Star
s and ratings have become a staple part of business vocabulary. Especially with the innovation of the internet, the importance of an online presence, and social media — businesses and individuals must pay attention to their online reputation score to keep happy customers returning while also attracting new ones.
Aside from having happy customers who come back or at least leave a good review, earning five-star ratings has become the goal of many businesses.
What’s the Importance of Online Reputation?
According to studies, about 67% of consumers resort to reviews in their decision-making. That says a lot: it shows how powerful ratings and reviews can be to its success. Or failure. It puts lots of added pressure on the business owners to worry about their online reputation and how it will impact their business. But you can improve your business reputation score. It will drastically and positively impact your business! Here are just a few reasons why it’s worth the investment.
At this point, having a secure five-star rating shows worth. People tend to overlook businesses with a less than four-star rating or lower. Usually, when people are researching a company, the goal is to find one with the highest overall score and best reviews. Having a five-star rating means a lot for your reputation score and acquiring new customers.
Aside from your reputation, it can improve your searchability when searching for a company within your industry. When you have better ratings and reviews online, the analytics behind search engines tend to pick up your content more than lower-rated content. Therefore, when people are searching for your business industry, you’ll pop up ahead of competitors.
Having a solid reputation score will ultimately lead to sales. A five-star rating and reviews mean it will increase business, period. Taking extra measures to achieve a consistent five-star rating will build enough trust for people to choose you over your competition and lead to more business.
But How Do You Get There?
Getting five-star reviews is tough. It’s human nature there will be a few unhappy customers that you cannot please, no matter how hard you try. But there are ways to increase your odds. Here are some of our suggestions on how to increase your reputation to five-star reviews:
- Use checklists for protocol, especially for newer employees. Even little items to remember are helpful, making sure every box is checked. As you go through the day, utilize the checklist, so you don’t accidentally forget. Having a checklist might seem tedious, but it allows you to remember details for better customer service. You most likely won’t need to use the checklist forever physically, but in the beginning, it will help build a routine.
- Just ask! People are often afraid to ask and possibly hear negative feedback. But it is vital to ask. How can you improve if you don’t know what needs improvement? Consider asking customers or clients you feel comfortable with. Ask them to leave useful feedback on review platforms.
- Always respond to reviews! It’s important to see what went wrong and why a customer was unhappy. Respond to the review and see what you can do to fix the situation. Do not argue with the person — apologize, say you’d like to see what you can do to fix the situation, so they’re happy and just on a call, if possible. Talking to an unhappy customer and listening will encourage them to work with you and possibly remove the negative feedback once the situation is resolved. Often people want their complaints to be heard. Once it’s addressed, you can remedy the situation.
- An easy way to incorporate all these suggestions is to rely on reputation management software. ReviewInc is an easy-to-use software tool that helps manage online reviews. Nowadays, there are many sites where a customer can leave a review. ReviewInc can manage all these sites, provide review alerts, remind customers to leave a review, and highlight the positive feedback via social media channels. Automating using reputation management software is the easiest and best way to protect your online presence.
What Happens If You Don’t Get a Five-Star Rating?
It might feel tempting, but there’s no reason to panic if you get below five stars. It’s important to aim for the best score possible, but things happen, and you might have a few disgruntled customers. But a slightly lower rating might highlight areas of your business you could improve that will lead your company to greater success.
More importantly, it’s not the only deciding factor for people. Yes, people do look at reviews but having over four stars isn’t a complete disaster. In fact, you can check out our previous blog post about how many people trust a site more when it has over four stars because they believe consistent five-star ratings may not be as authentic. So no stress if your business earns an overall rating of fewer than five stars. At the same time, do the best you can to achieve great reviews and keep customers happy!
Achieving a five-star rating for your business is a huge accomplishment. It takes lots of work and bumps in the road. To achieve a constant five-star rating, we highly recommend considering ReviewInc software. As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate, but you cannot negate the importance of a good reputation score online. Utilizing reputation software allows you to achieve both. Acquiring five-star ratings will drastically change the view of your business. If you are interested in learning more about ReviewInc, schedule a demo today.
