1. Introduction............................................................ p.3

2. The power of ‘Social Proof’.................................... p.5

3. The hidden benefits of customer feedback........ p.7

4. Using reviews in your marketing.......................... p.8

5. How to obtain reviews........................................... p.10

6. Dealing with negative feedback............................ p.12

7. Monitoring your reputation.................................. p.14

8. How to get started................................................. p.15

9. The next step.......................................................... p.16

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Reputation is earned through providing excellent customer service, which is why the world’s most successful businesses put so much focus on the customer experience. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, is famously ‘customer obsessed’.

Put simply, your business reputation is what others - most importantly your customers - think about you. It’s what gives your business the trust factor that makes getting new business so much easier.

Reputation has traditionally been communicated through word of mouth. These days it’s far more visible thanks to online reviews, blogs and social media.

If you ask any business owner what their most valuable asset is, the answer will be ‘our reputation’. Unfortunately reputation is one of the few business assets not under the complete control of the business owner.

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We will also show how implementing an automated reviews management tool such as ReviewsMANAGER can make the process a whole lot easier.

As consumers, we know the power that reviews hold in terms of influencing our own buying decisions.

So considering the importance of reputation, you would think nearly every business has a proactive system in place to obtain customer feedback. You’d also think most businesses would be regularly publishing testimonials on their websites.

Amazingly, you’d be wrong! There’s a variety of reasons for this - but we’ll show you why none of these reasons is a valid excuse to miss out on your greatest selling tool.

In this eBook we’ll explore the influential power of reviews and how you can easily implement word of mouth marketing in your business.

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80% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations

Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2015

If you think back to the last book you bought or restaurant you visited, it’s highly likely that reading what others had said about it influenced your choice one way or the other.

The psychology of reviews goes deep. The human brain uses clues and shortcuts when making a decision.

In his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini identified Social Proof as one of his six principles of persuasion.

Other people's recommendations give you the confidence to follow suit.

The reason reviews are so influential is that they minimise the risk of making a poor decision due to the perceived wisdom of the crowd.

Just what is it about reviews that make them so incredibly influential?

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“Humans will look to those around them to guide their decisions and actions.”

Source: 
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini

Numerous studies and surveys have proved beyond doubt that customer reviews massively influence your ability to convert leads into customers, which has a direct impact on the success of your business.

People expect to see reviews when they visit a business website these days. 

What’s more, obtaining them isn’t difficult. Satisfied customers are more than happy to help out.

Despite all this evidence, surprisingly few businesses have a proactive system in place to encourage their customers to provide feedback and publish reviews online.

This is especially true for small and medium sized businesses - which gives those that do a massive competitive advantage.

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68% say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more

Source:
BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2015

If asked, 89% would post a review if they had a positive experience.

Source:
Yodle Insights: What consumers want from local businesses

Customer feedback is a brilliant way to generate testimonials to be used throughout your marketing to substantially increase your sales and conversions.

Here are eight less obvious but equally valuable benefits of having a customer feedback system in place:

1. It demonstrates to your customers that you care about their experience - they will feel more valued, strengthening their loyalty to your business.

2. You’ll receive constructive suggestions and ideas for improving your customer service.

3. It will alert you to any potential issues in your business so that you can tackle them before they become a real problem.

4. It will uncover aspects of the customer experience that you may take for granted that are highly valued by your customers. 

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5. Reviews are a fruitful source of words and phrases that should be deployed in your marketing communications, as they will resonate with prospective customers.

6. Positive feedback is a powerful reward mechanism to motivate you and your team. It incentivises everyone in your business to deliver the best possible customer experience.

7. Publishing reviews on your website will help your visibility on search engines, as reviews provide keyword-rich fresh content to your website.

8. Customer testimonials are an asset that boosts the value of your business. McKinsey consultants call it “word-of-mouth equity”.

Positive customer feedback is pure marketing gold dust. You need to maximise the benefits of this by publishing reviews on your website and encouraging your customers to spread the word through social media.

Obtaining regular reviews means your website visitors will see recent reviews, one of the things that make reviews more relevant.

You should also keep a special list of your best reviews, those that demonstrate how your product or service helps to solve a problem.

These should be included throughout your online and printed marketing collateral.

Reviews can also be used as content for your social media updates.

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69% say a review must be written within 2-3 months to be relevant

Source:
BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2015

Automated review management systems like ReviewsMANAGER allow you to embed a reviews widget that selectively publishes feedback on your website.

This means that your website is continuously updated with reviews as they arrive like this, without you having to do anything.

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The easiest way around these challenges is to use an automated reviews gathering system such as ReviewsMANAGER.

The good news is that getting reviews is easy. You just have to ask!

But unless asking for feedback becomes part of your business process, it simply won’t happen.

You need to make it easy for customers to provide feedback. Ideally you also need to maintain control over the process as far as possible.

However amazing your customer service is, the sad fact is that unless you prompt your customers for feedback, nothing will happen.

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Your customers receive a personalised email requesting their feedback. It can publish feedback on your website whilst giving you full control over what gets published.

This way, you have all the information you need - and the ability to confidently use reviews as part of your online marketing.

It can even be set to prompt your happy customers to share their opinions on third party sites and social networks.

With ReviewsMANAGER you simply upload your customer details and the system takes care of all the rest.

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This is an irrational approach that can potentially harm your reputation. If you don’t provide a mechanism for your customers to voice their opinion, they will find a way to vent.

It’s far better to know if there’s a problem in your business that can be solved. Having a proactive customer feedback system in place will help you manage negative situations and minimise the risk of having your business publicly criticised.

The simple act of asking for feedback shows your customers that you care and value their opinion. The fact is, the vast majority of reviews will be positive.

The fear of negative reviews can prevent some businesses from soliciting feedback at all.

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If someone’s customer experience falls short, you need to be the first to know so you can empathise and offer to put things right.

Dealing with dissatisfied customers politely and professionally can often turn them into advocates.

Should you decide to be brave enough to publish less than glowing feedback on your website, it actually gives greater authenticity to your reviews. A professional, courteous public response to a negative review demonstrates to the world that you care.

We all know that no business is perfect at all times and make allowances for this. In context, the occasional public negative review will not undermine your reputation and can actually help to inspire trust if properly handled.

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Fortunately, reviews management tools such as ReviewsMANAGER make that process easy by delivering performance reports and alerting you by email when a review is published on sites like Facebook or Google.

That way you can monitor your business's reputation and take action promptly when required.

You need to be aware of what's being said and respond promptly whenever relevant.

Keeping an eye on what people are saying about your business can be a challenge, but it’s important to do this.

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By far the easiest way to do this is by using an automated system - like ReviewsMANAGER.

It automatically solicits and tracks feedback, minimizes the number of bad reviews, pushes testimonials out to the business website and encourages happy customers to leave reviews across the Internet.

The sooner you start collecting customer feedback, the better. With a little effort, you could regularly gather reviews and use them to market your business more effectively.

Your reputation will not take care of itself. You need to be proactive about gathering feedback.

Unless you implement a system for regularly collecting customer feedback, it just won’t happen.

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To enquire call 020 8328 3097 or book an online demo

 www.reviewsmanager.co.uk

ReviewsMANAGER lets your business easily implement a customer feedback / review management process based on proven best practices. 

✔ Send email feedback requests automatically

✔ Manage Reviews online

✔ Testimonial Feed on your website

✔ No long term commitment

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