Mimi’s new automated system can help you encourage your customers to create more online reviews
By Jim Marshall, President of Bluefoot Digital Marketing
Recently, as my wife and I have been tossing around gift ideas for Christmas, one recurring phrase we commonly use in presenting our case to each other is...“It got great reviews.” For us, nearly every decision we make on what to buy, where to eat, what to do, and even who to call for home repairs is being driven by online reviews.
When I stop and think about it, 10 years ago if I wanted to know what to buy, where to stay, or where to eat, I would get a recommendation from a trusted friend with similar tastes. But today, according to BIA/Kelsey, 97% of people read online reviews and 91% trust online reviews as much as they do a personal recommendation.
It can be somewhat disturbing that we so easily trust reviews from complete strangers as much as we do our best friends. If I am completely honest, there has even been a time or two when a friend has made a recommendation and I ended up being influenced not to take their advice based on online reviews.
Today, online reviews are influencing nearly every buying decision we make. As technology has evolved allowing us simply to say, “Hey Siri…find me a good Italian restaurant”—without touching a keypad or a screen—our iPhone responds with a list of Italian restaurants sorted based on none other than online reviews.
If you are a business owner, your online reputation can easily dictate the success or failure of your enterprise. The challenge I continuously hear from business owners is that they either can’t get their employees to ask for reviews or they have to work hard to ask 100 customers and are lucky to receive even one positive review. Many customers are willing to leave a review, but either don’t know how or simply forget after they commit to do so.
We make it easy for people to leave a positive review by automating the process and sending requests to customers via email or SMS text messages. Best of all, the process requires little to no work from employees.
We wanted to put it to the test ourselves. Over Mimi’s 10+ years of having a Google listing, we had accumulated a grand total of just 5 reviews, one of them unfortunately was a negative one, giving us a 4.2-star rating. We decided to empower just one of our employees with our new tool and within a few weeks, we acquired 13 new reviews and now have a 4.8-star rating.
Online reviews play a critical role in a business’s ability to “Look Good and Get Found.” If you are a business owner and are curious what your online reputation looks like, just google your business name. You may be surprised what comes up. If you’re struggling to manage all of this on your own, reach out to Mimi and we’ll be glad to help.
To find out more about Mimi’s comprehensive digital marketing package, please contact her offices at 330-220-8610 or email Mimi@MimiVanderhaven.com.