Experience of Reputation House: how to handle customer feedback in a way that improves brand reputation?

According to statistics, 97% of consumers use the Internet to search for goods and services. They study not only basic information about a p...

According to statistics, 97% of consumers use the Internet to search for goods and services. They study not only basic information about a product but also the opinions of those who have already used it. And for most people, it is not enough to look at reviews about reputation on just one website. They at least check the top 10 search results. And the results of their search directly affect the level of sales and the image of the entire company. We spoke to the team of Reputation House agency, which has been working on the market of reputation services for more than 10 years, about the possible correlations here.

Reputation House: why are customer reviews so important?

If a user encounters negativity on the first page of search results, he will be wary of the company and is unlikely to become its client. For 69% of customers, it is negative opinions online that are the reason for not cooperating with a brand. And people are very fond of sharing unpleasant impressions and tend to keep silent if they are satisfied with everything. Studies confirm that on average, 15 Americans speak out about bad service experiences and only 11 talk about good ones. Comments of 1-2 stars cause a loss of conversion for up to 89% of customers!

Would a complete lack of reviews about reputation be a better option than negativity? Actually, no. According to statistics, 43% of people do not buy a product if there is not at least one review about it. Therefore, even the biggest traffic and conversion will not help sales if you don't give people the right image of the company and its products.

The Reputation House agency cites data on customer reviews in a positive tone: the increase in conversion reaches up to 270%. And if a brand has a rating on recommendation platforms of more than 4 stars, the level of trust in it increases dramatically. 49% of customers will already be willing to use its offers, and if the Yelp rating increases by at least one star, the company's revenue will increase by 9%!

Positive reviews about reputation help to:

• Form the opinion of potential customers in favor of the brand. The audience will be more loyal if people do not just use the company's products and services but are satisfied with their cooperation.

• Increase traffic from search. Search engines (Google, Bing) collect opinions about businesses on their own geoservices. The higher the ranking, the more often and at higher positions in the output the information about the company will be shown.

• See your strengths and weaknesses. If a product needs improvement, emphasizes Reputation House, then customer reviews can be that effective feedback. And if a brand listens to customers' opinions and makes changes to its internal policy, people trust it more.

Reputation House: How can SERM benefit user reviews?

If potential customers only see positive things and the company's ratings are 5 out of 5, the level of trust will drop. After all, there will always be someone who remains dissatisfied with the level of service or the quality of the products. Therefore, negative mentions should be taken as a given, but if they are ignored, they will be the ones that potential customers will stumble upon in the search engine. The solution to this problem is Search Engine Reputation Management. Its main task is to push negativity off the first page of the search and replace it with neutral and positive information about the brand.

Reputation House emphasizes: it is the top 10 resources that are important for SERM. According to statistics, only 5% of users go to the second page to search for information. According to the experience of Reputation House agency, customer reviews can be both real, meaning from real clients, and the result of unfair competitors' work. And if you do not quickly take control of the situation, the negative reviews will affect your reputation instantly and not in the best way. Cooperation with Reputation House will help to insure yourself against such crises and competitive attacks because its team will take the information field on the Internet under control and restore or form a positive brand image.

The SERM Reputation House strategy consists of 3 main steps:

1. Analysis. The team begins to study the strengths and weaknesses of the company, its products, and its services. To increase the efficiency of the work, the marketing department of the customer gets involved. In the process of analyzing the informational space, it becomes clear what the reason for negative reviews about reputation is.

2. Strategy formation. A comprehensive report prepared by the team serves as a foundation for further work. Specialists identify resources that need adjustments in comment tone, type of content to be replaced, and other parameters. The list of actions and SERM tools of Reputation House is selected individually for each client. Removal of negative comments is performed quite rarely: employees of the agency make a motivated claim to the owners of the platform, and in case of refusal, it is possible to resolve the issue in court. But the most effective and frequently used tool is writing and publishing neutral, positive reputation reviews, as well as articles, reviews, releases, biographies, etc. New materials take into account the tone of voice of the brand, its internal policy, and wishes for its positioning on the market. Specialists monitor audience reactions to the content to gather feedback.

3. Correction. At the final stage of SERM, Reputation House starts analyzing the results and identifying the most effective channels, the most useful tools, and audience feedback. Based on the data obtained, a strategy for the next cycle is developed to achieve the highest possible results.

With Reputation House, customer reviews become a tool that will really benefit the company, improving its image in the market and increasing customer loyalty.