In our latest video, we peel back the layers of managing your online reviews. Discover why you should be using an online review management tool and how it can directly affect your company’s revenue. These tactics will help bring in more positive and less negative reviews. As an added bonus, you can also expect to see increased conversion rates, and (SEO) Search Engine rankings.
Interested in learning how you can get more and better online reviews for your business? Request a free consultation today!
Suggested Read: Online Reputation Management for Doctors Your 2022 Guide
See Full Transcript Below:
John Keehler: Hi. I’m John Keehler.
Reagan Judd: And Reagan Judd.
John Keehler: Today, we’re gonna talk about why online reviews are really important for your business.
Reagan Judd: Absolutely.
John Keehler: I came across a very interesting stat, from Harvard Business Review. They did a study and said that every start added to a Yelp review, translated to anywhere from a five percent to nine percent increase on revenues, right, which is just huge. We run across stats all the time. They talk about how reviews, have good reviews, good quantity, good quality of reviews can have a huge impact on things like your conversion rates, sales, all that stuff.
Reagan Judd: Yeah, reviews are a very common question and topic that our customers are talking about, when they call in, to have starter conversations. How do reviews work? How do you gather them? What do they mean for the business? Are they important? Lots of … There’s a lot of questions people have about reviews for their business.
John Keehler: Yeah. Now, Reagan and I were talking before this, and kind of shared some of our experience that it’s very common, when we have companies come to talk to us, that they have not really done much to take control of reviews, right?
Reagan Judd: There’s big companies, small companies of all sizes. They just don’t know how the process works.
John Keehler: Yeah.
Reagan Judd: They don’t know where they stand. They don’t know if they should put effort in it, much less where to start.
John Keehler: Yeah. I feel like another sentiment that I’ve seen sometimes from clients, are, they’re almost afraid to ask for reviews. They feel like they’ll be intrusive, right, [crosstalk] if they actually ask for a review.
Reagan Judd: Sure. I think it’s pretty commonplace. Today, you’re going to the doctor’s office, and then after the appointment, maybe the next day or even that day if the office is really on top of it, you’ll get that text message or email asking you to review the business. I don’t reply to all of them, but sometimes I feel like the effort was extra good, or extra bad. Either way, I can tell you that business, they want to know what the feedback is, right?
John Keehler: Yeah.
Reagan Judd: Reviews definitely have a place in this universe to help a business run better.
John Keehler: Yeah. We wanna talk a little, bit about some key reasons why reviews should be important to your business, and why you should be putting more effort into it.
Reagan Judd: Yep.
John Keehler: The first one, which just makes sense is, it’s word of mouth.
Reagan Judd: Right.
John Keehler: Doesn’t matter what category you’re in, word of mouth is extremely important. For most companies, it’s a primary driver of business for them. It’s business you don’t have to pay for, right?
Reagan Judd: Well, when you’re looking at a review and consider that … You often, would consider that a trusted source, right? You know it’s a real person who took the time to leave that review. Most people think those reviews are trustworthy.
John Keehler: Yeah. People really seek out word of mouth as well.
Reagan Judd: Right.
John Keehler: Reviews are something that … You’re gonna get reviews as a business …
Reagan Judd: Yeah.
John Keehler: … whether, or not you’re taking control of it.
Reagan Judd: Right.
John Keehler: People are going to seek out those reviews. They’re gonna be looking for those reviews, as a part of, any of the decisions that they’re making.
Reagan Judd: Yeah, absolutely.
John Keehler: The second thing, the second reason why reviews are really important is, they’re a form of social proof. This is something I find really fascinating. It’s just proof that kind of gives someone confidence, as they’re on your site, as they’re interacting with your marketing or going through kind of their customer journey. There are lots of different kinds of social proof. It could be celebrity endorsements, customer testimonials, all those sorts of things. Reviews in particular, I think are really important. They’re very important in industries like healthcare. There are some industries where reviews are even more important in terms of social proof than others.
Reagan Judd: Yeah. Again, I think seeing good reviews, bad reviews, whatever they are, it’s important to know … It helps you understand how well that business is performing. It’s just validation whether they’re offering good service or not. Gives you a good sense of how well an office is run, how well their patient in-take process is, whether the sandwiches are good. Whatever the industry really is, how well that business is doing.
John Keehler: Yeah, and then finally, it’s very important for SEO, in particular local SEO. I think was kind of, a concept that not everybody thinks about. We do all these other things in SEO, that help your rankings go up.
Reagan Judd: Right.
John Keehler: You’re optimizing your site, you’re doing all this stuff. That might get you higher in the rankings, but the reviews that you have as a business are really important in motivating people to actually click on those links …
Reagan Judd: Yeah.
John Keehler: … or investigate your business further.
Reagan Judd: Right. From an SEO perspective, reviews are doubly important, right? Not only are they one of the signals that search engines like Google or Bing, are using to rank your business on search engines for whatever keyword it is as relevant to it. Also, to see a star rating in a search engine result listing, to see a group of four or five, or 20 or 50 positive star reviews would definitely impact … It impacts for me. I think the stats speak for themselves. They always have a higher click through rate on the page, compared to other listings, or other search results listings that don’t have the reviews at all.
John Keehler: Yeah.
Reagan Judd: It’s definitely increasing that click through, which just means more business.
John Keehler: Yep. Let’s talk a little, bit about what businesses can do.
Reagan Judd: Yep.
John Keehler: This is something besides, “Hey. I do think this is important for my business.” If you’re starting a business from scratch, or you’ve never really paid attention to your reviews, what do you do to get started?
Reagan Judd: Yeah. I mean, here at Runner, we have a methodology and also a, reviews platform that we can enable for our clients. Here’s the deal about reviews. You’ve gotta take action and get in the middle of the process. We were talking about it beforehand. The reviews are coming one way or the other for a business. To get in the middle of the process means, you have a better chance of encouraging better reviews.
Reagan Judd: And then, if you were to get a negative review, if you get in the middle of the process with a review platform, like one that we have and make available to our clients, you can keep those negative reviews from making it to the public, making it to websites like Google, or Facebook. You can turn those into just feedback for the company. You’re giving your customers an outlet to review the business.
Reagan Judd: If it’s a bad review, it comes to the company as feedback, doesn’t make it public. If it’s a good review, you have the option of then publishing that as in fact a good review. Getting in the middle of the review process and proactively, I think taking charge is something we would recommend to just about every business.
John Keehler: Yeah. It’s a way to get the scale of reviews you want.
Reagan Judd: That’s right.
John Keehler: Right, but to still ensure the quality of the reviews that you’re getting.
Reagan Judd: Absolutely.
John Keehler: Yeah. If you’re interested in reviews and how to implement them for your business, if you want to talk to an expert, reach out to us at RUNNER, and we’ll help you out.
Reagan Judd: Thanks a lot.
John Keehler: Thanks.
