Posted On
March 8, 2018

You Don’t Have an Online Review Problem, You Have a Customer Experience Problem

You Don't Have an Online Review Problem, You Have a Customer Experience Problem 1

“Sounds like a you problem, not a me problem”

I use that phrase, jokingly, more than I care to admit (and it doesn’t keep getting more funny!). This phrase is what sparked my thoughts about customer experience.

At Repcheckup, we care about customer experience because it has the biggest impact on one’s online reputation. Quite simply, customer experience is the #1 driver of online reviews. If you don’t provide a great customer experience, why would you expect to have great online reviews across your profiles?

From the first click on your website, to the receipt they receive in their hand after checkout, the entire journey that your customers go through will build their experience. You need to understand every step they are taking and whether or not it’s the right step.

Creating this journey isn’t always easy, but succeeding will help you yield more positive customer reviews from delighted customers.

Is Requesting an Online Review Part of Your Customer’s Purchasing Experience?

From the first time a prospective customer finds any of your business’s online information, like your website, social media profiles, or Google My Business profile, their customer experience journey begins.

Do you know exactly what they see from their seat? And what type of notifications are they receiving from you?

Here are some basic questions you should be able to answer:

  • Do they need an account to order online or can they checkout as a guest?
  • How many emails do they receive after they make a purchase?
  • Are they updated immediately upon purchase with shipping information for their order?
  • Are they put in to a nurturing email campaign after their purchase?
  • Have you asked for an online review after the package arrives, or the service is rendered?

Revisit your customer journey at least twice a year.

For you to reasonably expect your customers to rave about you through online reviews, you’ll need to deliver a customer experience that they want to talk about.

 You Don't Have an Online Review Problem, You Have a Customer Experience Problem 2

Online Reviews Are Adding Up, But My Star Rating Is The Same

Don’t panic, you’re not alone!

Your online rating is part of a bigger cycle that isn’t entirely dependant on how many reviews you can route to your business’s online profiles. Instead, the quality of your customer experience directly feeds into the types of online reviews people will leave for you online. And it also feeds into whether or not they’ll want to do repeat business with you.

Now is the time to look at process/procedure inside your business. Are your customers having a great experience that they want to talk about. Customers need to have a lasting experience to make them leave a 5-star rating review, they can be tough critics.

Did you notice that your business is actually getting a steady flow of new online reviews, but the rating is staying the same?

This points to a problem in your customer experience, not a problem in the way you’re gathering reviews.

While examining the customer journey, find different areas that you can “WOW” your customers. These small actions will give them something they want to talk about in the online review!

Does Your Staff Ask For Online Reviews? What’s Stopping Them?

Avoid the “Don’t poke the sleeping bear” mentality

Every day, I hear a new excuse of why a business isn’t asking or receiving online reviews. Some owners think it’s rude to ask for feedback, some owners only pay attention when a poor one shows up, and the list goes on.

That’s where the “don’t poke the sleeping bear” mentality comes into play.

I believe that there are a lot of business owners out there that know their customer experience needs some updating. They may be afraid to ask these customers to leave an online review because they don’t want to have their thoughts become reality.

Training your staff to ask for online reviews is key if you want to improve your online reputation and, in turn, gather more business opportunities. But you will also want to discuss wants to improve customer experience as a whole.

Remember, if your online rating isn’t what you expect it to be – it’s not always because you’re just getting angry customers leaving bad reviews.

Listen to staff concerns about business operations as a whole and brainstorm ways to improve and implement these changes. Once customer experience as a whole is improved, and you’re asking for reviews, you’ll notice an improvement overall.

Want an Easy Way To Improve Your Customer Experience?

There’s no easy method to improving customer experience with your business, but it’s always a good idea to reach out to customers who haven’t purchased from you in a long time. These are great people to talk to because they did like your business enough to purchase from you, but discovered a reason to not come back.

Be genuine and ask for constructive criticism on what you could have done better to get their repeat business. Don’t make this about getting them to buy again, make it about what you could have changed.

If you want to make this step easier, you could employ online review management software to reach out to older customers and get their honest feedback.

Your Customer Experience (and Getting Online Reviews) is all About Killing ‘em With Kindness

It is always going to be much easier to keep customers coming back than to try and get new customers. Make sure you’re paying attention to your customer experience in order to drive customers back to your business as well as inspiring them to leave reviews for you – which will attract new customers.

Your customer experience should be something you feel comfortable always telling others about. If you’re unsure of it, then simply take yourself through it.

Sometimes, improving your customer experience means adding extra emails into your queue to tell customers about certain things. Make sure you’re keeping track of any type of touches you have with customers. Make improvements when you can and always keep the customer’s best interest in mind!

With these changes, you’ll be able to improve your customer experiences and get more reviews routed to your profiles.

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Jeff Quinn
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RepCheckup is an online reputation management software that helps businesses enhance and protect their online reputation.

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