’s not easy to be a lawyer and expect to reel in five-star reviews by the thousands. Lawyers face a unique challenge of hardly being able to please everyone even when they think they have done a great service. The client won’t tell you they think otherwise. You should look out for these two barriers as they influence your review game.

Ethics– As a lawyer, your reviews (responses included) should be free from misleading or non-verifiable statements. They should remain clear and honest. This can be controlled from the review request you send.
Privacy concerns– Not all clients should or would be willing to leave a review. Most times, it has to do with the case you handled for them and in such situations, you should exercise caution and respect the client’s privacy.

Tips to get reviews for your law firm

Make sure you have a profile on all or most of the review sites.
Ask happy clients to leave a nice review for your firm.
Follow-up with emails or messages that are clear, persuasive, and friendly.
You can point your clients to the platform you would prefer they leave a review.
Assign someone to respond to these reviews.
Share your positive reviews to wherever your potential clients are.
Earn more reviews for larger platforms than smaller ones.

How to Remove a Negative Review

Posted on January 12, 2019 | by admin

how to remove negative reviews Negative reviews are a business owner’s worst nightmare. They pop out of nowhere or perhaps that’s what it looks like because you have been doing so well. You quickly discover that this single negative review can impact your business badly despite the numbers of great and positive reviews you have gotten. It gets worse when the number of negative reviews increases.

Panic is the first thing most business owners do. Panic gives way to anger and for those who lack experience or the necessary control needed they go out there to lash out at the client. You might have seen this a few times online and you can agree it is not pretty.

It is a big mistake on your reputation to let a grumpy customer kick professionalism off of you. You must remember that at that moment you might be getting back at the client but your prospective clients can get cold feet after viewing, such an exchange.

To remove or even handle a negative review it is important to always apply professionalism and think of only how you can salvage the situation to save your company’s credibility. Did you know that research has shown that bad reviews can sometimes increase sales? Well, this depends on how you respond to them. Read on to learn how to remove or handle negative reviews.

Evaluate the situation

We have covered the preparatory step of not panicking or lashing out. The next thing to do is not to respond immediately, it is to evaluate the situation. This means checking out what the ‘customer’ is unsatisfied about. Then evaluate your business to know if you really have a problem.

In some cases, if such reviews are more than one, it is important to find out where you might be lacking in your business and fix that. Then, you also need to confirm if the customer is really a ‘customer’. This is one drawback of online businesses, especially on Google. Sneaky competitors, disgruntled employees, and spammers can try to ruin your online reputation with negative fake reviews. Figure out if this is one of such situations.

Respond ASAP

Response is vital when you receive a negative review. First, it shows all your customers how you handle dissatisfaction. And it helps you take control of the situation. So the rules for responding are simple. You need to respond quickly within at least 24 hours; be polite and professional; address the issue and apologize; be brief; offer to fix the problem; reassure of better service or some upgrade in your service if necessary. At this point, you have controlled the situation.

Remove the fakes

Fake negative reviews are real. After you have established that this review is indeed fake, flag it and reach out to Google or the platform in question to have it removed. Don’t hold back on responding though. You can even point out in your response that the review is fake.

Build on the positives

You need positive reviews to really turn the situation in your favor. Put in the effort to get lots of positive reviews. Loyal clients become important at this time and providing your best service too.

How to Get Free Google Reviews

Posted on January 3, 2019 | by admin

free google reviews Google rules the world! Well, not literally the world, but the online world, we all know it’s true. Research has proven that Google currently outpaces all other review platforms like Yelp and Facebook in terms of online reviews. The stats read that 64% of customers say they have to check Google reviews for a business before using it. Another 21% say Google is vital to their search for local businesses.

Google reviews do a lot of things for your business. They impact visibility, conversion, leads, reputation, relevance, and more. Customers trust what other customers say. They also want to know if your business moves slowly or fast. Fast means that people love your service so naturally, you attract a crowd, they would want to get in there. Slow means you are barely getting by and they can be hesitant to do business with such perceptions.

To get free, consistent, and many positive reviews on Google, you must take action.

The first thing to know is that clients who want to leave a negative review need no encouragement to do so. In fact, they can search for your review page themselves. But those with great experiences are usually too relaxed and reluctant. They should always be your focus.

ASK!

Clients won’t read your mind you have to ask them to leave great reviews. Create messages that are short and clear and can persuade your customers to spare a few seconds for a review. Use a few emails so you can track the one with more success and build this campaign around that one.

CREATE YOUR REVIEW LINK

Make it easy for your customers by creating your Google review link. Rather than expecting clients to go through an arduous process of finding your review page, create a link that takes them straight there. Make the link an easy to remember one. This comes in handy when you need to tell your customer to leave a review in person or on the phone.

KEEP YOUR EMPLOYEES UPDATED ON YOUR REVIEW ASKING PROCESS

Everyone that works for you or with you should be educated on asking for Google reviews once they complete a job. Empower them with the right pitch.

BE RESPONSIVE

If you won’t even acknowledge the few that leave a review, why should anyone else bother? Responding to existing reviews increase the likelihood of getting more reviews by 12%.

JUST MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS HAPPY

This one is simple and expected of you. Happier clients don’t make it awkward when you ask for Google reviews. Create a ‘wow’ moment for clients during the work process to make them excited about telling people how great you are. The best part is, asking these excited customers for reviews is easy. Sometimes you don’t even need a template.

If a customer seems unsatisfied, try to work it out. If they don’t tell you but leave a negative review, respond accordingly with professionalism and politeness. Be sure to mention that you love to satisfy your clients as long as they can inform you of their issues. Offer to do so now if you like.

Have Questions? We Have Answers!