Customers are everything to a business. Not only do they generate revenue – happy customers will keep coming back and create a growing customer base through word-of-mouth and by contributing online reviews. But those reviews are far more than just markers of experience to attract new business – they are free market research that allows a business to analyze performance and customer satisfaction. Even negative reviews, if dealt with correctly, are fantastic tools for proactive businesses to use to learn and adapt.
Knowing how a business is performing is often a difficult and expensive exercise. There are far more markers than just turnover and profit and loss to establish overall well-being. Smaller companies and sole traders very rarely commission the sort of research larger companies will regularly enact.
Canvassing the opinions of an existing customer base is a fantastic exercise with many benefits. Businesses can gauge how their services, products, customer service, and after sales service are actually perceived and can then undertake measures to remedy any issues and improve overall performance. This research can be costly and time-consuming and is not always done regularly. But it is essential to know exactly how a business is regarded by its customers and there is a cost-effective and extremely beneficial way to do that. Committing to an online review platform.
What is a business? It is customers, customers, customers
“Today consumers are the ones whose fingers do the talking. They write reviews and read reviews and 90% of them won’t even contact a business if they can’t find online reviews.”
There are many people in business whose opinions we value – mentors, staff, management, consultants, marketing and advertising agencies, financial advisers, other business owners. But the one group that is not given enough attention is the heart and soul of every business – its customers. They are the very people whose contributions can really improve overall performance and help amend any issue. Today consumers are the ones whose fingers do the talking. They write reviews and read reviews and 90% of them won’t even contact a business if they can’t find online reviews.
“The fact is that reviews are the living pulse of every business. They are its voice and its barometer. “
One way to think about this is to consider businesses that attracts nothing but negative online reviews and don’t do anything about them. There is no hiding on the internet – if a bad reputation is left to linger it festers and spoils any chance of recovery. With attention, commitment and an attitude to make things better, it can be overcome. In reality – dealing with a negative reputation is listening to the opinions of customers, responding to them and enacting real change. In this way even a business with a bad reputation can take the feedback of its customers and still grow and foster a great online reputation. Imagine then the possibilities for a great business with a fantastic reputation?
“There is no point at all asking someone to talk if you are not prepared to listen to what they have to say.”
Feedback can alert a business owner to problems they never imagined – to breakdowns in communication, to the activities of a rouge staff member, to the failures of procedures or the unsuitability of a product or application. Online reviews can also point out positive aspects that may not be given enough value or attention. The fact is that reviews are the living pulse of every business. They are its voice and its barometer. Without them, and without any sort of direct customer engagement to assess performance, a business is making it up as it goes along – and that is never a good strategy.
Encouraging reviews is a fantastic first step but in actuality there also needs to be a commitment to reading them, responding to them, analysing them – working out common themes and looking for improvement. There is no point at all asking someone to talk if you are not prepared to listen to what they have to say.
“I, along with our head of marketing and our head of customer service, personally read every single one of these reviews (I am primarily interested in the occasional one-star and two-star reviews we receive). Every single negative review gets investigated and quickly responded to. Usually, this involves an apology and putting mistakes right.” (Mike France, Christopher Ward co-founder in real business online).
Customer reviews are a vital tool if encouraged and responded to correctly. It is important to recognise that they don’t just attract, or repel new customers, they are the window into every business’ performance.
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