by Michael Ambros | May 30, 2019
Here’s the situation: You have a brick and mortar business. Your business has an online presence. You know that many current customers and future prospects do research online before making a purchase. They look for specifications, sizes, colors, warranties, prices, availability, hours, and location.
Then they read reviews. Positive reviews and a high average rating mean more chances to keep current customers and convert new ones. So, how do you get these ratings? How do you request more feedback? Specifically, how can you make it easy for customers to rate your business and leave you a review?
Marketers have long known that a customer must be exposed to a message seven times before it takes hold—this is called the rule of seven. You’ll most likely have to ask for reviews several times during your customer’s visit. Make it easy for the customer to leave you one. It’s important to mention that you want their review before the person leaves the store. Once they’re out the door, your chances of getting that review drop to around zero.
1. Post signs in areas where your customers linger.
Ask for feedback in several places where you know customers are sure to “hear” you! Put signs in dressing rooms and on restroom doors. Have a request on menus and on tabletops. Check out locations should also have signs and a supply of cards customers can pick up with a link to review your business.
To further encourage them, tell your customers how you will use their feedback. If you make changes based on customer reviews, give examples. Publish social media updates about specific things you’ve done after hearing from customers, such as adding an often-requested product to store shelves. Bonus: Post photos!
2. Collect emails and follow up.
A key part of the perfect customer experience is direct personalized follow up with customers. Emails are excellent vehicles for this.
At checkout, customer service, the returns desk or all three, ask for an email address so you can send the request for a review electronically. It saves paper and might be a preferred way for many customers to give input. This does risk a lower participation rate, so be sure to monitor your results.
3. Have salespeople ask for a review at checkout.
It’s time for a visit from our dear friend, repetition. You have signs. They can be missed. You have cards conveniently located with a link customers can go to. They can be overlooked. Flyers are ignored or used as scrap paper. The point is, those efforts are all passive. But a direct request is hard to ignore, especially if you’re specific.
For example, your staff can say, “I’m so glad you found what you were looking for. We are always trying to improve, so we’d love it if you would write us a review. There’s a link on your receipt that takes you right to our Google My Business profile. It takes sixty seconds. Thank you!”
Word the requests for reviews with open-ended questions or statements. Avoid “Would you like to write us a review?” More often than not, a simple “No” will be the answer.
4. Display third party review platform signs.
On your front door, hang window signs featuring the logos of third party review platforms. “Find Us On Yelp” or “Find Us On Trip Advisor” window clings, for example, let customers know where they can learn more about your business, leave you a review and read what previous customers have said about you.
5. Celebrate the five-star reviews you’ve already received.
Google offers a free service called #SmallThanks to help brick and mortar businesses get more reviews. Sign up on Google My Business so you can get your free ready-made poster, stickers, and table tent that feature five-star reviews from your real customers.
Start Today
Try one of these tips or try all five. What matters is that you get started, whether you’re emailing every customer after a transaction or getting your free Google Reviews poster. When you’re proactive about asking customers for a review, they feel heard, and they keep coming back. Then they send their friends! So don’t wait for your competitors to get more reviews than you. If you get just five new reviews, you’re that much more likely to be the store new customers choose to visit.
by Michael Ambros | Apr 30, 2019
If you could do one thing to increase your revenue, stop losing customers, lower marketing costs, improve your business’ reputation, skyrocket your referrals, lower employee turnover and increase satisfaction ratings, would you do it?
Who wouldn’t?
It’s no secret that brick and mortar businesses spend thousands every year to improve each of those metrics, but many business owners don’t realize that they are all fruits of the same tree: customer experience (CX). Improve customer experience, and you improve everything else.
So, what exactly is this all-encompassing customer experience? Ultimately, CX is about how a customer interacts with your company and how satisfied they are with those interactions. A customer can experience several interactions—called “touchpoints”—before, during and after a transaction. For example:
- A potential customer finds your company online. They read reviews and visit your website.
- At your site, they look around, read product descriptions and check out on-site reviews.
- If they learn you have a brick and mortar location, they visit your store.
- They walk in and may or may not be greeted.
- While shopping, they may or may not be asked if they need help.
- They decide to buy a product.
- They pay for their order and leave.
Every touchpoint shapes your customer’s impression of you. A CX strategy is a concerted effort to improve your customer’s experience at each touchpoint. So, where do you begin? Start by listing all the ways customers can encounter your company. For example:
- Website
- Online reviews
- Social media
- Brick and mortar store
- Email newsletter
- Phone calls
Are you currently monitoring and measuring customer satisfaction at each of these touchpoints? If not, put customer satisfaction surveys in place. Ask customers about their experience on your website, in newsletters, and on the phone. Have you ever been asked to stay on a call after you called a company for technical support? That automated survey was part of a broader customer experience strategy.
Once you’ve started asking customers for feedback at every possible touchpoint, you need a process to adjust your operating practices and store policies accordingly. How else can will you impact customers’ perception of your company? For example, let’s say a customer leaves your business a one-star review because they felt the cashier was rude. Yes, the bad review stings, but you can turn a negative into a positive. Institute a new employee behavior policy and retrain staff as necessary so customers are met with a smile at checkout every single time.
After you receive customer feedback and make the necessary change, let customers know about it. To continue our example, you can reply to that one-star review with a heartfelt apology and explain how you have retrained all staff members to exceed customer expectations. Then invite the offended shopper to return to your store and receive a free product. A little effort goes a long way. You wouldn’t believe how often irate customers revise a one-star review to a four-star or even five-star review after the owner makes things right.
If you to take away just one thing from this article, I want it to be that you do need a CX strategy for your business. After all, a recent study found that 86% of people who have a positive customer experience are likely to repurchase from the same company (compared to only 13% of people who had a poor CX). That doesn’t mean your CX strategy needs to eat up your annual marketing budget or take twelve months to roll out. For your purposes, that would be counterproductive.
Keep your CX strategy as simple as possible, focusing on touchpoint-specific customer experiences. When you update company procedures, you give customers exactly what they want. And when you let them know about any changes made from popular demand, you’ll find you’re creating customers for life.
by Michael Ambros | Apr 17, 2019
Online reputation management (ORM) is a “thing” these days. Never heard of it? Let me explain. As you know, your local business earns a reputation based on interactions with customers. For the longest time, that reputation spread via word of mouth and a few rating services like Zagat and the AAA. But in the digital age, reputation can spread like wildfire.
The New Age Of Opinion
Today, a host of electronic options allow customers to rave (or vent) about a business — including those that operate online and those with a local physical presence. If a customer wants to share their opinion about an establishment, they can jump on Google, Yelp, Facebook, Angie’s List, Trip Advisor, etc.
These platforms have global reach. Anyone with an internet connection and a desire to find out about a business can do so. It’s commonplace for people to do research before deciding whether or not to do business with a company. That brings us to this question:
Do You Know What People are Saying About Your Business?
Bad news travels fast. Even if that news is wrong or exaggerated, negative reviews about your business can end up on page one search results. That’s why you want to be sure your local business is portrayed accurately. Just look at the data:
- 92% of people do not look beyond the first page of any search results. – Moz Research
- 80% of online reputation damage comes from a mismatch between the buzz and reality. – Digimind
- 78% of US adults feel it is important to research a businesses before buying from them. – Harris Interactive
Like it or not, people are shaping your local business’ reputation online. And that reputation impacts anyone who searches for a company like yours and uses the results to decide where to go.
Improving Your Online Reputation — Five Things to Know
1. No one is immune.
Maybe you’re not online. Maybe you already have an excellent reputation. This doesn’t mean your local business is immune to damage from negative online reviews. Anyone can post anything with impunity. If you’re not proactive about boosting your reputation, the internet can turn against you in a flash. And if you don’t pay attention, the damage can continue for months before you discover it.
2. Set up alerts.
You don’t have to hire a full-time employee to take over your ORM. Instead, use automated tools to listen to what people are saying about your business. These tools are easy to configure and use and offer a range of capabilities. Once they’re up and running, you’ll receive reports every time your company is mentioned. I recommend Google Alerts, BrandMention and BuzzSumo.
3. Always respond.
Even “Best of the City” businesses get negative reviews. When that happens, overwhelm the bad with good. Make it a regular duty to respond directly every time your company is mentioned. Reply to every negative review and apologize. When you get a positive, accurate review, thank the reviewer. While you’re at it, be proactive about your reputation. Post your own content on your website and social media accounts so you show up first for prospective customers.
4. Ask for feedback.
Encourage customers to rate and review your company, both while they’re in your store and online. Ask that customers let you know if they have a problem. Most people will give a business the chance to make something right. As long as your satisfied customers are making their opinions known (and you’re responding to the dissatisfied ones), you’ll continue to attract business.
5. Know when to ask for help.
If you don’t have the time or desire to take on ORM, get professional help. Smart ORM companies can take over the burden of monitoring your reviews and help you respond to negative. You can also hire ethical feedback management companies to help you collect, moderate, and syndicate customer feedback. Just stay away from companies that promise only positive online reviews or that guarantee traffic, followers, likes, etc. Platforms like Google have algorithms that identify fakes and will deactivate accounts for propping up a reputation they was bought, not earned.
Engage The Digital Age
Even if you don’t have a website yet, your local business is online. A three-second Google search will show you what people are saying about your business — good, bad and everything in between. Fortunately, you don’t have to rely on luck. You can take advantage of opportunity to boost your brand, improve your reputation and convert customers already looking for businesses like yours.
