Picture this – it is a beautiful day outside, and you are in your office working away when you receive an email notification. You open it up to find that a customer has left you a review on their latest experience with your company. They are thrilled with the work you did, and they are not afraid to let everyone know it. You beam with pride as you read their kind words. So, what do you do next? Is that it? Of course not! You’ve just been given a valuable piece of feedback that you can use to improve your business. When customers take the time to leave a review, everybody wins. And the type of business you are in doesn’t even matter. Whether you are an internet service provider, a plumber, or a telecom company—customer feedback is invaluable. Not only does it give you the opportunity to show off your happy customers to potential new ones, but it also allows you to learn from your mistakes and make improvements where necessary. In this article, I list a few of the most impactful ways that you can use customer feedback marketing to take your business to the next level. But before we dive in, let’s take a quick look at how to measure customer feedback with a net promoter score (NPS).
What is a net promoter score?
Put simply; a net promoter score is a customer loyalty metric that measures how likely your customers are to recommend your business to others. The net promoter score is based on a scale of 1–10 and is calculated by taking the percentage of customers who rate you a nine or ten (promoters) and subtracting the percentage of customers who rate you a six or below (detractors). I cover this subject in much greater detail in this article, “What’s a Net Promoter Score and why do I need it?”. But for the purposes of this post, it is important to understand that your NPS score is a valuable metric that can reveal a lot about your business. If you are looking for a survey tool to run NPS surveys check out this NPS survey from Survey Monkey. The template is right there for you and easy to deploy.
How to use review marketing to grow your business
Review marketing is as underrated as it is powerful. In fact, studies have shown that, on average, reviews produce an 18% uplift in sales. And that is without even taking into account the multitude of other benefits they provide, such as building social proof, boosting SEO, and improving customer trust. If you are not already actively leveraging reviews to grow your business, now is the time to start. Here are a few customer review marketing tips to get you off on the right foot.
Make it easy for customers to leave reviews
The easier you make it for customers to leave reviews, the more likely they are to do it. Add links to your review profiles on your website, in your email signature, and on your social media platforms. And if you have a physical location, make sure to include your review profiles on any marketing materials you have displayed. All of this will ensure that customers always have a way to leave you a review, no matter where they are or what they are doing.
Respond to all reviews – good and bad
When customers take the time to leave you a review, the least you can do is acknowledge it. Thank your promoters for their kind words and address any concerns that your detractors may have. For example, if your HVAC company recently installed a new furnace for a customer, you might say something like this: “Thank you so much for your five-star review! We’re glad to have been of service and that you’re happy with your new furnace. If there’s anything we can do to help in the future, don’t hesitate to let us know.” On the other hand, if a customer leaves you a one-star review because they were unhappy with the service they received, you might say something like this: “We’re sorry to hear that you didn’t have a positive experience with our company. We strive to provide the best possible service to all our customers, and we’re sorry that we didn’t meet your expectations. If there’s anything we can do to make it right, please let us know.” If possible, reach out privately and attempt to fix the issue. If you can help the customer, you should then ask them to edit and revise their review. Most customers don’t expect you to be perfect, but they do expect service providers to “make it right”. Hearing back from a company after leaving a review–good or bad–makes customers feel valued. And when customers feel valued, they are more likely to do business with you again in the future.
Leverage reviews to improve your SEO
In addition to the direct benefits that reviews provide, they can also indirectly boost your business by improving your SEO. How? By increasing the amount of quality content on your website. Google loves fresh, relevant, and user-generated content–all things that reviews are. By adding a review section to your website, you not only provide valuable information to your customers but also give Google more reasons to rank your site higher in the search results. The best way to leverage your customer reviews for better SEO is to claim and personalize your Google Business profile. Google Business profiles are one of the best ways to convert local people searching for your services into customers. Maintaining your Google Business profile and ensuring it is updated frequently will help you highlight your services and your reviews. Google provides easy-to-follow steps for teams to maximize their profile features. Check out the Google Business Blog here. Once you are up and running on Google Business, it is important to let your past happy customers know and invite them to leave you a 5-star review on Google.
Use reviews to identify areas for improvement
Your reviews provided priceless information. Use them to identify the areas you are weakest and plan how to improve the customer experience. If a customer recently loved the plumbing work you did but thought your customer service could use some work, take note, and make the necessary changes. If clients are constantly complaining about a drop in internet speeds in a particular neighborhood, that might be a sign to invest in the infrastructure serving that area. Hearing what your customers have to say and then using that information to make changes is a surefire way to grow your business. To take it to another level, let those customers know that you valued their feedback and have taken steps to improve. This can help turn a brand detractor into a brand evangelist.
Use customer feedback to get more referrals
Finally, customer reviews can be leveraged to help you get more referrals. When customers read positive reviews about your business, they are more likely to recommend you to their friends and family. So, next time you get a five-star review, be sure to thank the customer and encourage them to tell their friends about their great experience. Something as simple as “Thanks so much for the kind words! We would be grateful if you would recommend us to your friends and family” can go a long way in getting more referrals. Provide your customers ways to make it easy for them to recommend you to friends, families, and colleagues. Ask satisfied customers to share their experiences with you on social media such as a neighborhood Facebook group or Nextdoor. Ask your customers to leave you a review on your Google Business (you do have a Google Business profile, right?) profile or Yelp. Additionally, sometimes referral incentives such as discounts on annual HVAC tune-ups or other services can motivate your customers to introduce you to their network.
Final thoughts
Let’s face it – customer feedback marketing is not going anywhere. To stay ahead of the competition, you need to leverage reviews and use them to grow your business. By following the tips outlined in this article, you will be well on your way to doing just that. Here at Zuper, we thrive on customer feedback—good and bad. In fact, it is what allowed us to grow our business and scale to where we are today. Invaluable feedback from our customers motivated us to enhance our suite of tools to help businesses in various industries simplify their operations, improve customer satisfaction, and scale. Whether you run a plumbing company and require assistance in intelligent dispatching to ensure your plumbers always arrive on time, or you are a telecom company in need of the best-in-class reporting and analytics to stay on top of your game, we have a solution for you. Do not hesitate to reach out and see how we can help your business grow! Get started for free today and explore all that our field service platform has to offer with no obligation. Click here to learn more.
