Chances are, someone has looked at your local listing online reviews before deciding to buy from your business. As a matter of fact, 97 percent of consumers read online reviews, and 88 percent of them trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends or family. As much as people rely on reviews for social proof that your business provides a quality product or service, they also pay close attention to how you respond to reviews — whether positive or negative. Your responses to negative reviews are mission critical to your digital marketing, and we dive into that topic in this podcast.
In this More Than a Few Words Podcast, Bryan speaks with hostess, Lorraine Ball, about the importance of not only collecting online reviews on sites like Google My Business but managing them. When we say managing reviews, we mean responding to your reviews - even the negative ones - because people are paying attention to the way you handle your digital reputation.
Since consumers now read an average of seven reviews (up from six in 2016), it is safe to assume they spend an extra moment examining how you respond to reviews to get a better sense of the way you behave as a business owner. The way you respond to reviews helps them determine if you’re someone who will fix a problem right away or point them to the terms of service in your contract in an effort to prevent a return. Basically, they decide if they like you — and subsequently want to buy from you — based off how you respond to reviews.
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01:12 ...Actually when I came and saw you when I was speaking with Google and I was out in Indianapolis at the Grow with Google event, right after we spoke, I had a presentation. I was up on stage, and someone asked a question. They said, "How do I get rid of my Google My Business listing?" And I just looked at him and said, "Is your business still working? You still there? Do you still serve customers?" "Yes." "Then you can't," I replied. "Okay," he says, "How do I get rid of my yelp listing?" Same answer. And you know, I've seen this constant theme of these business owners because they have so much to do. Just like you said, they're trying to make everybody happy, trying to keep the family fed, trying to keep the lights on, but then they're doing their job. They're focusing on the core functionalities and sometimes people just have a bad day. As a business owner, you know this, too. It's your baby. So if someone gives you a negative review, you take it personal. You put so much blood, sweat and tears into it that it kinda hits your ego and these business owners, they take it very, very personally. You get a negative review. It's like, how do I get rid of it?
03:50 I worked with someone who said that negative feedback was a gift because it was an opportunity to get better and sometimes it's hard when the language is abrasive or the criticism cuts deep. But I think if you approach negative reviews sort of with that mindset that this person could just as easily have said nothing to your face, but simply trashed you behind your back, talk to their friends badly about you, but never given you that opportunity to make it better. When they do leave that negative review, it gives you a chance to put your best foot forward.
06:15 I worked for a tech startup and one of our main tools that we sold software as a service was reviews. Even getting on the phone and explaining to people what online reviews where they're like, I don't know what that is. They didn't even know what Yelp was. It wasn't a common name yet. So now you're seeing about nine out of every 10 people are reading online reviews before they're even going to consider doing business. Whereas five, six years ago, maybe one or two out of 10 even what reviews were, so people are depending on these reviews. And 25 years ago it was word of mouth. You might tell a couple people that you had a good experience, you're going to tell 10 or more people that you had a negative experience. Now it's right there in the open. Someone could pull up their phones and in five seconds they're seeing exactly what people think about your business.
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