I want to discuss reputation management in your business ratings and reviews, why they matter to you.
Many, many, many, many, many businesses out there over the last 8 to 10 years have really shifted a heavy focus on what we call reputation management, but it’s basically managing the platforms where people can go and review your business and give you a rating like, you know, you’ve probably got them in the in your email before, a text message when you visit a restaurant where it says,
please, please give us a rating. Right.
There’s several reasons why people ask for that. One is having five-star ratings on Google or on Trust Pilot or on
Better Business Bureau or on any of those types of platforms having a five-star review. There or lots and lots of them is a signal to Google that your business is legit and you should be ranked. So it absolutely impacts local search. So that is one for you, one very important thing.
The second thing is it actually connects you to your consumer. So when people have rated our business, for example, I always go in and reply and say “thank you” because it’s important to me as a business owner to get feedback, whether that’s positive or negative. Luckily, it’s been positive, but I want that feedback and I appreciate people truly taking the time to do that. And so it gives me a chance to interact with them. That interaction also helps with Google search. So it’s symbiotic, right?
It’s very important. The third thing with reviews is when you put those things on your website, when you actually do the review
and someone gives you a five-star review. Right.
You’re able to integrate that into your website. Well, by doing that, it’s what we call social proof. So when people are browsing your website and they see that you’ve got forty six testimonials, all the people saying five stars like say you’re looking for a hairdresser,
you’re looking for someone to cut your lawn, you’re looking for, you know, someone to do your plumbing.
If you see a bunch of three star reviews, most people are like, yikes, that’s scary. I’m not going to hire a plumber to fix my leaking bathroom. If, you know, ten out of ten people said that they were two out of five. Right.
So it’s important it’s important to prove to your customers or potential customers your value by other people seeing it, because you can say all day long, I’m awesome at SEO. But if no one says it, then if no one else says it, it doesn’t matter. Right.
They’re looking for that proof in your business. So for those reasons alone, reputation management is important. But I want to cover one bit that most people forget, and that is what happens when someone gives you a bad review. So the bad review is not a good thing for your business, but don’t you want to know? Right.
You want to know if someone on someobscure, you know, if Trust Pilot or wherever your business might show up, well Trust Pilot you have to pay for it separately. But like Yelp, for example, if somebody you didn’t even service goes on there and or a competitor or somebody that you don’t even know that you interacted with goes on there and complains if you’re monitoring it, you can get it removed. But more importantly, if it is true complaint, you can address the complaint. You want to address it.
“Hey, I’m sorry that, you know, the lawn cutting you got wasn’t up to par. Can you please tell us what the problem was so that I can send somebody out there to make it right?”
Well, when you do that, People that are scrolling through and see like five stars in a two star and they see your reply.
It’s like, hey, this guy will make it right. Someone had a bad experience. Most people are smart enough to know that That’s just the way it goes, right? Not everything goes perfectly. But if you respond to it, it shows that you care and that you’re willing to fix it.
So manage your reputation, make sure you know what reviews you’re getting, where you’re getting them from, and make sure that the clients you want know about them, too. You got to do those things. So if you need help with it, we definitely offer reputation management as a service and we can help you do that.
There are other businesses that can do it as well. You can sign up for it yourself online and you can figure out how to do it that way, too. But however you do it, manage your reputation, know your reviews and know how they impact your business because they can help you for the good or they can hurt you.
So make sure they’re helping you because it’s an easy problem to fix.
I hope this is helpful and we look forward to connecting.
Thanks.
Bye
