Reputation Management comes first.
Marketing without it can be money down the drain.
US businesses spend $360 million on advertising every day. And, every day, 80 percent of people who are not familiar with the business being advertised will check it out online before spending a dime.
It used to be different.
Put a clever ad on the radio or television and people would often give a business at least a try. Not anymore.
Now, advertising only gets people to their computers or Smartphones where they will believe the opinions of people they don’t even know before they decide to spend money with a business.
The logic would, therefore, suggest that more attention – and, yes, money – be spent on, first, delivering a top quality product and, second, on capturing the reactions of customers who are pleased with the effort. To do otherwise would seem to be a waste of advertising dollars.
The unfortunate fact is that happy customers expect to be happy. Good service is, perhaps, appreciated, but is not generally so exceptional that it is worthy of the customer remembering to go home and comment about it online. A bad experience, however, is not the same. People will go to the extra effort to “warn” others by vilifying a business that has not served them well.
Since simple survival logic would suggest that a business that survives any time at all must be pleasing more customers than they displease, the whole system of online reviews is negatively biased. It is simply human nature to use online review tools to criticize rather than praise.
The tables needed to be turned.
EasyOnlineReviews.com uses over half-a-dozen different ways to capture the reactions of customers at the point of transaction. Should a customer be less-than-satisfied, the EasyOnlineReviews.com system informs management on duty of the situation immediately – often before a customer leaves the premises. Such a prompt response will often reduce the likelihood of a customer running to Yelp as soon as he or she has a chance. This provides a kind of “reputation insurance” to protect your business.
Happy customers are guided to record their impressions on anything from an iPad to a postcard and then assisted to post the positive impression on one of dozens of online review sites. The whole process helps customers do what they are inclined to do anyway – say something nice – if they remember to do it. It balances the scales a bit.