As a full-service Denver Marketing Agency, one of Webolutions’ primary goals is to help our clients ensure the creation of positive online reviews by their clients and customers. This activity is critical to all business’ marketing success. The current degree of importance of your positive online reviews may vary based on your specific type of business. If you are a restaurant or hotel, positive online reviews are already the life blood of your business. If you are a law firm, CPA firm, or other professional service company, these may currently have less impact, however this is something you should begin to focus on right now.
Consumers are becoming increasingly accustomed to checking the opinions of others who have used your products or services. As this trend continues (and it definitely will!), all business will become more and more subject to the impact of their online reviews and comments. You should start doing everything possible to ensure that your customers and clients are continually reminded and motivated to create positive online reviews for your business.
Webolutions’ expertise in experiential marketing provides us some unique insights. Leaving a positive online review is the same as giving your business a referral. To encourage referrals, businesses need to focus on just four key elements:
- The novelty of your experience – compared to your client’s or customer’s expectations, how novel is the experience of doing business with you? The more novel you make this experience, in a positive way, the more motivated someone will be to tell others about you.
- The understood utility that your business has to offer – does everyone understand the full breadth of products and services you have to offer? The more that your clients and customers understand all the ways that you can provide value, the more opportunities that they have to refer you to others.
- The dependability of the experience – do the things that make you novel always happen for each and client and customer? Doing something sometimes is not referable because some people will not have the same experience. Make sure the experiences for which you want to be known are 100% dependable.
The economy of the experience you provide – is the experience you provide worth what you charge? The better the experience you provide, the more people should be willing and happy to pay.
Paying attention to these four critical elements of your client or customer experience will help you create the motivation to generate more positive online reviews.
However, it is important that you add one more critical item into this formula. You must also remind your clients and customers that you would like for them to share their positive experiences with you and the world. Many consumers are still not accustomed to creating reviews and providing feedback, so it helps to remind them to do this. Some of the key elements of a successful reminder should include:
- Thanking them for their business
- Assuring them that you value their input and ideas to continue to improve
- An offer for direct contact if there is something upon which you can improve or help with right away
- Direction as to where to post their shared experience. Should this go on Google, Yelp, or be submitted via a form on your website?Some sort of acknowledgement of their time. This can be a simple thank you, or you may offer other incentives (a discount coupon, something for free, etc..). You should not offer to pay for positive reviews, however thanking people for their time and feedback is 100% acceptable.
How to use this Information
Review the overall experience you provide to your clients and customers. How would you rank your current experience in these four areas (be honest!)? Then, determine ways in which you can improve. Remember to ask for your client’s and customer’s input.
If you could use some help in creating more positive online reviews for your business, please give us a call at 303-300-2640. We would be happy to show you how our proven programs help business create more impactful experiences.
If your business already creates a great experience and is successful in generating positive online reviews, or if you want to comment on this post, please share your insights with our readers (via your comments below).
