Tackle Negative Customer Reviews Before They Go Online—whirLocal Offers Customer Review Collection and Publishing System
It’s no fun when your business gets bad-mouthed publicly on the Web. A few negative reviews can turn off potential customers from spending their money at your establishment.
WhirLocal is a new service that helps businesses collect customer reviews, and maintain a positive online reputation by addressing negative reviews privately.
What is whirlLocal?
Developed by thirdRiver Marketing, whirLocal enables your business to proactively collect customer reviews, then publish the positive ones on social networks, like Facebook and Twitter.
“A lot of companies gather reviews, in the form of surveys, questions, postcards, etc. However, in most instances they don’t end up doing much, if anything, with the review after they receive it,” said Tim Fahndrich, founder of thirdRiver. “They are often used for internal feedback only, which is great, but in many cases the reviews get filed away never to be seen again. We felt like there had to be a better way to leverage them on behalf of our clients.”
How does whirLocal work?
A business requests a review by handing the customer a review card which has a URL and QR code. The URL and QR code both link to a custom review page for the customer to fill out. The customer is rewarded with an email coupon if a review is submitted, and the the business receives email notification of the review.
Two things can happen from here. If the review is positive, the customer is invited to review on other review sites like Yelp, Google and CitySearch. The business can click “publish” to automatically send these reviews to its social network accounts, blogs, and other directory sites, creating unique content which adds to its search engine ranking.
If the review is negative, the fields on the form change to allow the customer to describe the bad experience and suggest improvements. The customer is also asked if he/she would like a follow-up phone call. Business can then begin to privately dialog with the customer to resolve the issue—no more public spectacles online.
“Many of the companies we show the system to like it just for that reason alone. In both cases, the business owner gets an immediate email with the content of the review, which provides an invaluable feedback tool,” said Fahndrich.
Who is whirLocal for?
WhirLocal is especially useful for small businesses that need an easy, automated way to collect and publish customer reviews.
“We have had some great success locally, especially with clients that one would not typically think rely heavily on reviews. Attorneys, insurance agents, mortgage brokers and doctors have really taken to this system,” said Fahndrich.
For more information on whirLocal check out its website: https://whirlocal.com/.
- Joseph Mutidjo, Smallbiztechnology.com
