Why You Should Monitor Your Online Customer Reviews
My wife and I just returned from a long weekend on the San Antonio Riverwalk. We stayed at the Hotel Contessa where the customer service is Zappos-like. You can read more about our experience there by going to Yelp and reading the review I just posted.
It's Not Just About Gen Y
More and more customers are relying upon online reviews on a variety of social media platforms to aid their buying decisions. While it’s especially true of Generation Y customers, even boomers like me are using them more and more. Ignore this feedback channel at your own peril.
In the past several years I have also used online reviews similar to those at Yelp to locate a car dealer, buy major appliances, and narrow down my choice of minor purchases, as well. With the car dealers, reading reviews about the two local dealers of the brand I wanted quickly led me to select the one with the most positive reviews, even though the other dealer spent much more on TV advertising and had a more recognizable brand.
Lately, I’ve started using this method to find stores that sell what I want. Last night I discovered a local jeweler less than two miles from my home that, according to reviews, offers great service at reasonable prices. I had no idea the store existed since it’s not on a route I normally travel.
Why It’s Important to Monitor Your Online Reviews
There are two reasons why you should keep an eye on your online reviews.
First, use them as a feedback mechanism to monitor how your customers perceive your customer service and product quality. “But Glenn,” you say, “People only post complaints on those site, and many of them are unfair!”
Well, according to Yelp, which ranks businesses on a five-star scale, 66 percent of reviewers give four or five stars. There’s going to be some unfair reviews, but they usually boil down to overly high expectations and miscommunication between employees and customers. People like me who read reviews regularly use our BS detectors to filter those out.
I recommend you stay current on your reviews in order to build on your strengths and shore up your weaknesses. For example, I singled out the Hotel Contessa’s restaurant staff for praise, and I wasn’t the only one to do so. If I were in that hotel’s management, I’d make sure those frontline employees know how much they contributed to the overall customer experience since multiple reviews mentioned the restaurant.
If you’re reading your business’s reviews and you spot the same complaint over and over again, you now have the documentation to do something about it. Once you correct the problem, older reviews that single it out will drop to the bottom and will no longer be as relevant. If you’re fortunate, a more recent review might correct the old perception, as I did about several points.
Second, people are using them as search engines to find the products and services they want.
Finally, it doesn’t take long to search for your reviews. If you’ve never done it, just enter your organization’s name with “+ reviews,” in your search engine. Bookmark those sites, and make it a practice to come back on a regular basis.
Regards,
Glenn
Review me on Twitter. I’m @txglennross.
