In the past, consumers depended on recommendations from family and friends when choosing businesses. While word of mouth is still important, most modern consumers go online to weigh their options.
It’s essential for your clients to understand and make it a priority to build and maintain a strong reputation management strategy. Doing so is a powerful, proven way to acquire and retain customers.
In fact, customer reviews data shows 92.4% of consumers use online reviews to guide most of their ordinary purchase decisions, and 63.6% check Google reviews before visiting a business. Conversely, a negative online reputation is sure to turn potential customers away. After all, 94% of consumers say that a negative review has convinced them to avoid a business.
Now’s the time to help your clients understand the current state of their online presence and then help them improve their reputation in order to drive revenue for both of you.
Find out your brand's online reputation score
Take the guesswork out of your strategy. Instantly generate your brand's online Reputation Scorecard, complete with review highlights, ratings, keyword trends and more.
Downloaded the report? How to Interpret Your Reputation Score
Help Your Clients Understand Their Current Online Reputation
A comprehensive reputation management strategy can improve your clients’ local SEO rank, which means more consumers will find their business when they’re searching online.
Additionally, if your client has plenty of positive reviews, a response strategy for both positive and negative reviews will set them apart from the competition and increase consumer trust and loyalty towards their business. Together, this helps drive customer acquisition and retention, increasing their overall revenue.
Reputation management can deliver real bottom-line results for your clients. But it often takes work to help clients understand the need to manage their reputations. The best place to start is to help clients measure and understand their current online reputation. While this may sound like a time-consuming, laborious process, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, agencies can automate the entire process with ReviewTrackers.
With ReviewTrackers, you can deliver Reputation Scorecards, which essentially provide a snapshot view of a company’s current reputation.
These scorecards give an overview of several factors that contribute to a business’s online reputation, including their overall reputation score, review highlights, keyword trends, and other key insights that help improve the customer experience.
Using the scorecards as a launching point, you can then engage with prospects to discuss the business’s current reputation areas for improvement and the need for reputation management services.
Steps to Improve Client Reputation to Help Acquire and Retain Business
Once your clients have a good understanding of their current online reputation, it’s time to take action to improve it. Doing so can make it easier for them to acquire customers and retain the ones they have.
Each business is different, and the steps to take to improve online presence depend on a number of different factors, including the current state of your client’s reputation. However, there are a few important steps that’ll have a positive impact on just about any business’ online reputation (and bottom line).
Generate a Steady Stream of Positive Reviews
It’s essential to consistently generate a steady stream of reviews for your clients. Doing so will have a positive impact on local SEO rank and capture the attention of more consumers. Plus, positive reviews will provide the social proof needed to help convert customers to their business. There are several effective strategies to get more reviews, including post-interaction emails, SMS, and QR codes.
How many reviews is enough? It depends. ReviewTrackers’ online reputation analysis data shows that while top-performing hospitality brands generate an average of 166 monthly reviews per location, top healthcare businesses generate less: about 30.
Of course, it’s also important to aim for positive reviews. Customer reviews data tells us that businesses with a star rating between 4.0 and 4.5 generate an additional 28% in annual revenue. However, the ideal average star rating varies by industry. For example, online reputation analysis data shows that while top-performing insurance companies have an average star rating of 4.86, top-performing restaurants have an average star rating of 4.19.
Depending on the industry your client is in, you can leverage benchmarks to help track their progress, set goals, and develop stronger and more effective acquisition and retention strategies.
Respond to Reviews
Prioritize having a response strategy for clients’ positive, negative, and neutral reviews. Doing so will improve SEO rank and help them build trust with new and existing customers.
According to online reviews statistics, 44.6% of consumers are more likely to visit a local business if the owner responds to negative reviews. Plus, responding to a one- or two-star review within 24 hours means your client has a 33% higher probability of the reviewer coming back and upgrading their review!
Consistently responding to reviews will improve client reputation — which will also help them generate more revenue. According to Uberall, businesses that reply to at least 32% of reviews achieve 80% higher conversation rates than businesses that reply to just 10% of reviews.
Improve with Feedback
Unsolicited feedback submitted via reviews can help your clients identify ways to improve internal operations. Those data-based improvements will create experiences that drive loyalty. More consumers will write positive reviews that will influence others in their searches, and that’ll further build client reputation.
Partner with ReviewTrackers
Your clients look to you for expertise in improving their online presence and growing sales. When you partner with ReviewTrackers, you’ll be well-equipped with the information and tools you need to boost client reputation and drive more revenue for your agency.
Grow your agency and partner with ReviewTrackers today.
