Tire dealers have a love-hate relationship with online consumer reviews – they love the good ones, but boy do they hate the bad reviews, especially if they feel the negative comments are unwarranted!
But online reviews are here to stay, and they can have a tremendous impact on your business. According to McKinsey & Associates, two-thirds of the economy is now based on word-of-mouth. Why so much?
Because social media is word-of-mouth on steroids where a positive or negative comment can be seen by thousands. Research conducted by Yelp found that a one-star increase equated to a 5%-9% revenue increase for restaurants in Seattle.
So what to do? Here are some tips:
First, it goes without saying that you need to be good at what you do. If you are not, you can expect negative online reviews that will force you to either improve or find another livelihood.
Secondly, it sounds simple but ask for reviews . . . and make it easy for your customers to provide them. I attended a recent seminar by Ross Jones who told a story about a hair salon client in Illinois that was #1 in organic Google Search despite not having the best location and some other drawbacks.
When a customer left their establishment, they were handed a card providing explicit instructions on how to leave an online review. A QR code driving your customers to the desired review link can also be extremely effective. And don’t be afraid to incentivize reviews with a discount or some other prize.
However, do not ask your customers to review your business on Yelp and most definitely do not try to incentivize this. Yelp takes these types of actions very seriously and will slap your profile with a “consumer alert,” which you definitely do not want!
Yelp is important, but Google Reviews give you the most bang for your buck in my opinion. Why? Because most searches are done through Google and the tech behemoth does seem to favor its own services such as Google Reviews and Google Plus. Go figure! Furthermore, Google does not penalize you for encouraging reviews.
What if you get a bad review? Respond to it if it appears valid. And reach out directly to the reviewer to try and make it right. Often times, the malcontented customer will edit his review to relate your actions or even post a positive follow-up review. Most people understand that stuff happens and appreciate a business showing concern and trying to make it right.
There will be occasions, though, when you get a bad review and cannot make it right. The best course of action here is to water it down with lots of good reviews (see above tips). If you have numerous good reviews with a few bad ones sprinkled in, most consumers will give you the benefit of the doubt.
The online review services can be complicated and you never really know how their algorithms actually work. One thing is for certain though – the more positive online reviews you have, the better. Make a concerted effort to get some!
