How to respond to your Google reviews? More important than you would think!
If you are owner of a company or any other business, you should be aware of the importance of Google reviews and ratings. Google is the number one search engine in the world and one of the fastest growing website for customers to share their experiences with businesses. According to recent studies, Google is considered to be the review site of choice since 64% of clients say they look up a certain business before deciding on purchasing from them.
Almost a quarter of customers agree that Google reviews are one of the most important factors they consider when looking for local businesses. Furthermore, they claim that the nature of reviews influence them much more in the decision than prices, the location of the business or their perfomance in search results. Google has also recognized these trends and reviews determine a business’ ranking in the search results.
Companies need to learn how to properly respond to their Google reviews in order to protect their online reputation and improve their performance. The way you handle your reviews says a lot more than the content of the review itself. But can you respond properly to your Google reviews? The key part of handling your customer feedback is monitoring and managing Google My Business reviews daily. In case you have not done it so far, it is high time to start responding and communicating with your consumers.
To see and respond a review, first you need to log into your Google My Business account, select the location you would like to manage and click on the Reviews tab. Here you will be able to see all your reviews automatically organized by date. And from here you are able to reply to all your reviews. Keep in mind that your responses go public on Google and it must comply with all the guidelines. The customers receive notifications of your response with a direct link to the message. Most Google My Business users receive notification emails when a new review comes in, but for companies with more 100 locations it is automatically turned off. For them, it is recommended to use a review management system.
It is inevitable to get negative comments too, at one point. Do not let that discourage you. The way you handle negative feedback will define whether your business can attract more customers. But how to respond negative reviews in a correct way?
- Evaluate the situation before replying and do not get emotional. Follow a ready-to-go, logical process.
- Answer publicly in any case in order to show your potential customers that you care about their feedback.
- If you can see you will need more time and effort to make things right with the complaining client, you can use one of your customer service tools such as a phone call, live chat, emailing etc. in order to solve the problem at hand more efficiently.
- Honesty and transparency are the key factors of a long-lasting and loyal consumer base. Every company can make mistakes since we are not perfect. The point is to take responsibility for mistakes when they happen.
- You might often come accross short reviews of one sentence, where it is hard to recognize the root of the problem. In this case, ask questions and require more information from the customer.
- Always provide a solution to the issue to make things right.
- Sign your name after all your resonses. It is only a small detail but your clients will see that they are talking to a real person.
- If you feel like your customer is satisfied with your replies, ask them kindly to update their original feedback.
It is also important to respond to positive reviews and it is much simpler than handling the unhappy customers with the negative ones. Do not just sit back and relax when you receive positive feedback. Answer them quickly by name and show your gratitude towards your customers. Satisifed clients are a very powerful marketing tool to attract more customers.
Every google review means a new opportunity to evaluate your business’ performance. Negative feedback can uncover serious weak points within your business. By respondig correctly to all types of comments shows how your business cares about each and every one of its customers.