What to do once you start collecting online reviews

Congratulations! You’re starting to receive online reviews – the first step in using them to market and grow your business. But, before you kick back and relax, you need to complete some crucial steps to maximise the benefits of your online reviews.

1. Respond to reviewers

It may sound obvious, but many business owners mistakenly believe that once they’ve received a review, their work is over. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Potential shoppers aren’t only scrutinising the content of reviews of your business, they’re also looking at whether or not you respond to them. 

Ignoring a review – regardless of whether it’s positive or negative – is the equivalent of blatantly ignoring someone who’s just said hello. This isn’t only bad manners, it’s detrimental to your business too. 

When you respond to a review quickly and courteously and on-brand, you show your consumers that you value them and their time. A response gets you one step towards converting an existing customer into a repeat customer, and a potential shopper into a customer.

2. Turn negative reviews into a positive

If you’re not already aware, negative reviews can benefit your business – but only if you manage them in the right way. When reading online reviews to assess a business, one of the qualities potential shoppers lookout for is transparency. If every single review consists of five stars and an enthusiastic compliment, readers doubt the pages authenticity. 

Negative reviews show potential consumers that your business is a credible one. When you prioritise turning a poor customer experience into a great one, you demonstrate that you value your existing customers.

As soon as you receive a negative review, respond to it promptly. Address the writer by name, as well as the nature of their complaint. 

Stock-standard, copy and paste replies do more damage than good: they indicate that you’re not invested in your consumers. As well as a personalised response and apology, you can offer them an incentive (like a discount or free upgrade) to demonstrate that you truly value their business. 

Once you’ve resolved the problem, ask them if they’d be willing to write another review. Reviews written by satisfied consumers who were previously disgruntled are incredibly powerful – they show potential shoppers that you’re willing to go out of your way to ensure that their experience is turned into a positive one. 

The result? Potential customers see you as transparent and trustworthy, and are therefore far more likely to become a customer.

3. Upsell consumers who write positive reviews

Positive reviews aren’t only a great way to acquire new customers – they’re also a logical way to upsell your products or services to happy customers. Because they’ve already bought into your brand, and were delighted with their purchase, you don’t have to spend a lot of time or money marketing your products to them in order to facilitate another purchase. 

To nudge them towards an upsell, use their feedback, coupled with their purchase history, to offer them a personalised incentive. By tailoring an offer to their unique shopping history, (as opposed to a generic, one-size-fits-all offer), you have a far higher chance of upselling them, and ultimately, converting them into a loyal consumer.

Managing your online review strategy may require some effort, but the rewards are manifold. If you haven’t yet checked out what our custom-built online review management tools can do for your business, head on over to our FAQs.

Reviews on Hellopeter have helped over one million consumers make better choices. Had an experience you’d like to tell us about? Leave us a review here.