Positive online reviews are important to every business, but they provide even more substantial benefits to small and independent businesses.

Leveraged properly, your business reviews can help you overcome some of the most compelling challenges you face as a small, locally owned business or a start-up. Reviews help extend your marketing budget, engage your customers in beneficial dialog, and enhance your brand’s reputation.

Online Reviews Substitute for Status & Reputation

Established brands don’t have to work as hard to earn market share because they already have an established reputation with consumers. The buying public understands that companies won’t endure over time if they don’t provide high-quality products or services and take good care of the customer.

Small, independent businesses – especially those that haven’t been in business for years or decades – don’t have the same level of brand recognition and reputation. But, when small businesses have positive reviews and testimonials, prospects develop the comfort level necessary to make purchasing decisions.

For example, consumers gravitate toward chain restaurants because they have an established reputation. They’re often less willing to take a risk on a small, neighborhood bistro they know nothing about. But, as research proves, if a small, locally owned restaurant has glowing reviews from past customers, potential customers are more willing to take a chance

Online Business Reviews Help Open & Maintain Customer Dialog

The nature of today’s consumer has migrated away from privately complaining to a business first, when something goes wrong. Instead, unhappy customers are significantly more likely to take to social media and post negative reviews online.

But a negative review here and there is not, inherently, all bad. It provides an opportunity for you to respond to those customers in a public forum and reframe the narrative. This allows others to see exactly how you handle a bad situation and make it right for the customer. Or, if the negative review was unfounded for some reason, you can also make that known in your response.

Responding to positive reviews is equally important. Thanking your customers publicly and expressing how much you value them shows prospects that you care about providing a great experience.

Google also appreciates it when businesses respond to their reviews, both positive and negative. And, as a result, you can definitely use this technique to help improve your position in online search results.

Positive Reviews Are Low-Cost, High-Value Marketing

The return on investment (ROI) of positive online reviews is unbelievably high.

Traditional marketing and advertising put your brand and your company in front of prospects but, ultimately, everyone knows that marketing is little more than you telling the world how great your products or services are. When satisfied customers tell the world how great your company is, however, potential customers take note.

It’s virtually impossible to buy that kind of marketing value.

And that’s why it makes sense to do whatever is necessary to help your happy customer share their enthusiasm with the world. At Accrue Reviews, our unique system is designed to make leaving a positive review quick and easy for your customers. And, if something doesn’t go quite right and an unhappy customer comes along – it happens to every business – our system helps you make things right and avoid potentially damaging commentary.

You can see our system in action today, with our no-obligation free trial. Contact us today to start reaping the benefits of positive online reviews for your business.

You know your prospects are checking out online reviews before they make buying decisions.

In fact, everyone knows how influential reviews are. Search Engine Land reports that almost 90% of consumers give reviews as much credence as they do personal recommendation and 95% of consumers report that online reviews regularly influence their purchasing decisions.

But, despite recognizing the importance of getting positive online reviews for your business, do you understand why consumers put so much stock in them? The answers can be found in the psychology of how we make purchasing decisions today.

No. 1: Consumers Trust Other Consumers

Consumers are currently experience soaring levels of distrust in companies of all types and sizes. And, although your prospects are less likely to distrust a small, local business than a mega-corporation, no business is safe from this growing skepticism.

What consumers do trust is other consumers. Certainly, everyone is aware that some unethical companies buy fake reviews but, for the most part, today’s consumers can spot a fake online review a mile away.

So, you can spend all your marketing budget on ads telling your prospects how great your product is but, at the end of the day, they’re much more likely to believe it when that information comes from someone who actually spent their money on whatever it is you have to sell.

No. 2: Enhanced Transparency

Delving deeper into the growing trend of consumer distrust, the issue of transparency compels many potential buyers to check out online reviews before making a purchasing decision.

Consumers overwhelmingly believe that companies intentionally do not share any information with the public that could make them look bad or taint their reputation. Because prospects automatically doubt that any company engages in full, open and honest communication with stakeholders, consumers feel they must look to other consumers to get to the truth.

No. 3: FOMO

FOMO, or fear of missing out, is an intriguing phenomenon in consumer behavior. It many ways, it relates to the natural human desire for social belonging and inclusion. But FOMO pushes prospects to read your customer testimonials and reviews in another, more powerful way – social proof.

Social proof is the aspect of our nature that looks to others to see how we should behave. If a prospect sees countless glowing comments from prior customers, it triggers a subconscious belief that they should follow suit. It can also trigger the fear of dwindling supply, further capitalizing on that FOMO feeling.

Gaining deeper insight into the consumer psyche helps to illustrate why it’s so important to have positive online reviews today. If you’re struggling to get your satisfied customers to provide you with reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook and other digital platforms, consider seeking assistance from Accrue Reviews. Our unique online review management system makes it easy and intuitive for your customers to leave you reviews on the sites of your choice. Contact us today to learn more and to sign up for your free trial.

You know why your business needs 5-star reviews from your customers, but how much thought have you given to whether you actually deserve their praises?

Sometimes it’s not enough to simply hope for happy customers. Consider what type of service your customers need to be delighted with your company, and then make an honest assessment of how well you’re meeting those needs.

Could you be doing a better job of making your customers happy and, as a result, enjoy more positive online reviews?

What Does It Take to Get Great Online Reviews?

The first step to getting powerful testimonials and positive reviews is (no surprise) happy customers. So, what do customers need to be happy?

Hubspot recently published a list of the 16 most common types of customer needs. Among the most important product-related needs are:

• Functional products
• Fair pricing
• Convenience
• Reliability
• Performance
• Efficiency

As it concerns service, these are some of the most important customer needs:

• Fairness
• Empathy
• Transparency
• Options
• Information
• Accessibility

Whether you sell products or render services, customer service needs are universal across every business model. The more of a prospect’s needs you can meet, the more you can attract and maintain a strong customer base.

What Are You Doing to Deserve 5-Star Reviews?

To answer this question, start by performing your own customer needs analysis. Next comes the hard part – give yourself an honest assessment of how well you are meeting those needs.

Finally, because many business owners struggle to see things from the customer’s perspective, ask your staff and a few trusted customers to weigh in on the subject. Give both your employees and your customers an easy way to respond to you anonymously and you might be surprised by what you learn.

What Could You Be Doing Better?

By now, you might have a deeper level of insight as to how you can better meet the needs of your prospects and your customers. Take one issue at a time and brainstorm with your team on how you can improve that aspect of your business.

Be sure to quantify your goals, so you can track your progress and improvement. Many companies identify trackable key performance indicators (KPIs) to help achieve their goals.

Some potential places to start include improving your communication with customers, making sure every member of your team takes accountability for getting the job done right, and working on improving your consistency across the board. Finally, remember that excellence starts at the top, so lead by example to ensure the improvements occur company-wide.

Other Ways to Improve Your Chances of Getting Positive Online Reviews

You can do everything right and still not get the reviews you deserve online.

In that case, consider using the services of an expert to help you manage your online customer review process. Accrue Reviews specializes in helping companies encourage positive reviews from their customers and better manage those customers who are not necessarily thrilled with their experience.

Contact us today to learn more about the things you should be doing to deserve 5-star reviews from your customers.

As much as you might like to find a quick and easy shortcut, the most effective (and cost-effective) way to improve your online reviews is often the old-fashioned way.

What’s the old-fashioned way? It involves nothing more than getting your priorities straight and making the effort necessary to ensure your customers are happy. You’ll get better reviews along with glowing testimonials, enthusiastic referrals and all the social media love you need to  and propel growth.

No. 1: Align Your Business Goals with Service

Companies that prioritize profit above all else tend to have much lower customer ratings in their online reviews. If you prioritize customer service and satisfaction first, both profits and ratings will improve. This may mean a radical adjustment to your company culture but the benefits that result will be well worth the effort.

No. 2: Revamp Your Processes & Procedures

A great customer experience is the foundation of building a strong base of happy customers. Evaluate your processes and procedures – both customer-facing and internal – to identify the areas where you may be failing your customers procedurally. If you aren’t sure where to start, take time to talk to your customers to identify where you could be doing a better job for them.

No. 3: Don’t Forget the Reverse Supply Chain

The reverse supply chain refers to everything that happens from the time of purchase onward. Depending on your business model, this could include returns, exchanges, warranty repairs and customer support. If you aren’t making it as easy as possible for your customers to get the help they need after they make a purchase, you are missing out on opportunities for increasing satisfaction and improving your online reviews.

No. 4: Communicate with the Customer

Never assume that no news is good news. Today’s consumer is much less likely to contact you if they’re dissatisfied than they were even a decade ago. Instead, they’ll take to social media and online review sites to express their displeasure without ever giving you a chance to make it right. You can reach out to them to ask if they need assistance or, if your business model doesn’t support that approach, don’t let them complete their purchase without providing everything they need to reach you if they should need help.

No. 5: Make It Easier for Customers to Share the Love

Once you have all the other elements in place, give your customers a simple and elegant way to leave you a glowing online review. You can design a program yourself or – here’s the one place you can take advantage of a shortcut – you can use a program like the one offered by Accrue Reviews.

The revolutionary Accrue Reviews platform makes it easier for your customers to provide positive feedback in the form of an online review. And, if they aren’t thrilled with your business for any reason, our program makes it quick and easy for you to address their concerns and convert them into a satisfied, loyal customer.

Contact us today for a free trial of our cost-effective online review management program.

A decade ago, Yelp sat virtually alone as the leader of online review sites. Today, thanks in part to a healthy lineup of competitors, this platform has less relevance than ever before.

Unfortunately, other factors have contributed to Yelp’s drop-off. In fact, today, this may not be the best site to seek reviews unless your business fits into a very narrow range of products and services. And, even then, you may not want to rely on Yelp to build your legacy of positive testimonials and reviews.

Understanding the factors that contributed to this radical shift in perspective is important, as is knowing what the preferable online review site alternatives may be.

Yelp’s Roller-Coaster-Ride History

When this platform launched in 2004, few business owners understood the concept of crowd-sourced content. Having a positive rating average on this unique platform began to propel business growth to unprecedented levels. Soon, everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

After a few strong rounds of fundraising, the company filed its IPO in 2011 and began publicly trading its stock in 2012. But, after four years of robust expansion, Yelp began to lose its corner on the user review market.

Over the next few years, the company struggled to retain its profitability and its relevance. Underlying these struggles were a series of controversies that, ultimately, have rendered the platform substantially less influential.

The Effects of Yelp’s Online Review Controversies

After multiple local businesses began trying to manipulate the system by posting bogus reviews, Yelp adopted a range of policies and processes intended to counteract these tactics.

As a result, legitimate reviewers had their posts filtered while even more fake reviews somehow eluded the filtering algorithms. In fact, the platform’s filters currently deem almost 28% of posted reviews to be suspicious.

Word began to circulate among the digital community that Yelp may have been manipulating this process to persuade businesses to advertise, bringing negative and unwanted attention to the platform.

Businesses began to struggle with negative reviews, many of which were posted by Yelpers with an agenda. The company was hit with multiple lawsuits from businesses alleging that Yelp agreed to suppress damaging negative reviews if the company purchased advertising. Ultimately, each one was dismissed, including a large class-action suit, but the entire affair affected public perception of the veracity of Yelp’s online reviews.

Should You Pursue Yelp Reviews from Your Customers?

The short answer to this question is “no,” because Yelp’s company policy specifically advises businesses not to ask for online reviews on their platform.

Other online platforms do not share this perception. In fact, although you can’t offer any incentive of value, Google encourages businesses to request reviews from their customers. In fact, Google helps you get a link that makes it easier for your customers to leave their review for your business.

There are other compelling reasons to turn your focus away from this platform, one of which involves search engine rankings. For many businesses – especially those that have a local presence – Google reviews can help improve their local SEO. In most cases, Yelp reviews have little (if any) ability to improve your position in the search engines.

Google also does not filter their reviews, so you’ll never have to worry about having a legitimate post filtered out by a top-secret algorithm. Google also doesn’t care how many reviews you receive in a short period of time.

No single review site is right (or wrong) for any one business. But, if you would like to make it easier for your customers to provide their reviews on the platforms of your choice, take a moment to learn more about Accrue Reviews. Our innovative program makes the process easy for your customers and for your business, especially if you have a customer who needs a little more attention or assistance.

To try the exclusive and affordable online review management system for free, contact Accrue Reviews today.

No matter how hard you try, you’re bound to get a negative online business review now and then.

Maybe a staff member had a bad day, or your quality control experienced a momentary hiccup. Or, maybe you did everything right but someone posted a negative review anyway.

No matter what spurred someone to post an unflattering review, all that matters is how you respond.

Why Should You Respond to Negative Reviews?

Let’s start with the fact that you should respond to every online business review you get, good or bad.

A recent study conducted by the Harvard Business Review found that, when businesses responded to their reviews, the not only got more reviews (12 percent more) but their ratings increased, on average, by 0.12 stars.

Google also wants you to read and respond to reviews. In fact, its search engine ranking algorithms consider the number of reviews and percentage of reviews (both positive and negative) that you have received and responded to.

Responding to negative reviews gives you an opportunity to shape the online narrative about your business. You have the opportunity to turn a bad situation around, to recover a lost customer and to demonstrate to future prospects that you really care about your customers and their satisfaction.

How to Respond to Negative Online Business Reviews

Some advisors recommend that, when you respond to a less-than-favorable comment, you should avoid acknowledging fault or apologizing. However, industry experts do not all agree on this point. In fact, some experts specifically advise that you do apologize in your response.

The marketing experts at HubSpot recommend these four steps for responding to an unhappy customer:

1. Listen
2. Apologize
3. Solve
4. Thank

Be sure to customize your response to the situation. Look into the problem to the fullest extent possible before responding, to be sure you have all the facts. If the review brought up any strong emotions, wait a day until you calm down before responding. Whatever you promise the unhappy customer you’ll do, make good on your word.

Finally, do whatever you can to address and resolve the underlying problem within your organization.

What to Avoid When Responding to a Negative Review

Don’t respond to negativity with negativity. When you respond to a negative review, consider your words carefully. Adopting a negative tone will not provide you any benefit.

Don’t stop with just an apology. Either report to the reviewer what steps you’ve already taken or explain what steps you will take in response to their comments.

Don’t launch into a debate or argument in a public forum. Taking the discussion offline will ensure the privacy of both your company and your customer.

Don’t forget to follow up. Once you’ve taken action to resolve the problem, follow up to ensure you’ve done what the customer wanted.

Don’t make excuses. Own up to the problem, even if it’s never happened before.

Did you know there’s a better way to handle negative business reviews? Accrue Reviews offers an innovative approach to getting more positive reviews. But our program also gives you the opportunity to make your customer happy before they post a negative review. Our program is not only effective but it’s simple and affordable too.

For a free trial of our online business review program, contact Accrue Reviews today.

Choosing which online review sites to use can help you maximize the benefit you get from your customers’ glowing praise.

You can’t stop your customers from posting business reviews anywhere they choose but you can recommend specific sites when you encourage consumers to leave you a business review.

Some review sites provide more benefits than others but identifying the best sites for your business also depends on the products or services that you offer.

Best Online Review Sites for Your Prospects

Start by identifying the business review sites that your prospects use to find companies like yours.

Whether those locations make sense to you or not, you need to put your company in those locations that your potential customers rely on. This may take a little research – and you’ll need to have clearly defined prospect and customer profiles.

One simple and effective way to identify these sites is to ask your best customers how they found you. Actually, this is a question you should be asking every customer anyway.

Best Online Review Sites for Your Industry

Some industries naturally lend themselves to online reviews. These include the travel industry, medical and dental, construction, real estate and, most notably, restaurants.

For contractors and home improvement-oriented businesses of all kinds, Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor are where most of your prospects will head first. Restaurants and bars are still strongly influenced by Yelp, although Yelp’s controversial history has diminished its popularity in recent years.

In the medical and dental fields, Zocdoc, Healthgrades, RateMDs and others feature practitioner reviews as well as practice profiles and directory listings.

Best Online Review Sites for Your Search Engine Rankings

No matter how great or helpful a review site may be, it won’t benefit you or your customers if no one ever finds it – or you. The good news is that customer reviews have the ability to boost your SEO significantly.

Google’s algorithms weight user-created content – like online reviews – heavily when determining your search results ranking. Google does look for recent reviews, however, so you’ll need to keep them coming.

Google (through Google My Business or GMB) remains the best online review site for boosting your SEO, and it will likely continue to be the leader for many years to come. With few exceptions, you should be directing your customers to leave you a Google business review, especially if you serve a local market.

Better Business Bureau reviews are influential as are those posted on Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Foursquare and Superpages.

Once you determine the best locations for your customers to leave you reviews, you need to devise a way to make it easy for them. That’s where Accrue Reviews comes in. Our unique services help your customers leave positive reviews while helping you minimize negative feedback.

Contact us today to learn more about our affordable, easy-to-use system for helping your customers leave you an online review.

If you’re looking for ways to fix a bad review on Google, you’re not alone. Google is one of the most important and popular sites for reviews and what they say has a big impact on your brand.

It’s normal to be concerned when people make negative comments or unfounded claims.

However, don’t let one bad review get you down. Having a small percentage of negative reviews actually benefits your brand. Consumers are skeptical when they see a perfect 5 stars. It makes them think that the reviews are fake.

If you’re still worried about a bad review, there are some things you can do.

1. Dispute It

There are trolls on the internet who derive pleasure from being mean. Sometimes they’ll leave comments or reviews that are blatantly false, misleading or defamatory.

In these cases, you should report them. With Google reviews, you can flag the comments as inappropriate. Then after a week, you should follow up with customer support and see how the review process went.

It’s important to note that you should only flag reviews that you believe are made up and fraudulent. You should never try to remove a real customer review, even if it is negative.

2. Dilute it with Positive Ones

The more positive reviews you have, the less impact one negative review will have. Not only that, but the positive reviews will drive more business your way.

Petitioning reviews is an important part of every transaction. And with Accrue Reviews, you’ll be able to get authentic and positive reviews from your customers with ease.

3. Respond Quickly

Whether the review was positive or negative, responding quickly is a good habit to start. This shows future customers that you care about their experiences both during and after the purchase.

Stay cordial, friendly and calm. At times, it will feel tempting to tell rude customers what you really think about them, but this will only result in negative branding.

4. Fix What You Can

You can’t change how a customer reacts. What you can do is eliminate some of the issues that lead to negative reviews.

For example, if you’ve seen an increase of poor reviews because your technicians are consistently late, work on improving employee punctuality.

Learn to Fix a Bad Review on Google

Never neglect your reviews on Google. This one search engine has the power to direct millions of customers your way. By following these steps, you’ll be able to successfully navigate through the effects of a bad review.

If you need help avoiding bad reviews and accruing good ones, talk with our team here at Accrue Reviews. Our system helps you keep your negative reviews private and your positive ones public. Call us today to learn more about how our innovative system helps you fix a bad review on Google.

As a business, learning how to rank better online is an important step toward an improved bottom line. Gone are the days when a simple place in the phone book would bring you new clients. Now, nearly all new business transactions start with a quick online search.

If you’re not putting in the time to learn the latest search engine algorithms, you’ll begin to lose clients to your competitors who are working on this.

Luckily, there are a couple of simple solutions to improve your rankings and online reputation. The best part? You can start using them today!

1. Gather Reviews

Reviews play an important role in the Google My Business panel. When someone is searching for a local business, Google will populate the results using two metrics: location and reviews. Other review sites, such as Yelp, use similar strategies.

More positive reviews correlate with more customer acquisitions. This is the first place to start if you want to bring on new clients.

2. Improve Your Page Speed

Did you know that the majority of people expect your webpage to load in two seconds or less? Disappointing your customers early on in the buying process will make them less likely to choose you.

You don’t want your first impression on a client to be a blank page. The longer it takes the page to load, the more likely they will leave and go someplace else.

One way you can improve your page speed is by removing large files and formats. Often, your images are what is slowing your page down. By optimizing the files and changing the format to .jpg, you can free up a lot of bandwidth.

Other issues that slow down sites are too many plugins or slow code. Both these issues can be resolved by an effective SEO agency or team.

3. Remove Broken Links

One of the most detrimental things you can do to your website is to have broken links on it. When someone clicks on the link, they’re redirected to a 404-error page.

Google and other search engines know that this can be an incredibly frustrating experience for readers. The more broken links you have, the more search engines will penalize you by lowering your ranking.

Find New Ways to Rank Better Online

Improving your online ranking should be an important part of your business strategy. Most tactics take time to implement, so you shouldn’t just focus on them when business gets slow.

However, if you need a quick bump, Accrue Reviews is here to help you rank better online. Contact us to learn more about our innovative strategies and why they’re so effective.

Understanding the top review sites will help you gain access to a whole new market of consumers and revenue streams.

The internet is full of people sharing their thoughts on everything from dog toys to accounting services. These opinions then influence other people’s buying decisions and their thoughts on your brand.

That’s why it’s so important to not only please your customers, but to encourage them to talk about your business on the best sites as well. Below, we list the top three most popular business review sites on the Internet. The next time you ask a happy customer to leave a review, remember these platforms.

1. Google My Business

Google holds a massive share of the internet. It is the No. 1 search engine and processes billions of searches every day.

If you’re not on this platform, you need to jumpstart your profile as soon as possible.

Google My Business is part of the massive search engine. Not only does it provide your potential customers with information about your company faster, but it also can provide you with great analytics as well.

However, the most important part of this profile is the review section. This is one of the first places people look when making a decision about whether to patronize a business.

2. Facebook

Social media reviews are quickly becoming much more important in the business landscape. People trust the opinions of their family and friends. As a result, they will often ask for recommendations for businesses on social media.

If someone comments with your business page, the inquirer gets a screenshot of your name and your reviews. This brief look can make or break your business, especially if your reviews are scarce or polarized.

3. Yelp

Yelp receives around 30 million visitors to their website every month and has accumulated more than 155 million reviews in its lifetime. Many of these reviews focus on food, boutiques and other businesses local to the area.

This site makes it easy for customers to find the businesses near them. This is great for companies that are limited by their location.

When people search on Yelp for a product or service, the software looks at dozens of different factors to populate the search results. The most important factor is the quality of the reviews your business has. If you want to gain more customers, it’s crucial to accumulate quality reviews on this site.

Getting the Most Out of the Top Review Sites

Reviews are sometimes understated in the marketing industry, but they have an important role to play. If your business lacks a presence in any of the top review sites, you’ll lose credibility with new customers.

Luckily, getting reviews doesn’t have to be as hard as it seems. Learn how Accrue Reviews makes getting positive reviews as easy as the click of a button. Call us for a consultation.