While it’s true that Google dominates the business review space, there are many other channels to be considered for a holistic approach to your ORM (online reputation management) strategy. Giving your customers more feedback options will boost reputation and increase overall engagement. Reel in more feedback for your company and drive new insights that have huge impact.
Not all customers have access to a major reputation channel, and only the most passionate will create one to leave a review.
In order to leave a review on Google or Facebook, a user must have a valid and active account. Users who don’t have active accounts on either platform always have the option to create an account, but the time and effort needed to create an account just to leave a review is a big barrier to receiving important feedback for your business. People with bad experiences are far more passionate and driven to retaliate via online comments and reviews than people with good experiences.
Satisfied customers generally won’t go through the trouble of creating an account to leave good feedback. Having an open but verified third option like the Reviews Up channel allows even those customers without Google or Facebook accounts to easily leave valuable reviews and feedback that can be used to offset poor reviews, and build more positive reputation and trust levels. It’s simple, more feedback options will boost reputation.
Not All Customers Want Their Review In The Public Domain.
Promoter Score
Alternative Channels
Providing an alternative, open channel (like the one Reviews Up offers with every subscription) to all customers is smart business. Not only is it easier and faster to complete for consumers, it becomes possible for companies to acquire important feedback they would have otherwise lost. Customer feedback is one of the most important factors in quickly resolving problems, providing better service and even motivating employees by sharing positive customer comments personalized to them.
- Leaving feedback on the Reviews Up channel is easier and faster, but this is unknown to customers at the time of invitation. That said, it still out greatly performs Google and Facebook conversions rates.
- 75% of users leave a longer comment with Reviews Up
- Reviews Up reviews are checked for typos, profanity, spam content and verified for authenticity
- Reviews Up reviews can easily be shared on a Facebook business timeline
- Reviews Up reviews can be showcased on your company website
- Reviews Up reviews increase overall company ratings by as much as 15% over the first year of use
- Reviews Up reviews add relevance and could have positive impact on SEO
Get compliant with required transparency
Keeping true to our mission to provide customers the easiest way to provide important and unfiltered feedback, all accounts using the Reviews Up app get access to our proprietary Reviews Up channel. This pathway is able to capture feedback from users who don’t have an account with Google, Facebook etc. As online reputation and reviews grow in importance and influence, they will undoubtedly fall under even more scrutiny from the federal government. Businesses are required to provide open options that are not ‘gated’ behind qualifying questions. The Reviews Up channel satisfies this criteria and takes an additional step by not requiring an account that can be seen as restrictive in any way.
Although Reviews Up is always active, we do add flexibility by giving our customers the option to omit this channel when sending personalized invites to their customers. They can simply deselect it when sending Email or SMS based invitations. All passive tools (QR Codes, Reputation Page, Widgets) include the Reviews Up channel as a feedback option. White labeled options are also available to further remove Reviews Up branding and permanently remove the channel from feedback requests if desired. Selecting this option will remove all existing reviews collected on that channel, but they are cached and can be reinstalled at a later date if desired.
Public versus Private Feedback
All feedback is important to your company. Offering distinct options to customers is important. Customers have many profiles. Extroverts, introverts, social butterfly, couch potato, outgoing, quiet, etc. Understanding that all customers need different options to vent or leave praise is important. Your primary goal should be to capture as much of feedback possible. Your reputation platform should offer these options while making it super easy for customers to do so.
Public options like Google and Facebook are critical, but offering private feedback options also offer important insight on how to improve your business. No account is needed…it’s fast, easy, and can be anonymous for your customer.
Conclusion
Get an online reputation management strategy in place now.