Ways Home Services Business Can Manage Online Reviews
Online reviews, particularly positive reviews, provide home services businesses and other businesses with an opportunity to increase exposure and influence their prospects. Paying attention to online reviews is important not only for managing your online reputation but also for growing your business.
You cannot control what your customers will write about you, but you can control how you respond to it. This allows you to increase brand awareness, gain more loyal customers, and even dismiss unjustified negative reviews.
KEEP AN EYE ON POPULAR REVIEW SITES
This is the fundamental building block of online review management. You’ll need to know where people are saying positive or negative things about you if you want to keep track of what they’re saying.
Google My Business, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and Angi’s List are among the most popular review sites to monitor what people are saying about your home services business. All of these sites require you to either create or “claim” your business listing. This allows you to receive notifications whenever someone leaves a new review.
READ REVIEWS
Now that you have an idea of where your customers are leaving feedback or reviews, the next step is to read them.
Regardless of how small or big your home services company is, you should delegate the task of checking and reading your company’s online reviews. Monitor reviews so you can see what people are saying and evaluate their overall sentiment.
If the reviews are positive, a simple thank you would be nice. Acknowledge the time they spent on leaving a wonderful review and assure them that you will most certainly give your best in providing quality service.
However, if the reviews are negative, you will need to do more work.
HANDLING NEGATIVE REVIEWS
First, determine whether a complaint is reasonable. If this is the case, you can offer an apology as well as offer solutions to the problem. This could be in the form of a refund or a store credit.
If a complaint isn’t reasonable — you have a few options. You can ignore them, respond privately, or respond publicly so that other users can see.
Ignoring an unreasonable review is easy, but it does not solve the problem. While responding privately may resolve the issue, it does not show to other customers that you addressed it. And, while publicly responding can appear assertive, as long as you maintain a professional tone, it can also show to other readers that you are committed to customer service.
It is entirely up to you how you respond to negative feedback. But, regardless of how you do it, you want to be professional, courteous, and reasonable so that potential customers can see that you handle problems calmly.
LEARNING FROM REVIEWS
Learn from the feedback your customers leave. Reviews can also help you identify flaws in your company’s operations. As a result, they can help to inform your brand messaging and marketing strategies.
Feedback from your customers can help you understand where you can improve or what services your customers enjoy that you can promote more in your marketing.
Acknowledging and replying to online reviews, positive and negative, not only strengthens your brand’s online reputation but also shows how you engage with your customers. Reputation management looks easy, but it also includes local listing management, social media, and search visibility.
Start taking control of your online reputation, you can do so by scheduling an appointment with Movou’s Home Services Marketing Group Division. We are a digital marketing agency that helps home services businesses to get more leads and sales for their business. From local listings to managing your online reviews, and more. Call us today and learn how our digital marketing solutions can help your business.