The Public Relations Blog

Customers are already talking about you; learn how to use it to your advantage

Today, online customer reviews can literally make or break a business. When reviews are managed correctly and the information is positive, you can reap benefits such as an increase in customer engagement and profits. If you get it wrong, your company will be flooded with negative search engine results for years as your reputation plummets.

The right words paint the best picture

When you want to say exactly the right thing, you spend a lot of time thinking about it.  Selecting the best words is crucial in delivering the appropriate message. Words and phrases take priority in the algorithm that search engines use to pull the best content to the top of results lists, but inappropriate use actually lowers rankings.

Reviews are real, influential and online forever; so let PR show you how to make the best of them

There are now more than 500 review sites online. It’s a pretty sure bet that the public is rating your company on more than one of them. Are you handling your company’s online reviews in the most advantageous and effective way?

With more and more people researching and shopping online, review sites have quickly become a powerful indicator for the performance of your brand. Whether it’s a star- or points-related review or a paragraphs-long discourse about the advantages/disadvantages of your product, consumers are increasingly using these reviews to make final purchasing decisions. Therefore, it’s imperative that you manage online reviews correctly. Here are four mistakes you may be making in handling your online customer reviews.

Customer feedback is incredibly important for any business, so online reviews are very valuable.  E-commerce sites have made it easier for consumers to price-check and do quality comparison for any product or service they are interested in.

Nobody wants to waste money on sub-par purchases, so for customers, reading online reviews is an important step in making their buying decisions. This means that online reviews are critical to businesses because they affect their online reputations and business productivity.

Learn about PR tools that can help you take control of your online reputation

Your business has gotten great reviews from many of your customers. Do all your customers, prospects and other key stakeholders know that? Getting great reviews is wonderful, but if no one sees them, it’s like throwing them in the trash.

You don’t want consumers to stumble upon your positive customer reviews by accident or, worse, make them search all around the Internet for them. It is vital to promote your customer reviews, especially on social media, to make them easily accessible to consumers.

Learn why your current efforts may not be working and how PR can help.

Your company is wonderful and many of your customers tell you so. If only they could tell other customers, prospects, applicants, and key stakeholders.

Well, they can, through social media and online review sites.

But with so many sites to choose from, which ones are best?

Consumers find comfort and reassurance in the opinions of others. In fact, 52% of consumers reported that positive customer reviews make them more likely to invest in a local business, compared to just 28% who make selections based on factors including location and price.

The word-of-mouth referral predominantly in use today takes the shape of the online review. Whether it’s on Yelp!, Google+, TripAdvisor, Angie’s List, the BBB, or another digital review outlet, the opinions of others carry a significant amount of weight when it comes to where consumers invest their time and money. In addition, leading search engine sites place greater SEO value on “earned input” such as reviews, creating several key reasons for businesses to make a concerted effort toward encouraging reviews.

Let PR show you how to use them for maximum advantage.

In the past, when customers were unhappy with your company, they simply let their wallets do the talking. Today’s consumers have numerous ways to let you know how they feel about your company, products and people. One of the most popular methods is online consumer and product reviews.

How your company handles these opinions can mean the difference between generating consumer loyalty and delivering customers directly to your competition.

The right response can turn complaints into kudos.

Often, customers will leave online reviews that are unwarranted or over the top. Something about the experience they had with a company gets under their skin and they are overcome with anger toward the company.

They might decide to leave a review in which they exaggerate the negative experience they had or they might even leave a review that is a downright lie. No matter what an angry customer writes, companies need to be ready to address these reviews.

When responding to a negative review, there are right ways and wrong ways to do it. Here are some tips for responding in a way that keeps the peace with your upset customers:

Keep track of what they’re saying about you on this vital site.

A candidate who didn’t get the job trashes your company on Glassdoor. He’s just bitter, so it’s no big deal. A former employee does the same, but people don’t really pay attention to that kind of thing. Or do they?

Some companies don’t take Glassdoor reviews seriously. Others have no idea what it says or how their companies appear. Both attitudes can have lasting, negative consequences for your company.