Exploring the Importance of Reviews for Small Businesses
Small business owners are often frustrated by online reviews. It’s common knowledge that positive reviews are a significant influencer of customer decisions.
For most business owners, it’s like pulling teeth to get online reviews. Even from those who have had a positive experience. Does this story sound familiar?
John is the owner of a hardware store in St. John’s, Florida. He works hard to ensure a great customer experience with his detailed expertise of the products and tools he sells. However, John’s store only has two reviews on Google, one 4-star review and one 5-star review. On a particularly busy day at the shop, there was a long wait at the cash register and John couldn’t spend as much time as he would have liked answering his customers’ questions. One customer left with a sour taste in their mouth after their visit, and they head to Google to leave a scathing 1-star review of the store. Now the store’s overall star rating has tanked, and John is uncertain about how to recover his reputation.
Even though the negative review—which was likely left by a particularly cranky customer— it made a huge impact on the store. Unfortunately, there’s no way to get the review taken down. It is possible to reduce the impact of negative reviews like these. One immediate step would be to respond to the review with an apology to the customer and an offer to discuss the situation further via email. However, John could bump his star rating back up with the help of a review and reputation management service.
You can’t control bad reviews, but you can reduce their impact.
As hard as you might try to serve your customers, bad reviews happen. While you can’t change that fact, you can mitigate the effect of negative reviews on your business. When you have a larger total number of reviews that are mostly positive, one or two negative reviews won’t be such a blow to your online reputation. Instead of focusing on how to get rid of bad reviews, reputation management focuses on how to get more reviews from happy customers.
Customers are more likely to leave reviews after negative experiences than they are to leave positive feedback.
A big challenge for small business owners is that online review sites tend to be a magnet for customers who are unhappy with their experiences. One consumer survey by ReviewTrackers found that customers are 21% more likely to leave a review after a bad experience than a positive one. However, it is possible to encourage more feedback from happy customers.
All it takes is a simple reminder to nudge customers to leave a review of your business. For example, sending out a follow-up email after a visit to your store or a service appointment can direct customers to your preferred review sites like Google or Facebook and encourage them to leave their feedback. This type of follow-up is also an opportunity to stop bad reviews in their tracks. You can filter out customers who indicate they were unhappy with their experience and guide them to leave feedback with your business directly via email. This way, you can handle the issue away from the public eye without hurting your reputation. You might even turn those unhappy customers into more positive reviewers. This is exactly the process implemented by review and reputation management services from TotallyInfused. The service even goes a step further by automatically sharing 5-star reviews on your social media pages and your website.
Potential customers are more likely to choose your company when you have positive online reviews.
When a customer is ready to make a purchase, they will often consider two or three local businesses and select the one with the highest star ratings on Google. However, positive reviews don’t just influence customers who are ready to make a purchase. They can also help you get discovered in local search.
If you’ve been asking yourself “How do I get found on Google?” focusing on getting new reviews can help.
When someone searches for a local business on Google, such as “roofer in Ponte Vedra beach,” they’ll see a Local 3-Pack at the top of the search results page.
One of the biggest factors that contributes to choosing between local businesses featured in the 3-Pack is their average rating on Google.
Get your business found online with reputation management services from TotallyInfused
Let us help you get a steady stream of positive reviews for your business. We’ve built success stories for businesses in a wide range of industries, including a mental health clinic in Birmingham, AL. They now have 63 reviews with an average rating of 4.7 stars. That puts them among top local search results for “psychiatrist near me” in the region.
If you’re ready to boost your reputation and see your star rating climb, reach out to our team today! We help small businesses in St. John’s, Jacksonville, and beyond. Call (904) 293-1626 for your free reputation report card from TotallyInfused.
The Facebook of Business Owners
For those of you avoiding it, LinkedIn is the go to professional networking platform. While many use the site as an employment platform, it is also a powerful tool for building and engaging with business owners like yourself.
Every professional should at least have an updated LinkedIn profile, but it is especially key for business owners who sell their products and services to businesses. If you are not utilizing this social network in 2021, or if you are looking for tips on how to optimize your profile, we’ve put together a list of ways to get the most out of your LinkedIn account.
Keep Your Profile Up to Date
The key to being taken seriously on LinkedIn is ensuring your profile represents your current expertise.
Your profile is your personal promotional billboard. Make sure it showcases all of your skills and experience. Use a polished headshot for your profile picture. Make sure your About section gives a pithy but thorough synopsis of your skills and service offerings. We suggest including an email in your About section for people to easily reach out to you if they do not want to use the messaging platform in LinkedIn.
Keep your resume up to date in the Experience section of LinkedIn. A number of professionals on the site search by alma mater, leading to connections through the Education section, while the Licenses & Certifications section builds trust in your skillset.
Thumbs Up! Highly Recommended!
The Recommendations on LinkedIn are basically reviews about you.
One of the first things we look at these days when searching for different services is reviews about the business. We check reviews for restaurants, for books, for vehicles, for new gadgets… Even in the digital world we live in, word of mouth holds sway.
The easiest way to solicit recommendations is by reaching out to people you’ve worked with and offer an exchange. “Hey, Suzy, we worked great together on this project. Would you be willing to write me a recommendation? I’d be happy to return the favor.”
Share Your Thoughts
Here is your chance to show off your expertise. In any social media posts you do as a business owner, you want to position yourself as an expert in your field.
The best way to grow engagement is to post regularly on your LinkedIn profile. We recommend posting at least 2-3 times a week and engaging on other content related to your business. Utilize the Article option, which will format your content in a more stylized, blog-like post.
If you win an award or are featured in an article, be sure to share it to your page. It also never hurts to share content posted by reputable connections or features of those you know in the industry. Cross-promotion will often solicit engagement from the network of the individual you are sharing.
Get Out the Magnifying Glass
The power of LinkedIn is in the search options on the site.
You can search by People, Jobs, Companies, Groups, Schools, Posts, and Events. We won’t go as far as saying the search options are limitless, but…it’s pretty close!
You can also save your searches on LinkedIn, which will notify you with a Search Alert whenever there is a new individual/job/post/etc that meets your search criteria.
The Friend of My Friend…
The number one way we recommend for expanding your network via LinkedIn is to make use of the Connections search feature.
When searching by People, select All Filters, and a sidebar will pop up on the screen. There are a number of filters you can choose from, but the filter we find the most powerful is Connections. Select on 2nd Connections, search, and watch the power of LinkedIn.
The results will show you people with whom you have at least one individual in common. At a party (do we still recall what those are?), being able to say to someone, “Hey, you’re friends with Suzy. So am I,” is an instant ice breaker and point of familiarity. That same principle can be used with LinkedIn’s 2nd Connections.
Of note: When you see the little yellow in beside someone’s name on LinkedIn, it means they are paying for their profile. Someone who is willing to invest money in the site is someone who is using the site to build their network. Engage with these people!
The best way to engage with 2nd Connections is to find similarities. Did they go to the same school you did? Do you share the same degree? Have you worked for the same company in the past? Find the common ground and reach out to them. Soon, those 2nd Connections will be your own first connections.
Also, don’t forget that individual you have in common. You can always reach out to the person you know and ask for an introduction.
Network → Engage → Grow
We don’t think you need to pay for your profile to get the most out of it, but LinkedIn is as powerful a tool as you make it. It all depends on your use of the platform.
These simple methods of engagement — keeping your profile up to date, getting recommendations, posting regularly, and optimizing the search — will help you build connections and position yourself as a thought leader in your field.
Now go forth and grow your network!