You might be aware that you should be responding to negative reviews left on review platforms like Google reviews, Facebook reviews and Yelp. But you may never have considered responding to good reviews. Why waste your valuable time on a customer that had a good experience with your business?
Establish your reputation
There’s no denying one simple fact: your customers—and potential customers—are curious about and aware of your online reputation. Ninety-three percent of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy a product. That means almost all your potential customers will take the time to read about previous customers’ experiences with your business before they even walk through your door. And while they’re there, they’re reading your responses too.
A surprising 89% of people read business responses—regardless of whether the review was positive or negative. And around 15% of people have said they didn’t return to a business after not receiving a response to their review. On the flip side, 70% changed their mind about a brand after the company responded to a review. Perception plays a big part here as well. More than 40% of consumers see replying to reviews as an indication that a company cares about their customers.
So customers aren’t just reading reviews. They’re also looking for how you respond to reviews. (For good review examples, click here.) Online reviews that deeply affect your business will exist whether or not you respond. Choose not to make review responses an essential part of your marketing plan and the conversation, along with your reputation, will be outside your control.
Improve customer retention
Finding new customers is one of the most difficult parts of growing a business. If you can’t find anyone to buy what you’re selling, your business will fail. And finding a new customer can cost up to 25 times more than maintaining a relationship with an established customer. So when you do find a new customer, you want to keep them! An easy way to increase customer retention is to respond to their review—even when it’s positive feedback.
Check out this video → https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3305749785
You probably don’t need to go to the same lengths as the business owner above. But when you don’t reply to reviews, you can attribute around 15% of your customer churn to this misstep. When someone takes the time to describe the experience they had with your business, acknowledging them just makes sense. Ignoring a review means losing the opportunity to showcase your customer service and professionalism.
Increase your revenue
Responding to reviews is like free, personalized advertising. Businesses that take the time to respond to even just one review enjoy, on average, 4% more revenue. Those who step up their game and respond to 25% of reviews see 35% more revenue than businesses that don’t. Customers want to buy from companies that are engaged, interested and responsive to their target audience. Even Google agrees…
Google doesn’t usually share tips on how to move up search rankings or increase your business visibility. But, in the case of reviews, Google recommends responding to reviews and has confirmed that good reviews can help your business. Unfortunately, few businesses take advantage of this valuable revenue booster. Only 25% of businesses respond to reviews.
Review responses also have the power to change people’s minds. Seventy percent of consumers say they’ve changed their mind about a business after reading their response to a review.
A note about negative reviews
Before you read this article, if you felt responding to positive reviews was a waste of time, you’ve probably been avoiding answering negative reviews too. Don’t avoid responding to negative reviews. Your goal is to remedy the situation with the disgruntled customer while hopefully persuading them to edit or (better yet) delete their bad review. The cost of ignoring negative reviews is high. You could lose up to 22% of customers from a single negative review.
The simple act of responding to reviews will have a significant impact on your reputation, customer retention and revenue. Make review responses part of your marketing plan, start posting responses, and you’ll experience the benefits immediately.
