Small businesses have the opportunity to make a name for themselves as something really special. Soliciting customer feedback can play a crucial role in building this reputation. Here are some customer feedback tips to keep in mind as you encourage your own customers to review your business:
1)Give your customers a reason to review your business or service. Offer them a coupon or discount off their next purchase if they go to Google, Yelp, Citysearch, EZlocal or any other online internet directory and leave a review.
2)Link your business directory profiles from your own website to your specific directories. Don't count on customers tracking down your online directory listing. Add links to your website for each profile and further encourage customers to go leave reviews.
3) Encourage a constant stream of reviews. Keep the reviews trickling in, this serves two important purposes. First, it looks better. If you are visiting a profile whose reviews are all clustered around 3 or 4 dates, it looks questionable, a little bit planned and spammy. A constant stream of reviews spread across all dates looks much better and will build more trust with potential customers.
4) Don't discourage less than perfect reviews. We don't live in a perfect world and no one expects your business to bat 1.000. In fact, if your business has nothing but 5-star reviews across the board it might strike consumers as a bit suspect, is anybody that perfect? Also, negative reviews offer a golden opportunity for you to prove yourself, to go above and beyond. The Consumerist actually has an entire category dedicated to incidences where businesses stepped up and made things right after something went wrong.
The strength of small businesses often lies in customer service and attention to detail. If a bad review falls on your doorstep, rejoice—you have a chance to showcase your talents and turn a negative review into a positive experience, something they will be impressed with and tell their friends about. This word of mouth will prove to be incredibly valuable to your business.
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and Friend at ProNetUSA - WebSites and Internet Marketing
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