Reputation Management

Step Up Your Business’s Google Game by Leveraging Your Reviews

January 14, 2021 by Justine Frerichs Leave a Comment

Online Reviews Are The Key to Building Consumer Trust

Let’s start on common ground: you know online reviews are important for your business. Reviews help your Google search ranking and optimize your SEO efforts across the board. What is equally, if not more, important are the additional ingredients it takes to optimize your Google presence.

As the internet continues to evolve into a forum-based platform, consumers look to their most-trusted-stranger for recommendations– online reviews. It makes sense that consumers turn to reviews as a compass — to understand similar path-to-purchase decisions.

Reviews do much more than rank your products and services; they are key in framing the image of your brand and quality of your services on the world wide web. Regardless of your business, online reviews are important for every product and service. Here’s what we know: responding to your reviews makes your business stand out– in a good way.

Responding To Your Reviews Is the Key to Your Brand’s Online Reputation

Gone are the days when pricing was the sole factor in making a buying decision. Top of funnel consideration starts with a quick Google search to gain valuable insight about what you offer and how you do business. This first step establishes a customer’s initial impression that will lead them to contact you or your competitor.

Reviews influence the trustworthiness of your company to both Google and customers. If that isn’t convincing enough, a BrightLocal Survey revealed that 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses. And the review site consumers look to most often? You guessed it, Google.

What other people are saying about your company provides consumers with the confidence that your product or service will solve their problem. How you respond speaks to the quality of customer service and care that your business provides. It is a way to build an engaged relationship with your customers that stretches past a purchase.

While customers are more likely to purchase a product or service that has customer reviews, the impact of review responses may carry more weight than you imagined. 71% of customers changed their perceptions of a brand after seeing a public response to a reviewer, and were more likely to vote the company as “helpful.” Needless to say, reviews leave an impression on your business, and responding to them builds trust in your brand for the future.

Increase Your Local SEO by Optimizing Your Google Local Pack

SEO and Google’s Local Pack are in a committed relationship. When thinking about your SEO strategy for your business, there are quite a few things to consider.

Google’s Local Pack works to target your local audience. If you aren’t familiar with the term SERP (Search Engine Results Page), it is likely that you’ve seen its function. The Local Pack is related to a user’s search query and Google responds by providing both paid and organic results.

You’ll find that SERP’s are an important component of SEO, and how your business appears on Google. Research shows that 46% of all searches on Google are seeking local information. To make sure your business shows up on Google search results for local SEO, your Google presence and polished profile are a must.

Think about when a potential customer searches on Google for “audiologists near me,” the chance that your audiology business will show up instead of your competitors is dependent on your Google My Business Profile. Your business is more likely to gain traction when your webpage is higher up on Google’s search results.

Make Google Algorithm Your Friend

Google’s algorithm is as complex as the world we live in. Google aims to provide a blend of the most relevant and quality results for a query, so frequent updates are to be expected. As a business owner and marketer, it is important to keep this in mind when maintaining your SEO-friendly presence.

The most recent algorithmic updates consider various traits and signals when evaluating the ranking of a webpage. You can probably guess what’s coming next… indeed, consumer reviews have a significant impact on Google’s search algorithm.

Google prefers websites that have reviews and maintaining positive reviews are parallel to a higher ranking for organic search results. Google also values businesses that connect with their customers by responding to their reviews. To put it simply, your reviews and the way your business interacts with them are important, without exceptions.

Responding To Your Reviews Is Important, But It Doesn’t Make Your Life Easier

If you’ve made it this far, it’s clear you care about the success of your business.

CallSource also cares about the success of your business!

We know your time is valuable. With CallSource’s RespondNow!, our trained staff can respond to your reviews so that you may focus your efforts elsewhere. From responding to reviews with a personalized approach, to carefully crafting a response to a negative review, there is a whole world to consider when approaching your business’s reviews. And we’d like to think we have the secret sauce down.

If you’re ready to enhance your business’s online reputation and your Google presence, CallSource has your back. Contact a CallSource specialist to get started.

Links:
How to Set up Your Google My Business
SEO Local
CS Reviews
Respond, Now!

References:
https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/algorithms/
https://moz.com/ugc/the-insane-power-of-online-reviews-for-local-businesses
https://seranking.com/blog/google-local-pack/
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/12-local-seo-stats-every-business-owner-and-marketer-should-know-in-2019-i/549079/

How to Set Up Your Google My Business Profile

December 18, 2019 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

Learn why you need a Google My Business profile, and how to set up Google My Business for your company.

Google My Business, also referred to as GMB, is a must-have for any company, and is especially important for local businesses.

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a profile made on Google that makes it easy for people to find your business and details about it, such as name, location, hours, website, phone number, and reviews.

Google defines Google My Business as “a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and maps. By verifying and editing your business information, you can both help customers find you and tell them the story of your business.”

Why do I need a Google My Business profile?

Having a GMB profile shows your business is reputable and trustworthy. It also makes it easier for people to find your business, whether they are aware of it or not.

For both small business owners and local businesses that care about their SEO efforts, having a Google My Business profile is a must. To show up in Google search results for local SEO, you must be present on Google.

If a potential customer was to type in “pest control near me,” your business will only show up as a suggestion if you have a properly set up Google My Business profile. Otherwise, the searcher will only see your competitors, and you are missing out on a possible new customer.

By having a GMB profile, you are in control of the message your business portrays and the information that users will find about it. You can also gain a review presence on Google My Business, and respond to reviews directly from the platform.

People can easily find your business and get directions to your business through your GMB profile. By ensuring you have the correct address in your profile, users can see where you are located and get directions straight from Google Maps with one click.

Lastly, having a GMB listing will give you insights such as what customers searched that brought them to your business, where they came from, and how many called you directly from your profile.

How do I Set Up a Google My Business profile?

Now let’s get down to the step-by-step to create a Google My Business profile.

1. Create a Google Account for Your Business.

To create a new Google account, go to your Google Account. If you are currently signed in to your personal account, click on your account icon, and add another account.

If you are already signed into the Google Account that you want to be associated with your GMB profile, skip to step 2.

2. Find or Add Your Business Name

To create your account, go to the Google Business webpage and click “Manage Now.” Search for your business to see if it already exists on Google, or click on “Add your business to Google” if it does not show up.

Note: If the name of your business is similar to another business nearby, make sure that you do not accidentally select their business name that may auto-populate.

If your business does not have a profile yet, add the name of your business as it should appear in your Google My Business Profile.

3. Add Your Business Address

Click “yes” to add a location and enter your business address so that it can connect to Google Maps and Search results, ensuring your company will appear in local search results.

4. Add Your Service Area (Service-Based Businesses Only)

If you deliver or bring services to your customers instead of them coming to your business for their needs, select “Yes” to add your service area.

Select “No” and skip this step if people come to your business location for their sales or service needs.

Once you select “Yes,” you will have to add cities that are within your service area to make sure that people searching from there will discover your business. You can add as many areas as you’d like before clicking “Next.”

5. Choose Your Business Category

Add the category that you think best fits your business. You can search a few terms to see what’s available and discover which you think will work well for you. This affects search terms that your business can appear on Google for, so make sure that it is relevant. You can always update this later on, but it is best to choose the closest category to your business.

6. Add Your Business Contact Details

Although Google lists this step as optional, it is very important to enable customers to contact you and find your website. Add your main business phone number and website in this step.

Note: You will want to add a call tracking number to your Google My Business profile once your setup is complete.

7. Verify Your Google My Business Account

Congratulations – you can now finalize your Google My Business Account once you are finished!

Now, you have a few options when it comes to verifying your business:

• Verify by mail: Google will send you a postcard with a code you will input later to your address on file with the business.
• Verify by phone (available for select businesses): If you are eligible for phone verification, you can select this option which will call your phone number and give you your code to enter.
• Verify by email (available for select businesses): If you are able to verify by email, you can click this option to have Google send you an email with your code to verify.
• Instantly verify (available for select businesses): This option can only appear if you already have a GMB profile and are simply adding a new location.

No matter which option you choose, it is imperative that you finish the verification process for your Google My Business listing to be complete.

How do I optimize my Google My Business Profile?

Now that you’ve successfully set up your GMB profile, you don’t want to stop there. Next, you want to add additional details to make your business really stand out.

Here are a few best practices to do in order to make your GMB truly complete.

• Add photos and/or videos. Having visual aids for your business will make it stand out more and seem more legitimate to customers. You can add photos of the outside of your business, group employee shots, and any other relevant images.
• Add a description of your business. A few sentences should be enough to give consumers insight into what exactly your business does and how it can help them.
• Add your business logo. Make sure your brand stands out! Add your logo to appear on your profile.
• Add business details. Make sure to update your business hours, location, contact information, and description to be as precise as possible. To track the calls you receive from your GMB profile, you will want to add a tracking number. Find the step-by-step details to add a call tracking number to Google My Business here.
• Start requesting and managing your Google Reviews. Now that you have a GMB profile, customers can leave reviews to help you gain a great online reputation, which is vital to gain new customers and have more people that are searching for your services to choose you over a competitor. Make sure you respond not only to the positive reviews you receive, but especially the negative reviews. Here are 4 easy steps to respond to any negative review.

Discover more step-by-step tips to optimize your Google My Business Profile

Keep Bettering Your Business With CallSource

Setting up a Google My Business listing is one important step to enable your business for success. CallSource is here to help you along the rest of your journey, from tracking your marketing attribution to helping coach your employees to enable more sales for your company.

Subscribe to our blog for more insights like these, and speak to a representative to learn more about how we can help your business with real data insights and the best customer service around.

Online Reviews and Their Impact on Small Businesses’ Revenue

October 30, 2019 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

Small businesses can no longer afford to ignore their online review presence.

We’ve said it before, and it’s still true: online reviews are the new word of mouth for new and old local businesses alike.

Online reviews are especially important for small businesses to get their name out there and acquire new customers.

Why are online reviews important for small businesses?

Increased business awareness

When you make sure you have a business listing across all relevant review sites, consumers see your business name out there. Whether consciously or subconsciously, consumers will remember your name associated with the type of business they are looking for, which will increase the relevance of your business in their minds.

Improve local SEO

With increased awareness also comes helping your business’s local search engine optimization efforts. When more people are writing relevant things about your business, they are helping attribute pertinent keywords associated with your company and its services.

For example, if someone writes “ABC Plumbing was great and really helped us with our toilet leak,” that will help if someone is searching “plumber toilet leak” into Google, causing them to possibly come across your business.

Having reviews on your Google My Business profile especially helps your SEO presence – companies with more review stars and a larger number of reviews will show up higher on the search results page in Google.

Higher sales and revenue

According to a report by Womply Research, businesses that claim their free listings on at least 4 review sites earn 58% more revenue, while businesses that don’t claim their listing on any review sites earn 24% less revenue than average. If this statistic alone isn’t enough to convince you to make sure your business claims all of its online review profiles, do you even care about your ROI?

But you cannot simply have review profile listings and hope that people will come and leave reviews. It is vital to keep asking customers for reviews and to earn new reviews on an ongoing basis. Womply also shows that businesses with no fresh reviews earn less than 20% on average, while businesses with 25 or more fresh reviews earn 108% more than average.

How responding to reviews impacts small businesses’ revenue

This definitely isn’t our first time promoting the importance of responding to your business’s online reviews, either. It isn’t only important for your online reputation but also helps your company earn more customers and ultimately achieve higher revenue.

Womply Research shows that people spend up to 49% more money at businesses that reply to reviews and that businesses that reply to more than 25% of their reviews earn 35% more revenue than average.

Their research also states that 75% of businesses don’t respond to any of their reviews – so you can really stand out by ensuring to reply to your reviews.

Don’t have time to respond to your reviews? Find out how we can do it for you with Respond, Now!

What to do with negative reviews

Although receiving a negative review may hurt your business’ ego and isn’t ideal, it isn’t always necessarily a bad thing to get some negative reviews. In fact, Womply’s study shows that businesses whose reviews are 15-20% negative earn 13% more in annual revenue than businesses whose are 5-10% negative, and businesses with a rating between 3.5 and 4.5 stars earn more revenue than any other rating.

Download our free step-by-step checklist on how to respond to negative reviews.

Start earning more by caring about your online review presence

Having an online review presence – and managing it – is no longer just a “nice to have,” it’s a necessity. CallSource is here to help you manage your business every step of the customer journey, including managing and replying to your online reviews.

With Respond, Now!, our real people will respond to your reviews for you, so you don’t have to worry that you are missing any important feedback about your business online.

Take charge of your online reputation

Get CS Reviews

I want to talk to someone about maximizing my online review presence.

4 Ways Your Call Handlers Are Ruining Your Dental Office’s Reputation

October 7, 2019 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

Read on for phone tips for your front office staff to improve call to conversion rates to win new patients.

At your dental office, your front office staff is the first impression of your practice. Before someone even has a chance to meet their dentist, they speak with someone in the front office – most likely over the phone. This impression that new patients receive determines if they will choose your office, and also if they will be leaving a positive or negative review about your practice online. One bad experience can lead to a negative review – which you don’t want for your business’s reputation.

This is why ensuring that your front office staff is equipped with the right type of skills is very important for a successful practice. If potential patients don’t have a good experience with your office from the get-go, they may end up with a poor impression of your business before even having the chance to become a patient.

How are employees failing to ensure that your practice receives a stellar impression and good online reputation right from the beginning? Below are four ways that your front office employees are potentially ruining your dental office’s reputation.

Mistake #1: They aren’t answering the phone

When someone is deciding on a new dentist to go to, they will most likely call your office to learn more and set up an appointment. If there aren’t enough employees to answer phones, phone lines are too busy, or front office staff are busy doing other tasks that they sometimes miss phone calls, this is an issue.

Do you know if you are missing calls, and when the most calls are missed? Take a look at your call tracking data to determine when missed calls are happening, and make sure you are staffed efficiently during those time periods. Make sure that front office staff know that answering the phone is a top priority so that they do not let calls go to voicemail, potentially missing an opportunity to win over a new patient for the office.

Discover how call tracking can help your dental practice – in under 30 minutes a week!

Mistake #2: They aren’t building a relationship with patients

To get a caller to book an appointment with your office, they must feel like they will get good service and like the people who work there. This starts when they first speak to one of your front office staff.

If employees aren’t working to build relationships on the phone and have real conversations with callers that aren’t feeling rushed or with a poor tone, they aren’t making callers want to choose your practice for their dental needs.

Building rapport leads to a good relationship and earns trust from your callers. When people feel comfortable and welcome, they will want to do business with you and keep coming back.

The same also goes for in-person experiences. Warm, inviting, friendly front office staff ensures that your patients feel comfortable and happy with their experience at your office. Make sure employees are taking the time to give a personalized experience to everyone who walks through your door.

Mistake #3: They aren’t presenting enough value about your office

When a potential patient has questions about your dental office or isn’t sure if they want to choose you to make an appointment with, they can be convinced that your practice is the best choice when value is presented effectively.

If employees feel rushed or aren’t including enough details about why patients should choose your practice over another’s and presenting that information to callers, then they could easily choose another local office over yours.

Make sure your phone handlers are using value statements to let callers know what sets your office apart from others in the area, and provide this information to callers so that they choose you.

Download our free 10-Point Call Handler Audit to ensure your front office staff are having successful phone calls.

Mistake #4: They aren’t overcoming objections

Callers could have many objections that prohibit them from stepping foot into your office. Wanting to know exact pricing for a procedure, having a difficult time scheduling, amongst other various reasons are potential objections that callers may be having on the phone.

Even if staff cannot fully handle or accommodate some of these objections, they can skillfully overcome them. For example, by explaining value about your practice first, and if they can successfully explain a procedure or the reasoning that the patient would come into the office and be seen for more specific pricing, they can ensure that they get those potential patients into the office and leave them with a good impression.

Don’t let your front office staff ruin your reputation

To get new patients and earn a positive online reputation, your front office staff must provide a great experience, sometimes even before someone becomes a patient of your dental office.

If you need extra help for your front office staff to improve their phone skills, CallSource can help with our custom call scorecards and call coaching programs.

Improve your call handlers appointment setting techniques.

Get employee Report Cards and Call Coaching

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call handlers’ phone skills

Does Your Hearing Practice Respond to Online Reviews?

October 4, 2019 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

As an industry that helps people in a very personal way, hearing offices should aim to be personable in every aspect of their brand. This includes putting a real voice to the brand name online – whether that be on the website or by responding to online reviews.

While it is true that the majority of hearing aid wearers are in older generations, that does not mean that they aren’t looking on the internet or paying attention to office’s online reviews for their needs. In fact, it is well-known in the industry that it is usually a child (or another family member) looking for their parent when it comes to getting their hearing checked.

Despite varying patient ages, prospective patients are using the internet and reading reviews of your hearing office. How can you make sure that they receive a great impression from your office and choose you as the one to fit their needs? You need to gain online reviews and respond to those reviews.

Show patients you care

By interacting with your past patients online in a public way, people that are researching the best hearing office to go to will see that your office takes their business one step further and truly cares about everyone’s experience.

78% of consumers believe a business cares more about them when they see management respond to reviews.¹ Don’t you want to show that you care about your patients?

Give negative reviews extra attention

Look up the reviews for your hearing office and those in your area – do any have less-than-positive reviews? If they do and you don’t see that any management addressed those patients’ concerns, how does that make the business look? Probably pretty bad.

Data shows that 4 in 5 consumers reverse their purchase decisions based on negative reviews – don’t let that reverse decision be about coming into your office.²

Stay in charge of your online reputation

By asking patients to write reviews, and replying to your online reviews, you are keeping your online reputation in your own hands by proactively ensuring that the great work your office does shines through, and righting any wrongs from patients who maybe felt that they didn’t get the experience they expected.

It takes those with hearing loss long enough to decide to do something about it – make sure to showcase that your hearing office will put them in the best hands to help.

Learn more about keeping track of your online reviews, and how to have real people respond on your behalf when the number of reviews you are receiving gets too overwhelming to handle.

Stand out in your industry and your area – focus on your online reputation and be able to help more patients than ever!

Subscribe to our blog for more insights to help your practice improve and succeed.

References:
1. https://moderncomment.com/customer-feedback-stats
2. https://www.reviewtrackers.com/online-review-monitoring/

Make Sure to Respond to Your Online Reviews with Respond, Now!

September 10, 2019 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

We’ll respond to your reviews for you, so you can focus on other things.

Businesses have learned the importance of having an online review presence, and acquiring reviews for their business. But are you aware of the importance of responding to your reviews?

78% of consumers believe a business cares more about them when they see management respond to reviews.¹ Are you not only gaining reviews, but replying to your reviewers as well?

Whether you aren’t sure how exactly you should respond to your reviews, or simply don’t have the time to respond to the influx of reviews you receive, now there’s no more excuses to not have responses for your reviews with CallSource’s Respond, Now!

Respond, Now! is an auto-response program through CS reviews where real people will respond to your reviews within 24 hours for you.

Increase your local SEO

Responding to reviews improves your Google Local Pack rating. The more reviews you have and the higher your page location, the more likely your potential customer is going to choose you.

Know What Your Customers Are Saying

Reviews are a great way to monitor your brand reputation. Responding to reviews is an easy way to let your potential customers get to know and trust your business. Responding means you care about what customers are saying.

Respond to Online Reviews

There is zero process-change for implementing Respond, Now! With quick and easy setup, you can get custom responses to each review by a real person. We work with any review requesting service, and will alert you if you receive a negative review that needs further investigation and personally reach out if necessary.

Respond, Now!

No more excuses – let us respond to your reviews for you. Get started by scheduling time to speak to a specialist today.

Reference: 1. https://moderncomment.com/customer-feedback-stats