Embracing Online Reviews in a Customer Service Strategy
BY ZUCORAHOME
APRIL 27, 2020
Reviews provide valuable information about a business, making it useful for both the business and its customers. They also provide insight on what the company’s doing well and present opportunities to make improvements.
Positive brand experiences create loyal, happy customers who spread the word about services, driving referrals and helping meet bottom-line objectives.
Monitoring online reviews are crucial to managing the company’s reputation and growing the business. On one hand, testimonials can be used to market the business, help establish credibility, and making it easy to turn customers into brand ambassadors.
On the other hand, negative reviews can damage brand reputation, cause loss of trust and prevent the acquisition of new customers.
Incorporating Online Reviews into Your Business Process
When building a strategy that is focused on enhancing the customer experience, leveraging online reviews to increase brand visibility and influence potential buyers is part of that process.
Here are some points to consider:
- Develop a vision and commitment as to the standard of customer care you want to exercise in your company.
- Set the requirements for meeting those standards by communicating expectations with employees, and by building incentives and rewards within your team as part of the customer care process.
- Make it easy for customers to leave reviews by using software that enables the automation of communication and increases interactions with customers.
- Invite customers to give feedback on services or products received. Consider this your guide for “did wells” and “next times”, allowing you to celebrate your successes and to see what changes need to happen in the future.
- Appoint a designated customer advocate who monitors and promptly responds to reviews.
- This facilitates building a rapport with customers, encourages them to keep engaging with the brand, and turns complaints into opportunities to win back unsatisfied customers.
Reviews Keep us Accountable to our Customers
When quality customer service is the primary focus of any business, positive feedback comes naturally. Nevertheless, there’s always room for growth and for improvement, and we should embrace all types of feedback.
While the positive may be the best driver, the negative reviews keep us humble, honest and holds us accountable to our customers. At the end of the day, we’re not just selling a product or service, we’re building a lasting, profitable, mutually beneficial relationship with each customer.
By Rebeca Lopez, Director, Customer Success at ZucoraHome