World leader on the Internet, the American company Google is the most powerful e-notoriety tool available to everyone. In 2022, it is important to take into account the new needs expressed by consumers. The Covid crisis has reinforced this feeling, with standards of social distancing and confinement the consumer expects to have a digital alternative for obtaining information without having to go directly to the establishment in question.
Furthermore, for an entrepreneur, having a presence on Google is more of a choice, given that companies are there by default. A presence on Google therefore implies responsibilities, your e-reputation depends on it. A Google listing is visible to everyone, and every customer can leave a message. a public notice about your products or services. As a manager, your digital reputation must be one of your priorities, as customer reviews will reflect the image of your establishment in the eyes of consumers.
Generate positive reviews and keeping in touch with satisfied customers is a perfect strategy for maintaining your e-reputation.
To understand the impact of reviews on consumers, Google has 91.94% of total search engine market share, followed by Bing and Yahoo, and on these search engines, 79% of consumers will trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
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Below we have put together a number of techniques and tips for generating Google reviews and keeping your Google score as high as possible:
Google My Business page
A Google My Business listing contains all the information about your business available on the internet.
You'll find :
- Company name
- Type of company
- A short description
- One or more emails
- The link to the website
- Company address
- The telephone number
- Customer reviews
- A score out of 5 stars
- Working hours
- Images
- Questions and answers (FAQ)
- And other links, e.g. booking, making appointments, etc.
The purpose of a Google listing is to represent you on the web. This listing acts as a showcase for your business even before the customer visits your site. And this showcase considerably increases your visibility in the various search results.
The main advantage of this form is that all your means of contact, if properly filled in, will be directly available to the consumer. Calls to action such as "make an appointment" or "book" will also boost your business.
Having a Google listing is also an opportunity to improve your local referencing. Thanks to geolocation, Google will offer prospects personalised results based on their location. As the google listing is linked to google map, the distance will be calculated and, depending on relevance, one of the nearest establishments may see its google business listing displayed.
A perfect record?
To access your Google listing, you first need to access your account. To do this, you need to log in or create an account. If you already have a Google listing, all you have to do is search for your establishment. If not, you can add it simply by clicking on "Add your establishment to Google".
Once you have access to your account, Google will ask you for information in order to format your listing. The elements requested will be those set out above.
You can then access this file at any time and customise it as you wish.
To be perfect, your Google Business listing must be complete. So make sure you provide all the information requested. To further personalise it, we strongly advise you to add images and links. Regularly taking a look at the comments area will allow you to contradict bad comments and thank good customers who leave positive reviews.
How do you generate reviews?
The more reviews and ratings you have on your Google page, the more representative your total score will be of the real quality of your establishment. To increase your chances of receiving positive reviews, you can use the following techniques:
First of all, it is possible to solicit reviews directly. To engage customers and ask them to leave a review and a rating. The most common techniques are automatic email campaigns, for example a thank-you email with the words "if you enjoyed your experience, please let us know by leaving a review on our Google page". The same method can be used with SMS text messages, the aim being to gather information about customer satisfaction.
On the spot, you can encourage customers to leave a review, for example with QR-Codes leading directly to your comment area.
Finally, in order to naturally attract comments, the quality of service must be optimal. You need to build customer loyalty with exclusive personalised offers, gifts, free services and so on. Anything to improve the customer experience. Customers will then naturally leave a 5-star review.
I'm getting bad reviews, what should I do?
It is more common to find comments from dissatisfied customers than from satisfied customers. The reason is simple: a satisfied customer has nothing to say, whereas an unhappy customer will want to complain and make their case.
No less than 93% of Internet users will look at how owners respond to negative reviews and 68% of commenters will then be prepared to modify their comments if they are satisfied with the response.. The priority in this case is to keep a close eye on the comments area so as to be ready to respond to disappointed customers. Vouchers or special offers can be offered to make up for the disappointment.
Above all, if you have bad reviews or not enough reviews, the problem may lie with your Google listing, which may be incomplete or badly designed. The first step is therefore to check your information and the quality of your publications.
For example, if the photos on your Google listing don't match your restaurant, hotel, etc., then there will be a discrepancy between what the customer expected and what they actually received. This situation is bound to result in a bad customer experience and potentially a negative comment.
To go further, you can carry out a Gap's model of your establishment and identify your gaps. Gap s definition model
To improve my google score and my number of comments I need :
- Look for the source of the problem by reviewing its google file.
- Use push communication campaigns (emailing; special offers; SMS).
- Ask and encourage visitors to leave comments.
- Improving the customer experience by analysing gaps and closing them.
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I've got good advice, how can I keep up?
Good reviews help you get a good score on Google, and this score is a criterion of choice for consumers. According to a study by partoo 60% of Internet users do not wish to visit establishments with a rating of 3.5/5, and 20% of them even state that they do not visit companies with a rating of less than 4.5/5 .
In order not to fall below 3.5/5, you need to build loyalty among the customers who leave the best reviews. With a loyalty programme that encourages them to invite their friends and leave a rating in exchange for benefits, for example.
Regularly updating your google My business page will make it easier for your customers to find you. One effective technique is to post messages on Google. To do this, Google has introduced the possibility of displaying posts on both search and google map. These are called Google Posts, and you can inform your customers of any changes, whether it's a special offer, a new menu or an event, and so build their loyalty.
To keep up, you need to :
- Building loyalty
- Offer special deals to loyal customers
- Update your Google my Business listing regularly.
- Thanking customers who leave positive reviews
- Encourage customers to leave comments (emailing; SMS; QR-Code...)
