How Automation Is Transforming Online Reviews

Automation is upon us, is your online reputation keeping up? We are currently in what authors “William Strauss & Neil Howe” call The Fourth Turning, a technological revolution involving artificial intelligence, no borders, a decrease in manual labor, and an increase in automated machine jobs. How does this relate to reputation management? Ask yourself, are you even keeping track of your existing reputation and trying to improve it? No? Maybe? Enter iReview, the reputation management system of today that takes a systematic, almost automated approach to accumulate a plethora of 5-star reviews on Google.  There’s also a full-service option available so your online reputation becomes truly automated so you as the business owner don’t have to worry about bad reviews or bother replying to them, handled with the right people in charge (iReview staff).

The Importance of Starting Early

 Many small businesses didn’t even have a Google page 10 years ago…now, those that made one and delivered a desired product or service have thousands of followers and a +4.5 star rating, improving both their search engine page rank (SEO) and thus, attracting the majority of customers within their location and industry. Did you know that potential customers gravitate exponentially to businesses that have a +4.5 star rating, especially a 4.8 rating? Ever wonder how much of a difference just a 0.1 increase in star rating increases potential customers?  The answer is a 25% increase in conversions, this implies an increased magnitude higher for website visitors. If US website visitor-to-conversion rates average 2%-4%, then a 25% increase in conversions implies at least a 625% increase in website visitors! So, keep in mind, even if you’re not successfully selling to most of your website visitors, a 0.1-star increase on Google is going to exponentially increase the volume of people on your landing page.

Time To Take Things Seriously

Your online reputation needs to be taken seriously now, both to survive and thrive amongst existing competitors and to thwart away new entries that seek to threaten your business by offering a more valuable product or service. Build a wall and moat of good standing and integrity about your business, customers will keep coming back to you if only for that. To spread your truthful message and consistently showcase how classy and professional your responses are to disgruntled 1-star reviews, you have to keep up with what's being said about your business and reply to it.  There could be reviews written about your business on Reddit pages, or websites you’ve never heard of and it’s hurting your business!

According to Statista, 59% of website visitors are doing so via their smartphone. Combine that with the fact that 96% percent of individuals are using Google to find your business, what do you think is the first thing they are going to see? Your Google star ranking and probably links to your competitors to see if they are offering more value.  Customers want to be confident in their purchase from your business, and to do that, they need a valuable excuse to buy from you, like a low price, great customer testimonials, or an attractive-looking website. Do not repel possible customers just because you have a stinking rotting 1-star review on your Google business page that’s never been replied to! Social proof is powerful stuff and ads a lot of credibilities to your business, especially a celebrity endorsement. The more people that enjoy using your product or service, the more likely others are to follow. So it’s a tug-of-war since a majority of high reviews will attract more high reviews, and low/negative reviews will drive even more customers away and bite away at your hard-earned +4.5 star rating. Thus, it’s imperative you take online reviews seriously and start automating them with iReview. With iReview, you will be provided QR fobs to be placed on your retail countertop or tables for customers to quickly scan and leave a 5-star review. You want to request the review right after the customer completed their transaction. The customer is most happy during their purchase, they would not have purchased from you if they weren’t happy about the product or service.  At the moment of transaction, the customer is in the mindset that your business is good, so it is at this very moment that they are willing to post the highest review possible, make sure you capitalize on it!  The service team at iReview will constantly remind you how you should be conducting yourself to get the maximum value out of its software.

Conclusion

In general, it's important for a business to focus on providing high-quality products and services and to seek positive reviews and ratings from satisfied customers as much as possible. If you’re not already doing this then sign up for a system that will, as efficiently as possible, with iReview. Get your reputation fully automated with iReview’s full-service package and just let the good reviews roll.