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Posted on Thu, 02/9/2012 - 04:30 PM by
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As a small business owner, your online reputation matters. More than you might think. In fact, research shows that a negative online reputation can cost you customers. But, other studies have shown that a positive reputation can actually help you gain them. That’s because 49% of local consumers are more likely to use a business after they read a positive review about a business online.
So, what can you do to build a glowing reputation that helps you stand out to potential customers online? Turn to your secret weapon: your happy customers! Unfortunately, people tend to naturally turn to the Internet to share negative feedback about a company. You know the saying: a happy customer will tell one person, but an upset customer will tell ten. When you take the time to ask your happy customers to share their feedback, you might be surprised just how big an impact it can have. Many satisfied customers are glad to share their feedback, they just may not know it’s valuable to you as a business to have their reviews posted online. In fact, you may already receive notes, letters, or comments from happy customers. It may just be a matter of giving customers another avenue to share their feedback. So, here are three ways you can put this idea into practice inside your business: 1) Get Your Team Onboard and Involved Take time to explain to your staff that your online reputation is an important area of improvement for your business. Get them involved in the process of reaching out to customers to ask for reviews. It’s important to know and share with your team that you can’t pay for positive reviews, but you can certainly ask people to leave them. And sometimes, all it takes is to ask. Encourage employees to ask customers for reviews every time they have a great customer interaction and recognize your team for their effort when they do. 2) Create and Share a List of Top Sites When you start focusing on building your reputation online, select a list of a few top review sites you would like to get more reviews on such as Google Places Pages or Yelp. Then, create signage with these sites prominently displayed to serve as a visual reminder of your request. Post signs in your business reminding customers that you appreciate reviews on these sites. You can also create small cards to share with your customers so they can easily remember and navigate to a site to leave you a review. This can help you develop your reputation on important sites – an important first step. 3) Leverage Current Communication Channels Another way to encourage customers to leave a review of your business is to use your current customer communication channels to share your request. For example, you could put an article in your monthly customer email newsletter, or post a message to your Facebook fans. The benefit of this is that your customer is probably already at a computer when they see your request. Think about how you currently communicate with your customers and find ways to include this message in a friendly, professional way from time to time.< These are just three ideas for how you can leverage your secret weapon – your current customers – in building a great online reputation. Do you currently let your customers know you appreciate reviews online? Have you tried any of these tips? Feel free to share your ideas and thoughts in a comment. Secret Photo via Shutterstock MORE NEWS FROM SMALL BUSINESS TRENDSCreating Google Alerts Directly in Google AnalyticsA few weeks back I wrote about the powerful new metrics that small business owners can glean from the new Social reports within Google Analytics. And since that post, even more neat features have been released to help business owners learn more about not only what’s happening on their site, but what’s happening off of it, as well. Nominations Are Open for the Small Business Influencer Awards!Does a special person or company come to mind when you think of someone or something important in the world of small business? Perhaps you think of a client of yours. Or maybe a favorite vendor or supplier, or a software app that has transformed your small business or made it more profitable. Or perhaps you think of a favorite journalist who covers issues important to small businesses. G8 Leaders Call for Growth: Six Things You Can DoLeaders the world over including those at this week’s G8 Summit are calling for economic growth, not just budget tightening, in an effort to combat world market instability and speed recovery. But for all the talk in policy circles, this growth will ultimately come from the private sector and especially here in the U.S., from small to medium sized businesses that create many of the jobs and employ many of the workers already in our economy. Here’s a look at the economic growth G8 leaders are calling for and six things you can do to promote growth in your business today. Can a Gas Tax Fuel Clean Energy Innovation?With gas prices already reaching nearing $4 per gallon in many places, most business owners don’t relish the idea of them rising even further. Yet, some people are still calling for the government to deliberately increase them – by raising the gas tax. What Job Are You Helping Your Customers Do?Marketing is often described in terms of a product life cycle. The development, the launch, continued support, and finally, discontinuation all have specific marketing efforts associated with them. From social contests to reduced prices and giveaways, the emphasis is nearly always on the product or service provided. However, this does not take into account the way that customers actually search for and find products. RELATED SMALL BUSINESS NEWSWhy There's Not Much Sizzle In Two Burger Chains' IPO PlansCan two also-ran burger chains that struggled through the recession win over Wall Street investors? We'll soon find out, as fast-food franchisor CKE Restaurants -- corporate parent of both Carl's Jr. and Hardee's -- recently filed to go public, seeking roughly $100 million and applying for the stock... No room for weeniesNo use complaining Keep up won’t you? There’s no room for weenies in the global micro enterprise community. My hapless and hopeless UK agent, Tony Robinson OBE, sent me a press clipping of what Serena Williams said after winning the Madrid Open last week. He’s obsessed by how Ser... Day 2: National Small Business Week - Corinne’s Catfish Tells Us Why They Love ItFor today’s post, we spoke with Orin Moore, owner and founder of Corinne’s Catfish in Lewisville, Texas. The On Deck Team found this story particularly inspiring – and we hope our readers to do. How Ads on Your Site Can Affect SEO (Video)Your search rankings could be suffering if there are a number of advertisements above the content on your website. ... SBA Seeks to Boost Small-Dollar Loans With New Push (Video)The SBA is looking to increase the number of smaller loans in underserved communities with a new push. ... |
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