Customer reviews.
When it comes to running a successful print shop, or any business for that matter, how much importance should you place on customer reviews?
You can have a killer business model. A killer drive and motivation to produce quality work. Killer equipment to get started and a killer location that’s easily accessible to the public.
But if you don’t have killer customer reviews, how successful can your business really be? Can you reach your full potential without garnering the trust and respect of your customers? The answer to that question is undoubtedly no.
Customer reviews are vital in almost every business. From screen printers to restaurant owners to car dealerships, earning good customer reviews should be a huge priority.
What The Experts Say
According to CEO and co-founder of Invesp, Khalid Saleh, 90 percent of customers read online reviews before visiting a business.
If a customer types in, “custom T-Shirts near me” into a Google search and three different businesses pop up, which one do you think the customer is going to inevitably choose? And which one will be at the top of the list? Almost always it will be the one with the best customer reviews.
You might produce the best work in your area, but if you don’t have the customer reviews to back that up, your business will only go so far.
Earning the trust of your customers is only part of the reason why you should seek customer reviews. If you’re running a local business and will have to rely heavily on people searching for your business on the internet, generating customer reviews will help with your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Customer feedback equals more keywords.
How Customer Feedback Affects SEO
Every time a customer leaves a review, keywords pertaining to your business are typed. The more keywords that are attached to your business, the more Google will understand what it is that you do.
And while we hope your business will receive more positive reviews than negative, receiving positive reviews will show search engines that your business is trustworthy. The more trustworthy your business looks to a search engine, the better chance it will have of showing at or near the top of the search results.
When your reviews start to pour in, it’s always a good idea to respond to them. Whether it’s a positive review complimenting your business or a negative review from someone disappointed, take the time to respond.
Not only will that show your customers that you care about what they have to say, but it can also help you to improve. If you’re unsure as to what the weak spots are in your business, leave it to customer reviews to fill you in on that.
Responding to reviews is also another way to help your SEO. Google’s My Business Support Page directly states that you should interact with customer reviews.
“Responding to reviews shows that you value your customers and the feedback they leave about your business,” they said.
Rating Captain + DecoNetwork Integration
How do you start earning customer reviews and how do they start showing up on Google?
A company like RatingCaptain.com is a great place to start. Using a service like Rating Captain allows you to start collecting reviews from any customer that uses your services.
Your customers will be asked about their experience using your business and that will ultimately lead to Rating Captain helping you generate a customer review.
If you’re a DecoNetwork subscriber, we have great news. DecoNetwork offers integration with Rating Captain that will allow you to connect your DecoNetwork store in a matter of minutes.
For a tutorial on how to link your DecoNetwork store to Rating Captain, click HERE.
There are plenty of review sites that you can set your business up with, however. We encourage you to research what method of gathering customer reviews will work best for you and your business.
The last thing we will leave you is how you should go about asking for reviews.
Of course, you want to target customers that you feel came away satisfied with your service. With the end goal being positive reviews, assess who you think will be the prime candidates to give you those reviews and personalize how you ask for them.
Regardless of whether they enjoyed your services or not, not everyone will take the time to leave a review. Because of that, you should take the time to reach out to them in a respectful manner if you would like them to leave you a review.
Treat this as an extension of the customer service that you offer. Happy customers equal happy reviews and that will only do wonders for your business moving forward.
