What are people saying about your business? In the digital age, the conversation can take place on a wide variety of review sites and social media platforms. Plus, it can reach more people than ever before. And your digital reputation can be equally, if not more, important than other facets of your business strategy. These include marketing and pricing.
The annual customer review survey from BrightLocal found that 98% of consumers read reviews online for local businesses — an 8% increase over 2019. The survey also found that consumers expect a response — 88% are more likely to do business with a merchant that responds to both positive and negative reviews. However, that number drops to 42% for businesses that never respond.
According to the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, there are several reasons consumers put stock in reviews and how merchants respond to them. Reviews give potential customers an indication of businesses’ credibility and trustworthiness as well as the features and quality of the products they sell. Consumers factor in what they read on online review sites so that they can make purchasing decisions with more confidence.
So, along with essential tasks like tracking inventory, creating employee schedules, keeping a website up to date, and optimizing pricing to improve margin, small business owners must also make reputation management a priority to ensure success.
Furthermore, to know what people in your market are saying about your business, you need to stay connected to online review hubs that allow you to capitalize on positive feedback with loyalty-building responses. It also gives you the opportunity to address criticism to restore relationships with unhappy customers. Negative feedback is also a chance to learn from your market. This way, you can improve your product mix, customer service, and other factors that add up to a growing business.
In addition to increasing transparency and trust among your customers, reputation management also gives small business owners these three additional advantages.
1. Partnership and investment opportunities
Online reviews aren’t only for consumers. The reviews that your customers post and your responses to them could be the green light to a potential partner.
2. More job applicants
If you’re like most small business owners, you’re looking for qualified applicants to fill vacant positions. Activity on review sites can encourage (or discourage) talent to consider working for your company.
3. Search engine rankings
Search engines see responses to online reviews as new content. They will help them recognize your business as a trusted source. A well-managed online reputation can also result in more traffic to your website.
To help business owners achieve these benefits, Payanywhere launched the Payments Hub Reputation Management solution. This tool allows merchants to connect their Google Business Profile to Payments Hub. Plus, stay up to date on customer reviews, all from a single screen.
Payanywhere is an all-in-one payment platform that aims to power the potential of business owners with everything they need to make day-to-day operations run smoothly. Payanywhere offers hardware, software, and support for a variety of business needs such as in-person and online payment acceptance, invoicing, reporting, inventory and employee management, and — you guessed it — Reputation Management.
Payanywhere’s Reputation Management tool allows business owners to:
- Gain insights on their customer ratings and review trends.
- Stay in the know with email alerts when reviews are posted about their business.
- Engage with their customers by responding to reviews.
- Keep tabs on what people are saying about the competition.
Reputation Management is a great way for business owners to interact with customers and set their products or services apart from others in the marketplace, directly from their back office.
Staying visibly engaged with customers and feedback on the platforms where potential buyers search for businesses is an invaluable resource. While it does take time and dedication, Payments Hub Reputation Management simplifies the process of creating conversations and cultivating trust with consumers, leading to not just a good first impression, but a good lasting one as well.
Visit payanywhere.com for more information on the products and services that are built to power the potential of businesses everywhere.
