It’s resolution season. And while everyone is hitting the gym this week, ordering that kale salad instead of the burger, too many business owners forget one resolution that will pay out for the year to come: Reputation Management. The best part: you don’t have to go to the gym or change your lunch order to benefit.
Reviews & ratings: the diet and exercise of your business
Reviews are to your business’s health as diet and exercise are to your body. They can be the fuel that drives new customers to your store and keep them coming back, or they can be the sugar coma that prevents those shoppers looking elsewhere. You need to eat well and exercise regularly, just as you need to keep reviews relevant and recent to maintain a healthy overall rating.
Over the next several weeks and months, consumers will be taking to the Internet to review the gifts they’ve received. People love to share their positive experiences almost as much as they rely on reviews when considering their next purchase. With a little prompting, those enthusiasts will leave feedback if you and your business if you just ask them.
Seven in 10 people, if asked, will review a business for the products they sell and the services they offer–they just need to be asked. So, while the holiday sales rush is over, it’s open season for reviews and online ratings. You’ve worked hard these past few months to have a strong holiday sales season. You’ve extended hours to accommodate late shoppers and made several other investments to ensure a strong finish to the year, so don’t sell your work short by forgetting to request a review from your shoppers.
Reputation management, like progress in the gym, takes time and dedication
We’re not saying reputation management is a cakewalk. Like the resolution to eat healthier and to go to the gym more, it requires a bit of work and some commitment. But with the right tools you won’t be lost, you won’t feel like you’re that skinny kid walking up to the squat-rack. With the right tools, you can maintain a robust and healthy reputation, increase the number of reviews you have as well as increase your overall rating. The important part is that you try. Like going to the gym, most of the work is getting yourself there. Once you’re there, the rest is rather easy and grows easier with time and familiarity.
With time, reputation management becomes second nature. You improve your form, learn the quick adjustments to accelerate your review growth, and the habit provides your business with the much-needed energy boost it needs to attract new customers. With time you won’t just be keeping up with your competition, you’ll pass them and increase your lead.
So this year, as you make recommit to eating better, exercising more, and taking better care of yourself, commit to improving your business’s health and reputation. Because, while your store is local, your customers and future customers are looking you up on online first. Be sure they see a healthy review profile when they do.
Looking for some help with your reputation management? Womply offers a full set of tools to help small and local business get the advantage they need to stay competitive. Request your 15-minute consultation. We’ll be happy to show you how our tools will make accelerate your reputation management without the headache of guessing.