Managing Your Online Reputation & Responding to Reviews

marketing@surefirelocal.com

ABOUT US

The Surefire Local Marketing Cloud

● Simple & complete operating system that “just works”● Unified “best of breed” essential tools in one place● Perspective/ROI with reporting on leads & sales● Choice to pick & choose services via the Marketplace● Support with personalized account services support

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OUR CLIENTS

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Today’s Speakers

Shashi BellamkondaChief Marketing Manager

Agenda

● How to make your online reputation reflect your true offline reputation

● Build authenticity into your brand that inspires loyal customers

● Establish a process for managing reviews

● Best practices for responding to online reviews (positive & negative!)

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What we hear often from contractors

● Do great work● Clients love the experience● Great team

Problem jobs:

● Work out issues with clients privately

● Do right by the customers - Always to a mutually satisfying conclusion

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Hidden Conversations!

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Hidden & Good Conversations!

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Feeling defensive, insulted and destroyed by 1 star reviews

Source: MotherJones

Joshua Tree National Park, CA

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Understanding the Reviewer Emotion

Warn other Consumers

I want to warn others of bad products

I want to save others from having the same negative experiences

Venting negative feelings

I like to get anger of my chest

I want to take vengeance upon the company

The company harmed me, and now I will harm the company

Help me shake off frustrations about bad buys

J.M. Rensink - What motivates people to write online reviews and which role does personality play?

Help other consumers

I want to help others with my own positive experiences

I want to give others the opportunity to buy the right product

Helping the company

In my opinion, good companies should be supported

I am so satisfied with a company and its product that I want to help the company to be successful

Emotion – Negative>> Positive

Intensity

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Don’t ignore reviews hoping they will go away

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Positive Reviews: Not necessary all the time, but still good to do

Negative Reviews: You need to respond 100% of the time

WHO to Respond to

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1. Show clients you care

2. Demonstrate your passion for customer service

3. Increase customer retention

4. Increase new customer acquisition

WHY Respond?

Turn a negative review into a positive experience!

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Thank them for the review

● Be humble and appreciative

Explain the future changes

● How are you going to prevent this from happening again?

HOW to Respond

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Publicly● Shows both other, and potential, clients that you care

Privately ● Address and resolve the client’s personal issues

WHERE to Respond

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● The sooner the better

● Aim for under 24 hours

● OK to respond to older reviews

WHEN to Respond

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● Setup, implement, and manage your company's reputation plan long before a problem or crisis strikes

● You can really change/regain your reputation

● Get back the business you are losing because of your reputation

Takeaways

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Even if you build your business mainly through local referrals or word-of-mouth, you need some kind of online presence if for no other reason than the help those referral customers actually find you.

Source:SmallBizTrends

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How to Get More Reviews & tackle the bad ones

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● A proactive strategy to get reviews is required for all businesses

● Create a well-defined strategy

● Mission: “We will strive to get nothing less than 5 Stars”

1. Goals & Objectives

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● Set responsibility○ Proactive

■ Getting Customer Reviews■ Reactive

● Monitor >> Respond>>Resolve

2. Plan

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Every member of your company can help you with your review strategy

● Define the experience● Explain the process● Reinforce importance of reviews● Set rules of engagement● Provide service standards● Power of conversation, eye contact

3. Training

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www.yourdomain.com

4. Wide Web Presence

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5. Remind customers where they can review you

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6. Ask but don’t reward

● Use Messages like “People on Yelp like us!” or “People love us on Yelp!”

● DON’T offer incentives for reviews

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7. Engage

● Increase your chances by non-review type engagements such as check-ins, photos, liking, or adding tips

● Create Ideabooks on Houzz

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TITLE

8. Go mobile

● Reviews can be done from anywhere including on the phone

● Use SMS to send customers links to reviews with their permission

● Take pictures and send to your website

● Use Geo Location check-ins to add reviews and location data to your website

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9. Get alerts for new reviews

● Google Alerts are free

● Other tools like Mention.net

● Reputation Management Tools

● Agency

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10. Respond to all reviews

● New prospects can come across old reviews

● Customers form opinions on company response

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Lessons

Proactively -

● Focus on showcasing all substantial projects on social media and your website

● Aggressively seek more and better quality ratings and reviews on specific sites

● Mandate responsiveness to any reviews by all company representatives

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Reputation is more than just reviews

5 Things to Check/Do Today

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Today customers know more about the business than the business owners themselves

Mark Richardson Author, Keynote Speaker and Remodeling Expert

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1. Outdated Web Presence

● Website has not been updated in years - Are you still in business?

● Recent content?

● Typos….

● Not mobile friendly?

● Do you have your own domain name?

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2. Consistency of Information

Inconsistency of data - Name, Address, Phone confuses not only confuses your customers but search engines

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3. Broken Websites

Websites with broken images or broken links indicate lack of attention to customer's experience

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4. No Reviews for Your Business

“88% of consumers have read reviews to determine the quality of a local business.”

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5. No feedback Channel

Provide an easy way for customers to contact the business first

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Takeaways

● When potential customers are searching for your business online, you compete with every other similar business in your area.

● Prospects do a quick Google search before making their decision, you only have a short amount of time and a limited amount of space to convince them to choose your business over others.

● Monitor how your business appears in certain search pages and add information to your site data that can help you put your best face forward online

Our team can help you with tips on how to be the best you can with your digital presence

Get a Complimentary Digital Marketing Consult

Call(888) 804-8685

Emailmarketing@surefirelocal.com

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