Remember the last time you went to visit a new show or a new restaurant? If you didn't get a recommendation from a friend, you've most probably checked the reviews to see what actual customers/visitors were saying about it. Did it have an impact on your decision to visit the place?
Picture 1. Have you checked your reviews lately?
The answer is most probably - yes. Nowadays, online reviews are something that can drive your business, but they can also shed it to pieces. They may be the reason someone decides to give you a shot, but they can also show you in the worst light, as being completely insensitive about customer opinion and satisfaction, as well as completely incapable of managing your business.
If that's not reassuring enough, here are a couple of reasons why you should always reply to online reviews.
4 Benefits of Replying to Online Reviews
1. Builds Customer Trust
According to research, 91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Picture this: you’re the owner of a museum, and just when you thought that it was going to be another successful day, a visitor comes to you and starts complaining out loud in front of the people who are waiting to come in how their experience was not worth the money. Would you just go away, or would you try to ask for more feedback and offer something to make things, right? Now transfer this into the online world. If you address all reviews with a sentence or two, this shows that you care about your customers’ opinions and that you really work hard to ensure the best possible experience.
2. Replying to Google Reviews Improves Your Local SEO
A research by Search Engine Land reveals that Google reviews account for 16% of how Google ranks a local business. This means that if you interact with your customers regularly, you have a higher chance of appearing among the top results in Google search queries. As always, Google wants to give the best and most relevant results to customers for their queries. So, it mainly relies on the factors which customers would use to determine whether a business is trustworthy.
2. Answering reviews can improve your local SEO
3. You Get Valuable Customer Feedback
Whether the comments you get are positive or negative, all of this is extremely valuable information you can use to improve your business. Often we tend to do things as we like it, forgetting that the customers’ opinion is what matters the most in the end.
4. Can Change Existing Negative Reviews
Negative reviews can seem like the worst thing that can happen to you – but actually, they’re not. They’re a great source of feedback and an amazing opportunity for you to show to your potential customers how well you handle criticism. Handling a bad review in a corresponding way can not only win back a disappointed customer, but it can leave a great impression on your potential ones, making them come to you even faster than they thought they would.
To Sum Up
There's nothing better you can do to ensure customer satisfaction than to acknowledge that your customers' voice is being heard. And the simplest way to do it is to answer to your online reviews in a timely manner. One small step for you, one giant leap for your business.
Have you checked your reviews today?
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