Service providers like law firms and medical clinics depend on word of mouth from satisfied customers. In the digital age, customer reviews have broadened word of mouth from a friend or neighbor’s recommendation to anybody who has an internet connection. Customer reviews have become a key tool for businesses to attract new clients and build a reputation that keeps people coming back. On the other side of the coin, improperly managed customer reviews can also be a deterrent for potential clients. Here’s a breakdown on the ways that customer reviews can impact your business and how to maximize their utility.
How Customer Reviews Impact Your Business
First, let’s evaluate the impact reviews have on businesses in general. Service providers do exactly as their name implies – provide a service – which puts customer satisfaction high on their list of priorities. This makes clients your top marketing tool. There are four main reasons why reviews left by customers are particularly valuable:
- Provides valuable feedback: Reviews often contain valuable information on exactly what clients want. By thoroughly analyzing your client reviews on a regular basis, you can glean an acute understanding of how the solutions you deliver are meeting your core audiences’ needs and expectations. Even negative feedback can be extremely valuable as they can offer relevant suggestions as to how you can improve your business, often through simple, cost-effective tweaks.
- Provides client testimonials for other clients: Real reviews are one of the most trusted forms of feedback that future clients and customers use when determining if they’re going to proceed with your services. Highlighting positive client experiences in their own words will win the trust of potential clients much quicker than if you tell them yourself.
- Helps build your brand: Customer reviews help build your company brand and establish its reputation. Having a number of positive client reviews for your law firm, for example, will build the reputation of your firm as one that can be trusted.
- It’s free advertising: We’ve already highlighted how reviews play a key role in customer purchase choices. This makes them a cost-effective way to advertise your business as it costs practically nothing to emphasize a few good reviews.
Leveraging Customer Reviews To Grow Your Business
The key to using reviews as a marketing tool is to learn from them, leverage them, and use them to stand out from the crows. Here are some tips to make the most of reviews to grow your business.
- Seek feedback from loyal clients: While many reviews are unsolicited, you don’t have to be shy about asking your customers to review your services. You can do so with an extra form when you close a case, or following up with an intake email after they use your services.
- Create success stories: Highlight customer reviews on your website so that prospective clients don’t have to go far to see happy testimonials of your products or services
- Learn from bad reviews: Ignoring bad reviews is a mistake (though an understandable one). However, negative reviews often offer valuable feedback that will tell you how you can improve. Using these reviews as constructive criticism can help your organization learn and grow and set you up for future success.
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Leveraging customer reviews is key to building your brand. For digital marketing services to grow your business, call Affordable Digital Marketing today.