There are few things better than a happy customer. It’s especially great when that happy customer has had such a great experience they felt the need to go and leave you a five-star review or give you a referral. Positive reviews tell you how you delivered what your customer was expecting. People reference reviews through numerous listings, such as Google reviews, Facebook reviews, Yelp, etc. But remember that reviews are incredibly valuable in giving your company a good reputation in the community. Think about it. How many times have you passed on a restaurant or a product because of a negative review?
Delight Your Customers
No matter what industry you’re in, one of your main goals should be to make sure your customers or clients are happy with your product or service. In a world where word of mouth travels faster than an olympic sprinter, a happy customer and advocate is incredibly important. The easiest way to delight your customers is by giving them exactly what they expect by the time they expect it, and then following up to make sure everything is kosher.
It’s easy, but unfortunate, to forget about the post-sale delight stage when you’re already moving on to the next prospect. Luckily, there is automation software out there to remind you to follow-up – or better yet, follow-up for you. Everyone loves to feel important. By taking the time to make sure a customer is happy, you’re not only making them feel important, you’re gathering important feedback to improve your product or processes. If you’re lucky, they’ll be so happy that you don’t even have to ask for a review, they’ll just do it anyway!
How to Handle a Negative Review
Negative reviews hurt. There are no if's, and’s or but’s about it. We’ve all seen ‘em. Sometimes, it’s clear that some customers have it out for the company, while in other cases, they’re valid reasons for a poor rating.
A review about a restaurant’s service holds more value to me than a negative review about a car dealership not being able to approve someone for the new car they want due to their credit history. The moral of the story is to always read the bad reviews and see who’s really at fault.
As far as how to handle them if you’re doing reputation management for your company, simply kill‘em with kindness. Make sure to respond to each negative review and show genuine interest in righting the wrong (if at all possible). As the person monitoring reviews, you must watch out for trends. If there are negative trends, escalate them to the proper person to correct them. Make it a point to ensure the reviewer knows the issue has been corrected.
How to Facilitate More Reviews
By now you probably understand how important reviews are. In fact, you probably knew that before you read this post. One thing you may not know, however, is how to facilitate more reviews. There are many ways to entice people to give you a review (hopefully a positive one).
- Ask the person to give you a review if they seem satisfied
- Include a link directly in a post-sale or post-experience follow up
- Offer an incentive towards their next purchase in exchange for a review
- Mention it in your post-sale call
Really, there’s no shame in asking for a review. It’s important to be strategic about it, though. Make sure the customer seems genuinely happy before asking for a vote of confidence. A negative review has more impact than a positive review, so tread lightly!
We’re here to help...
Facilitating and managing reviews are crucial tasks for any small business. If you take a look at the banner below, we can show you how to set up a custom link to facilitate more 5-star Google reviews!
