You must understand what local consumers want in order to boost your business’s sales. What defining factor will cause them to choose your company over the competition? How can you gain an edge with generating online reviews?

Local online marketing is key to building a positive community reputation, and it starts with making a digital mark. Local consumers might drive by your office daily, but until they have a reason to visit, you may not get any foot traffic. You have to present your company as the best solution to their problem. You need positive online reviews.

The Data

BrightLocal’s annual survey on how local consumers digest online reviews gives small-business owners valuable information on what people are looking for in a local business. The data is the result of years of amassing answers from thousands of everyday local consumers, and this insightful data shows that the modern customer wants to see a digital, unbiased resume of your work before they commit.

#1: They Want to See Positive Reviews

Most consumers seek out an impartial online opinion on a local business before they contact the company. When asked whether they read online reviews before choosing a local business, only 9 percent of respondents said they never read online reviews. Over 90 percent of potential customers read online reviews either all of the time or most of the time.

Those reviews color their perception of your business before they even interact with you. Seventy-four percent of respondents said positive reviews make them trust a local business more, and 84 percent of respondents trust an online recommendation just as much as a personal opinion. Thirty-six percent read four to six online reviews before they’ll trust a local business.

Today’s local consumer doesn’t just call A-1 Plumbing because it’s the first company listed in the phone book. Today’s consumer is savvy, researching the business online and considering the results of their search before they even consider giving the company their business. They want upfront information.

What Do They Do Next?

The majority of customers — 54 percent — say that after reading positive reviews, their next step is to visit the business’s website. Online reviews are what get potential customers in the digital door. If you focus on developing a full profile of positive online reviews and create a successful sales funnel on your website, the sky is the limit.

Take Action

Local consumers will consider your business and they will prioritize you over the competition if you have positive reviews. So what should you do next?

Contact Accrue Reviews to learn more about our system. It’s designed to prompt happy customers to share their opinions and give you a chance to resolve any negative feedback. It’s the perfect solution for businesses that want to boost their digital reputation and give local consumers the in-depth information they’re looking for.

Besides the obvious benefits of online reviews, public digital feedback from your happy (and angry) clients has hidden advantages too.

Yes, 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Yes, 74 percent of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more. Online reviews enhance your credibility and build trust.

But what else do they have to offer?

Check out the four benefits of online reviews you’ll enjoy when you know how to react and respond to customer feedback in an effective, constructive way.

1. Use Free Feedback to Your Advantage

Think about it: Businesses pay consultants thousands and thousands of dollars to analyze the customer experience and tell them what they’re doing right and where they’re going wrong.

You don’t need a pricey consulting firm — you just need to listen to what your clients are saying!

Online feedback holds a treasure trove of free advice. You’ll read about what the client liked and where they think you could improve. If you’re wise enough to pay attention, you can quickly and effectively enhance your product and service offerings to please your audience.

2. Repurpose User Generated Content for Your Digital Channels

Have an empty sidebar on your website? Don’t know what to post on Facebook? You can re-use online reviews in a range of different ways for all your digital profiles.

Create a gallery of positive reviews for your website, or use the content to power your social media presence. You’ll get more eyes on your best reviews, and you’ll have fuel for a great marketing strategy.

3. Demonstrate Your Superior Customer Service Skills

Bad review? No sweat. Learn how to respond to negative reviews, then take this opportunity to show the world your diplomatic side.

When future potential customers read negative remarks from a dissatisfied client, they’ll also read your professional, courteous response. It’s impressive and classy when a business owner takes the high road, and it will only add to your credibility. Everyone gets a negative review once in a while, but not everyone is known for handling it well.

4. Get in Good with Google

Some of Google’s algorithms and methods are confusing. And how Google assesses and ranks websites in search results is constantly changing. But one thing remains the same — Google likes businesses with lots of positive reviews.

You will rank better in search results when you have multiple reviews with a high star rating because of Google’s preferences, and because many of the keywords used in online reviews describe what your business does, which is exactly what other consumers are searching for. Online feedback enhances your SEO without you having to lift a finger.

Build Your Brand

Accrue Reviews can help you leverage the hidden benefits of online reviews by garnering those online reviews for you in the first place. Learn more about how we can help you build a positive brand image — call us today.

The Consumer Review Fairness Act was signed into law in November 2016 and takes effect this month. It’s Congress’ response to the problems surrounding the growing role of online reviews in business-consumer relations. It’s no longer legal for companies to bind consumers to any type of contract that restricts their right to review their products or services.

This new law will have a broad effect on companies of every size, in many industries. The growth of online review platforms shows that consumers consider reviews important, and that importance is only going to expand with the passing of this federal law.

What Is It?

The Consumer Review Fairness Act specifically prohibits companies from threatening consumers or penalizing them for posting their honest opinion about their experience. It includes protections for a wide variety of platforms, from online reviews to social media updates to posting photos and videos.

The new law gives both the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general enforcement authority. If a business violates the terms of the law, they could face fines or legal action.

Before the passing of the Consumer Review Fairness Act, businesses could include non-disparagement clauses in terms of service agreements, essentially silencing any unhappy customers from speaking out about subpar service. Many consumers affected were unaware that they had agreed to this clause, and were surprised when they were fined or sued.

Businesses Have to Earn Their Five-Star Rating

The passing of the Consumer Review Fairness Act levels the playing field. Instead of issuing gag orders that effectively prevent or eliminate negative reviews about their products or services, those businesses now have to strive to earn a five-star rating just like every other company.

When consumers are allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights and speak clearly and plainly in public forums about their dealings with a business, it effectively holds businesses to a higher standard.

Customers Will Continue to Trust Online Reviews

This new legislation is good for business, especially if you have many happy customers willing to share their thoughts on online review sites. Currently, 84 percent of consumers rely on online reviews as much as personal recommendations. And the trust of online reviews is only going to grow. When customers know the reviews posted about your company are real and honest, they’re going to choose you over the competition with confidence.

You Can Still Protest False Reviews

While this legislation offers many protections for the consumer, it also allows businesses to contest or remove reviews that contain damaging, irrelevant information. For example, if the review contains discriminatory speech, confidential information or obscenities, it can legally be removed. Also, if the review is simply false or completely unrelated to your business’ products or services, it’s acceptable to take it down.

Are you ready to take control of your business’ online reputation? Get information on the Consumer Review Fairness Act and how Accrue Reviews can help prospective customers learn about you through unbiased, honest reviews — call us today.

You know negative online reviews aren’t good for business, and the statistics prove it.

Eighty-four percent of people trust online reviews just as much as a personal recommendation, and 74 percent of consumers say that positive online reviews make them trust a local business more.

So when negative online reviews pop up on your company’s profiles, what should you do? Can you respond in a way that minimizes the damage and helps repair the relationship with the consumer?

Always Keep Your Cool

Reading negative online reviews might get your blood boiling, but remember that once you publish a response, it’s available for the rest of the world to read.

Regardless of whether the negative comments about your business are true, don’t respond to the review until you can reply calmly. You may want to rush to correct misconceptions, but make sure you’re ready to word your response professionally, and leave your emotions out of it.

It Doesn’t Pay to Ignore Complaints

While you should wait until you’ve calmed down to respond to negative online reviews, don’t wait too long. Ignoring a negative comment for weeks isn’t helpful for your online image, and once you get around to offering the reviewer a solution, they may not appreciate that so much time has passed between their initial comment and your response.

No matter what, don’t ignore negative reviews. If you don’t respond to your critics, it only makes you look guilty of their accusations. It also projects an uncaring, unprofessional image to your prospective customers.

By taking the time to address every complaint, no matter how trivial, you show that you care about the service your business provides.

Always Apologize, Offer a Resolution and Express Thanks

Even if you don’t believe you’ve done anything wrong, take the time to express a heartfelt apology. You can simply write, “We are sorry you had a negative experience.”

Then, take the time to offer them a resolution to the problem, whether that’s a discount coupon or a refund.

Finally, make sure you add that you are grateful for the person’s business. Thanking your reviewers for the feedback shows that you are willing to learn from criticism.

State Your Commitment to Do Better

Make sure you address the reviewers’ criticisms clearly. Don’t offer too much detail, but make sure that your response includes your company’s plan — if you have one — to alter business practices based on the reviewer’s concerns.

Consider Taking the Conversation Offline

If there is a negative online review you feel may result in an endless back-and-forth between you and the reviewer, consider asking them to discuss their concerns with you offline. By speaking with them on the phone or in person, you may be able to better address their issues with your company.

Once you’ve resolved their complaint, you can ask them to go back and revise their review to show the steps you took to make it right.

Petition for Removal of Fake Reviews

It’s bound to happen — whether it comes from a disgruntled former employee or a devious competitor, there will be a time when you notice fake negative online reviews of your business. This is a violation of the terms of service of many review platforms, so you can petition to have the complaint removed.

Monitor Your Online Reputation

With Accrue Reviews, you never get thrown off course by negative online reviews. You can monitor what your customers are saying about your business and respond immediately to both the good and bad. Enhance and improve your business’ online reputation — find out more about what we offer by calling us today.

Negative reviews are no joke — they can inflict lasting damage to your company’s reputation and long-term business success. They are particularly concerning because it’s hard to tell how many customers were considering patronizing your business, but then turned away due to the negative online reviews.

Even businesses with the best practices will have to deal with negative reviews at some point because it’s a plain, simple fact: You can’t please everyone all the time.

Here is what you need to know about mitigating harm from less-than-positive customer feedback:

Manage Your Online Reputation

First, you need to have a system in place that manages your business’ online presence and alerts you when new reviews are posted on public sites like Google Reviews and Yelp.

With all of the tasks you handle in your day-to-day job as a business owner, you don’t have time to constantly refresh your company’s Yelp page. Use a monitoring system that takes care of this for you so you can stay aware of online conversation surrounding your brand.

Handle Public Complaints with Care

Let’s say you’ve discovered a negative online review about your business. You might feel disappointed, angry or frustrated, but a public forum isn’t the place to express yourself. How you respond to public complaints is powerful. Rein in your emotions, control your reaction and take the following steps:

1. Investigate whether the review is legitimate.

You have no way of knowing who wrote the review — it could be a disgruntled former employee or a competitor. If you suspect this is the case, you can report the review to the website moderator. They will review the comment and remove it if they determine you are correct.

2. Try discussing the complaint directly with the customer.

If you know who posted the comment, contact the customer directly. Assume a friendly, professional tone and ask what you can do to address their concerns and change their opinion about your company. If you are able to satisfy their request, politely ask them to alter their original review to reflect their new opinion.

3. Respond with courtesy.

If you decide to respond to the public complaint, do so with a courteous, professional tone. Remember that your goal is to demonstrate that you have done everything you can to resolve issues with the unhappy customer. Stay aware that your public answer is more to educate future customers than to win the argument with the original poster.

Ward Off Dissatisfaction by Connecting with Clients

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your company never had any negative reviews posted online?

You can make an extra effort to turn this possibility into a reality by having an open discussion with your customers before you conclude your business relationship. Ask them directly if you’ve fully met their expectations, and if you haven’t, what you can do to change their perception of your business.

If you consistently receive negative customer feedback about one specific issue, it might be time to consider making changes to your business practices to prevent problems of the same kind in the future.

How Accrue Reviews Can Help

Accrue Reviews helps business owners manage negative reviews and keep them private. When your customers follow the link in the text or email message, they are directed to a survey. If they answer negatively, you have a chance to address their problems before they submit a bad review in a public setting.

Accrue Reviews monitors your company’s online reputation and keeps you in control of your image, a central part of effective marketing to the digital consumer of today.

Online reviews do more than attract new customers — they help your business make friends with search engines too.

Think about it: Wouldn’t you like online reviews if you were a search engine? Your job is to deliver the most accurate, beneficial results to the user as quickly as possible. What better way to identify exactly what the consumer is looking for than by depending on online reviews?

Google and all other search engines reward businesses that have lots of online reviews for one central reason: It makes their job easier and helps them become more successful, since they deliver results that encourage user trust.

Review Signals: What Are They?

According to Moz, a leading SEO marketing software organization, review signals account for 8.4 percent of local business search engine ranking. What are review signals and how can you work on improving this aspect of your digital presence?

Review signals include different features of a local business’ online review profile. Some of the key characteristics that search engines look at are as follows:

Volume: How many online reviews does the company have?
Velocity: How quickly are they being posted?
Keywords: Do the reviews contain keywords that directly relate to the company’s products and services?
Third-Party Sites: Does the company have a lot of reviews on many different third-party review websites?

You want lots of reviews, but you don’t want them all published all at once — it looks contrived. Keywords in the reviews help clarify what your company’s all about for the search engine, and a solid identity on a third-party site also contributes to your “review signal” authority.

Your Game Plan

What can you do to boost this area of your local SEO score? Here is the recommended step-by-step approach:

1. Start Encouraging Customer Reviews

Does your business have only a few online reviews, or worse, none? You need to take action right away. Try to make it easy for your clients to express their satisfaction by sending SMS or email links to sites where they can post about their experiences.

2. Ensure They’re Posted Continuously Over Time

If a large volume of reviews is posted all at once, this looks bad to Google and other search engines. A steady stream of authentic feedback is necessary for good SEO.

3. Quality Matters Along with Quantity

A simple “good” or “excellent” isn’t enough — search engines want reviews that are specific about what your company does. That way, the keywords can help the search engine target results better for future users.

4. List Your Business on Third-Party Sites

A Google listing is essential, but don’t negate the power of third-party sites like Yelp or Zagat. Set up a profile on these sites as well for the maximum SEO payoff.

As a business owner or manager, you have enough on your mind. Taking time out of your day to manage online reviews could cause some serious frustration. Instead of neglecting this essential task, find out what Accrue Reviews could do for you in your efforts to improve SEO, and ultimately increase sales and success.

Having good online reviews is one of the best ways to get potential customers to give your business a second look. Ultimately, you want people to choose you over the competition, and certain characteristics of your digital presence may be the deciding factor.

Specifically, customers analyze and read your online reviews to get an idea of your products, services and customer service.

How many reviews do you need to give the best impression of your business?

Lots of Reviews = Increased Consumer Trust

Your potential customers don’t just glance at the top review — modern consumers do their research before buying. Only 40 percent of customers surveyed by BrightLocal said they read one to three reviews when forming their opinion. Ninety-two percent of the time, consumers form an opinion by reading at least 10 reviews. In 2014, only 84 percent of consumers read this many. The number is growing, and so should your volume of reviews.

This means you can’t have your cousin write a solid endorsement of your plumbing company, then leave it at that. If you do, you’re alienating a large percentage of consumers who want to read more before they trust you with their business.

The BrightLocal survey established that customers are reading more, but they’re also looking at the number of reviews in order to establish authenticity and quality. Besides the overall star rating, number of online reviews was the second-most important factor they consider when they’re evaluating the company.

Timing Is Important Too

You feel like you’ve uncovered a secret: Just build up my number of reviews, then the customers will come to me!

Not so fast. Curating a large number of reviews is helpful, but you can’t do it once and then forget about it. Your business could have thousands of top-rated online reviews, but if they’re all outdated, they’re no good.

Once your reviews are more than six months old, 84 percent of your potential clients won’t consider them relevant any longer. In fact, 44 percent of customers believe that the review has to be written within one month in order to be relevant. Amassing a large body of customer opinions is essential, but they have to flow in consistently for consumers to pay serious attention.

What Could Make This Task Easier?

You want your happy customers to share their opinions and you want to correct the misconceptions of customers who seem to hold a negative view of your company. What’s the best tool to manage this task?

Accrue Reviews is an automated feedback system that will help encourage customer evaluations, assist you in managing negative responses and give you up-to-date statistics on all of your online reviews. Find a monthly plan that works for you today.

Online reviews are like a flashing neon sign that tells potential customers: “Look at what we can do for you!” They make it impossible for online consumers to ignore your products and services. They clearly can set you apart as the business of choice in your industry.

Accumulating and managing customer feedback and ratings should be an important part of your digital advertising campaign for one simple reason: It’s more powerful than any ad you could run. The modern customer craves authenticity, and that’s something that only online reviews can deliver.

Here are three reasons you should focus on improving your company’s online ratings:

1. They Attract Visitors to Your Site

The first way that online reviews help increase your bottom line is by attracting higher volumes of traffic to your site. Continuously updating online reviews tells Google’s search algorithm that your website has fresh, new content.

Moz estimates that up to 10 percent of your search engine ranking depends on how many online reviews your business accumulates. The higher your ranking, the more website visitors you are likely to attract.

2. They Form Brand Perception

The impression your customer receives from your brand’s online presence matters. A sparse, outdated website and Google business listing with no reviews isn’t going to warrant a second look.

According to a survey by BrightLocal, 92 percent of consumers read online reviews. They aren’t an afterthought — they’re a central part of how your potential clients form their opinion of your company.

What’s your company’s star rating? That result is the top factor consumers judge your business by, according to the same study. The whole perception of your brand hinges on this result. You will miss out on 87 percent of consumer business if you only have a one- or two-star rating, because only 13 percent of customers will even consider you.

3. They Influence Purchasing Decisions

Finally, and probably most importantly, they are influential. In fact, 80 percent of consumers state that they trust objective digital ratings just as much as a personal recommendation from a friend or family member.

A little over half, 51 percent, will choose a local business based on its positive reviews. And when positive ratings lead customers to your door, you can expect an increase in sales. Consumers spend 31 percent more at a business that has excellent reviews.

Are You Paying Attention?

Encouraging feedback from your customers and monitoring consumer responses can be time-consuming. It’s a task that you’re beginning to learn is vitally important to your online marketing plan, but you don’t have the time and energy to spare.

What’s the solution?

Accrue Reviews takes the uncertainty out of managing online reviews. All you have to do is input basic customer contact information, then sit back and watch your ratings rise. Find a monthly plan that fits your business’ needs today.