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In this article:\nWhy fake online reviews are so damaging to small businesses\nHow to remove a fake Google review\nHow to remove a fake Yelp review\nHow to use reputation management software to simplify the review management process \nFake\n \nreviews??\n Who would have thought that this would even be a problem for small, local businesses, contractors, solopreneurs, and freelancers? Many small business owners are surprised when they see the damage that can be caused by malicious or mistaken reviews posted about their businesses on review sites like Yelp, Google, Facebook, and TripAdvisor. Below, we’ll show you how to remove these fake reviews.\nWhether a fake review is posted by angry customer, a disgruntled current or former employee, or simply a random jerk who may just be doing it for fun, the sad reality of our increasingly online world is you have very little control over what people say about you or your business on the internet. A fake review of your business can be frustrating, and potentially harmful. \nWhy you need to take fake reviews seriously\nThe importance of a business’s online reputation is growing, even for small, local shops. 97% of consumers read \nonline\n reviews for \nlocal\n businesses, and nearly 9 out of 10 trust those reviews online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family. So a business’s “star rating,” its online review score, has a real impact on revenue for local businesses. Even customers sitting in your parking lot or standing on the sidewalk outside your door will often check online reviews for “social proof” before deciding to purchase.\nIt’s bad enough when you try your best to help a difficult customer and they leave you a bad review anyway. (Click to read our in-depth article on \nhow to respond to negative reviews\n and remove other negative online content about your business. Also, research shows that negative online business reviews aren’t necessarily as harmful as you might think. Businesses with between 10 and 25% negative reviews make the most money!)\nBut it’s even worse when you get a bad review that is completely false, fake, or mistaken (such as someone leaving a review for your business when they obviously intended to leave it for a different business). The reasons for bad reviews don’t really matter to potential customers. The potential damage is the same.\nThe good news is, fake reviews are contrary to the user guidelines for all of the major review sites, and are one of the few types of reviews that can actually be removed.\nMake no mistake, we recommend you take all reviews seriously, treat all customers respectfully, and respond appropriately to all reviews. But a review is obviously false, you can request that the review site administrator remove it. Here’s how:\nHow to flag and remove fake Google reviews \nGoogle will remove reviews they determine have violated their terms of service as outlined in \nGoogle’s review policies\n, which includes: fake, false, or manipulative reviews, spam reviews (content posted multiple times from different accounts), conflicts of interest (reviewing your own business), impersonations (representing the views of someone other than yourself), misleading or inaccurate reviews (reviews or photos that clearly represent a different business or location), off-topic reviews (content not at all related to a customer’s experience patronizing the business in question), and restricted, illegal, derogatory, or explicit content (photos, content, or links to restricted, dangerous or illegal activities, including threatening or discriminatory language).\nIf you’re sure that a review is in violation of Google’s terms of service, you can flag the review so Google’s administrators can examine it for possible removal. You can do this from either your Google My Business account or from Google Maps.\nHow to flag a fake Google review from your Google My Business account\nSign in to \nGoogle My Business\nIf you have more than one listing, select the location you’d like to manage\nSelect \nReviews\n from the menu
\n(Image)\n\nFind the review you’d like to flag and click the three dots in the corner\n(Image)\n\nClick \nFlag as inappropriate (or “Report review”)\n(Image)\n\nFlag a fake Google review in Google Maps:\nSearch your business on Google Maps\nSelect the right location and scroll down to \nReview summary\nClick the \nReviews\n link under your rating
\n(Image)\n\nScroll to the fake review and click the 3 dots in the top right corner
\n(Image)\n\nClick \nFlag as inappropriate (or “Report review”)\n(Image)\n\nComplete the form that follows and click \nSubmit\nIt can take several days for Google to evaluate the report, so be patient. But you should receive a response from Google with information about their decision and the status of the flagged review.\nHow to flag and remove fake Yelp reviews\nFake reviews and other reviews that violate \nYelp’s content guidelines\n, like spam reviews, reviewing one’s own business, impersonations, inappropriate content, violations of people’s privacy, promotional content, defamatory or fraudulent reviews, and “not recommended” reviews may be flagged for review and removal by Yelp’s staff. Before reporting a Yelp review, read this helpful article from Yelp first: “\nWhen should I report a review?\n”\nIf you suspect a review is fake, you should report it to Yelp. Here’s how to flag and report a fake review (remember that reporting doesn’t guarantee that it will be taken down).\nLog in to your Yelp account (the “Report review” option won’t be available if you don’t log in).\nLocate the fake review you wish to report. \nIf you’re on a laptop/desktop, click the the “Report review” button that looks like a flag.\n(Image)\n\nMobile users:\n use the “Report review” function dropdown in the “three dots” menu.\n(Image)\n\nAfter you report the fake review, Yelp will evaluate it based on its content guidelines. This may take several days. Yelp will email you with their decision to remove or keep the review.  \nStay on top of your online reviews\nStaying on top of your legitimate reviews is hard enough—let alone dealing with fake reviews. But it’s very important to keep current on all your reviews and respond appropriately to all of the legitimate ones.\nObviously, this process can take a lot of time, but if you shedule a daily review check you can take care of your reviews in manageable chunks before they all pile up.

The complete guide to removing fake reviews

Imagine you want to take someone out on a charming date and you’re sweating cold bullets. It’s gotta be good. And you know it.\nYou know that your date loves Mexican cuisine, so you pull up a web browser and punch in the search query “mexican restaurants near me.” The first result is a list of top Mexican restaurants on Yelp.com, the popular local business review site that seems to always be at the top of the page when it comes to local restaurant searches.\nYou find two spots. You investigate their websites and find that they’re essentially carbon copies of each other. Exactly the same. They’re equidistant from your house. The entrees and margaritas are priced in the same range.\nHow do you decide between them? The star rating, which comes from online customer reviews, breaks the tie.\nThe online “word of mouth” site Yelp had approximately 178 million people read its reviews on an average monthly basis. \nSo what?\nAbove all, this means more people find your restaurant on Yelp than from your own website. Scenarios like the one above happen millions of times every day. Explorative customers search Yelp to make the right decision for their night-out budgets, so you can’t ignore it if you want to attract customers.\nRestaurants especially can’t ignore Yelp reviews\nWhether they had a dazzling night or a sour experience, most people go to Yelp to talk about their experience at a restaurant. Of the (as of 2021) 224 million reviews on Yelp, the “Restaurants” category is tied with Home & Local Services as the most reviewed category \naccording to Yelp data\n.\nThe good news for restaurant owners is that \n51% of Yelp reviews are five stars\n. That means over half of the visitors to Yelp are there to rave about their positive experiences.\nAnd if you’re curious, the other 49% breaks down like this:\n4 Stars 17%\n3 Stars 8%\n2 Stars 6%\n1 Star 18%\nAre you paying attention to Yelp now?\nIf you’re a restaurant owner, consider this logic:\n92% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase, recent \nstudies\n say (up from 88% in 2014).\nYelp is the \n4th most visited customer review site\n on the Internet, after Google, Facebook, and Amazon (and Amazon isn’t really used for restaurants, so we could argue Yelp is actually 3rd on the Internet).\nTherefore, 9 out of 10 customers visiting your restaurant (for the first time) likely checked Yelp first.\nThe question for you as a restaurant owner is then this: did you meet them there?\nThe more you are where your customer is, the more sales you will probably make. After all, this is the goal of your marketing and advertising budget — to put your message in front of your customers.\nSo if the majority of your customers are visiting Yelp, then maybe it’s time to meet them there.\nIs Yelp worth the time and effort?\nI know this already, you might be saying. It’s not worth my time.\nA \nHarvard Business School study\n shows that a one-star Yelp rating increase can lead to a 9% revenue increase. You may not think customer engagement matters, but it does. In any event, money talks, and a 9% revenue increase is probably worth someone’s time on your staff.\nYour business is automatically listed on Yelp and users can leave reviews, whether you do anything or not. It’s on you to claim your business. Photos, menu items, and open hours won’t fill in themselves.\n2 crucial reasons to claim your business listing on Yelp\nBe found online: 91% of all online searchers use Google Search, as of January 2022. And the bulk of Yelp’s users come from Google. Yelp’s CEO Jeremy Stoppelman \ntold TechCrunch\n, “About 75% of Yelp’s traffic, overall, is sourced through Google one way or another. About 50% is traffic coming from people who start their search on Google and eventually find their way to Yelp; the other 25% is people qualifying ‘Yelp’ as one of the keywords in their search…” In other words, millions of people start searching for a bite to eat in Google and end up looking at Yelp profiles.\nCustomer reviews on Yelp can be a source of inspiration, ideas, and encouragement. Whether it’s \nputting a honey bear in the guest’s condiment area\n or just \n“keep doing what you’re doing!”\n, combing through customer reviews can lead to the affirmation or improvement restaurant owners want. \nOne Noodle Bar owner in Palm Beach, Florida said\n he always looks forward to reading over his Yelp reviews, both the good ones and the not-so-good ones.\nOne owner said, “All and any customer feedback is helpful! It’s a must for growing our business, this is why we value tools like Yelp to help better our restaurants, whether it’s positive or negative feedback it’s how you use these tools to better your business that’s most important!”\nWhether you’re not on Yelp yet or you’re an experienced Yelper, it’s time to augment your Yelp activity and generate more foot traffic for your restaurant.


Restaurant owners: Why Yelp is more important than your own website

In this article:\nThe problem with Facebook ads\nCreate and claim your Facebook business page\nTry boosting Facebook posts before you pay for ads\n“You should get some ads running on Facebook!” How many times have you heard that from your friends or business associates? Facebook is astonishingly popular for private individuals as well as businesses, and it’s understandable to want to boost your business’s presence there. But there are some little-known issues you need to be aware of. Here’s what you need to know before you advertise your small business on Facebook.\nThe problem with advertising on Facebook\nFacebook’s massive popularity is also a potential sticky wicket for small businesses. 7 of 10 US adults (roughly 240 million Americans) use Facebook, and 74% of them check the site at least once every day. 97% of business-to-consumer marketers use Facebook. In short, pretty much \neveryone\n uses the platform. \nWhy is that a potential problem? It’s a huge market and it’s hugely crowded. That’s a lot of eyes and a lot of high-value, fast-spending businesses clamoring for customers’ attention. Simply throwing “an ad” up “on Facebook” isn’t going to get you any local customers, unless you’re extremely lucky.\nIn fact, 62% of small business owners feel their paid Facebook ads don’t work. In another poll, half of small business owners don’t feel the time they invest in Facebook is worth it.\nHow can you help ensure the time and money you spend on Facebook will pay off? First, define your expectations, and have a plan.\nMake sure you have a plan\nFirst, think hard about what you actually hope to accomplish with your Facebook ads. Are you trying to build brand awareness? Convert more customers from your website? Get more in-store visits? Build customer loyalty for valuable repeat visits? Spread the word about a big sale?\nPaying for Facebook ads with no plan for tracking goals, measuring success, or creating specific messaging for the result you are seeking is literally throwing money away. Facebook overall doesn’t have a stellar conversion rate (meaning how many “viewers” of ads actually end up purchasing). So you need to really think about what you are trying to accomplish, and have distinct ways to track and measure the success of your efforts.\nIf you don’t feel like you know exactly what you’re hoping to accomplish, or you aren’t sure which groups of customers you should be targeting in the first place, you might consider hiring a social media marketing expert or firm to get the ball rolling until you learn the ropes.\nTry “boosting” Facebook posts first, before paying for ads\nIt might be a good idea to try “boosting” your company Facebook posts for a while to improve views and engagement, rather than spending on Facebook ads specifically. The most successful small businesses know how to use social media as “free advertising.” This can only happen once they have a large, loyal following.\nWhen you pay Facebook to boost a post, you are essentially creating an advertisement that gets shown in the Facebook feeds of audiences you select. \nHave you seen “sponsored” posts in your online news feed? These are frequently boosted Facebook posts. \nWith boosting, you choose a specific audience with location targeting, gender, age, financial profile, and interests. Then you set your total or daily budget, length of the boosting, and add in your payment information. It’s pretty easy and not very expensive. \nIt can be useful to spend a little of your marketing budget boosting your posts to win more followers as a first step, and then use quality, high-interest, high-value Facebook posts as the primary means of “advertising” on the platform.\nCreate a Facebook business page\nObviously the first thing you need to do is create a business page on Facebook if you haven’t already. You will need to have your own Facebook profile to get your business page created. Here’s a \nquick tutorial\n to get you started. \nMake sure you include:\nYour store’s name (this should be the same as what you list on your \nGoogle\n and \nYelp\n business profiles)\nStore address\nPhone number\nOpen hours (including any special holiday hours)\nDescription of your store\nWebpage\nEmail address\nProfile picture \nCover photo or video (a picture of your storefront or product spread would be perfect)\nProduct types and price range \nCreate your own ad campaigns with Facebook Ads Manager\nWhen you’re ready to try Facebook ads, you can either pay an outside marketing firm to create and manage the ad campaigns for you, or you can try it yourself first with Facebook Ads Manager. \nAds Manager allows you to choose a goal for your campaign (like brand awareness, increased reach, getting more traffic, lead generation, conversions, or  store visits). Then you can set up your own ad with your created messaging, images, video, etc., and choose a target audience for the ad campaign. \nThe budget is set in a similar way to boosting your posts. You can set a spend limit based on clicks, impressions, or by date.\n\nSet up your Ads Manager account\n with these simple instructions. \nSources:\n
\nhttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-marketers/\n
\nhttps://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/01/facts-about-americans-and-facebook/\n
\nhttps://www.manta.com/resources/small-business-research/poll-business-owners-devote-little-time-facebook-april-2017/\n
\nhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2017/01/do-facebook-ads-work.html\n
\nhttps://neilpatel.com/blog/small-business-facebook-ads/\n\n


Facebook ads for local business: Read this first!

In this article:\nWhat is an online forum?\nFind top-quality groups to participate in\nCheck back often and follow up\nAvoid spammy practices\nChoose discussions wisely\nStand out from the crowd\nOnline forums have been around for a couple of decades, but people are starting to rely more on these sites for answers to their questions as they dive into internet searches. This creates a good opportunity for small businesses to stand out and market themselves effectively.\nIn most online forums, anyone can ask a question that they are seeking the answer to, and then, generally speaking, anyone with an answer will respond. \nYour business can develop an online persona via which you can be answering questions that are relevant to your industry. \nYou can help guide consumers toward your business as an online resource and start to stand out as an authority in your market.\nLet’s go over what online forums are and how you can best utilize them for your business. \nWhat is an online forum and why should you care?\nAn online or internet forum is a website where people can have discussions about various topics. \nOften a forum will be specialized to one particular area of interest, such as Mopar automobiles, Sonoran cuisine, Pudelpointer dogs, vintage Apple computers, Finnish death metal, or whatever else you can think of.\nCurrent forums are the descendants of the early dialup bulletin board systems and Usenet groups of the 1970s and 80s, but are far more robust in features and usability.\nIn your industry specifically, there may be several websites or forums dedicated to online discussions relevant to industry news and topics. You name it, there’s probably a forum dedicated to it.\nFurthermore, there are huge, more general forums where you can find “subforums” or groups dedicated specifically to your industry.\nkeyboard with forum button for small business marketing\n\nSome examples of popular, large, diverse forums include Reddit and Quora. Even within broad forums such as these, you can often find topics related to your industry that you can get involved with.  \nContributing to the conversation on these forums is a great way to help spread your brand awareness and establish your business as a leader in the industry. We’ll guide you through some best practices to help you along the way. \nFind a few “top-quality” groups\nAs you are making the business decision to start participating in industry forums, you need to decide which forums you will participate in. There are tons and tons of forum sites out there, so don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to participate in every one possible. \nInstead, pick a select few that seem like good options for your business. Do your research to determine which forums are the most relevant to your industry. \nAsk these questions to help you decide which forums to use:\nWhat is their visitor traffic like?\nAre people asking questions relevant to your business and industry?\nWhat forums are your competitors participating on?\nWhat forums are other industry laters conducting discussions on?\nTop-quality forums will have a lot of traffic with people asking all of the questions that you know how to answer well, and other industry leaders and businesses will be active on those sites. \nOf course, if your business is very esoteric or specialized, there may only be one or two “main” forums relating to your particular specialty (such as the tongue-in-cheek \nmongolian underwater basket weaving forum\n), so modify this advice as appropriate.\nAnd if there isn’t an existing forum relating to your particular industry, perhaps you should consider starting one!\nCheck back often and follow up\nWhen you start engaging with industry forums, it’s important to keep that engagement up. You don’t want to go through the trouble of getting your forum membership approved and answer someone’s question and then find out three months later that they asked a followup question that you neglected to respond to (or even worse, one of your competitors responded to it). \nThat’s why it’s important to check back on the forums that you engage with often and follow up with the people you’ve had discussions with to see if you were able to solve their problem. \nOn most forum sites you can set up email notifications to be informed when someone comments on one of your posts or engages with one of your comments. Set up these notifications so you can promptly reply. \nAlong the lines of checking back often, you should also set yourself up to receive notifications when new questions or relevant posts are published so that you can be Johnny-on-the-spot and get the first response to these posts. \nDon’t be spammy; be forthcoming\nNo one likes spammy practices, so just don’t do it. One of the most common ways that people are spammy on forums is by posting links in the comments (usually to their own websites). This used to be a common practice to help websites get backlinks to their websites for SEO purposes. They would just spam links in the comments of forum discussions to get more links to their site. \nWell, our advice is to not do that. It makes your business look spammy, it doesn’t reflect well for your online reputation, and it doesn’t help you rank better in the search engines. Google can see right through spammy practices like this. \nWhat’s more, this type of practice is often frowned upon by forum administrators, moderators, and members.\nThat doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t ever post a link in a comment or forum post. When you have some valuable information or resources that are relevant to the discussion, then by all means, share it. Just be careful about the number of links you are sharing as you get involved in these discussions, and don’t just provide the same rote answer to every question. \nTake some time and actually participate in the forum and develop relationships of trust with members.\nIn addition, we recommend you be forthcoming about your business, including your forum “avatar” and persona. Make it very clear that you own a business and include links and info about it in your forum profile.\nYou will be much more likely to be accepted and recommended by long-time forum members if you are up-front about your business purposes rather than get exposed as a “company shill.”\nMany forums prohibit blatant commercial posting, but many also allow forum sponsorship, and/or provide additional posting privileges to businesses who sponsor the forum.\nSome even provide dedicated sub-forums for businesses who are authorized forum sponsors. This can be an effective method of advertising to your specific audience, particularly for businesses that sell goods and services online.\nChoose your forum discussions wisely\nJust like you should choose the forum websites that you participate on wisely, you should also be smart about the specific discussions that you choose to engage with. \nOne thing to look for is how active and recent the discussions are. If there’s a discussion with a question that you could easily answer, but it was posted several months (or years!) ago and the discussion has died off, then you won’t want to waste your time with that one. \nIf you just run a global forum search and start “bumping” old threads that are related to your business solutions, you’ll anger the membership and get banned quickly.\nbanned stamp from industry forums for small business\n\nFocus on discussions that currently have active participants so that your company is gaining good exposure and actually providing value to the conversation. \nSet yourself apart as an authority in your industry\nAs you participate in discussions with a lot of participants and activity, it will be important to make sure your comments stand out from the rest. If people are not reading, liking, and/or upvoting your comments, then they will fall to the bottom of the list and won’t be as likely to be seen. \nMake sure your contributions offer some unique value to the conversation, whether that’s a differing perspective than everyone else or a new solution that is proprietary to your company. \nEvery business and person that comments on any discussion wants their comments to stand out so you’ll have a lot of competition here, especially on high-traffic forums. Do your best to set yourself apart from the crowd so that you can become a thought-leader for your industry. \nClaim your online business profiles and participate in related forums\nSeveral \nonline business listings\n host their own online forums. As you are setting up your online business profiles, check out the additional features offered on those sites. Will their online forums be of value to your business and relevant to your industry? If so, then use them!


Best practices for small business participation on industry forums

In this article:\nCan I remove a Facebook review?\nShould I remove Facebook reviews?\nWhen should I remove Facebook reviews?\nHow do I remove reviews from my Facebook business page?\nBest practices for Facebook reviews\nOnline reviews are an important part of reputation management for any business, including small local businesses. Consumers look to online reviews on Facebook and other sites to see if their friends like your business and what others are saying about you. \nSometimes, however, the reviews that we get on Facebook are less than ideal. Whether they include false claims or come from a disgruntled customer, bad reviews are never fun to get. We’ll walk you through a few different scenarios in which you may want to remove a Facebook review. \nCan I remove a Facebook review?\nLet’s start by answering this question: Is it even possible to remove a Facebook review completely? \nThe answer is yes, but this process doesn’t come without its challenges. Some reviews are easier to remove than others. \nFor example, if the review clearly violates Facebook’s policies, whether it be spam, hate speech, and any other discriminatory content, then Facebook is usually pretty good about removing these right away. \nSometimes false reviews can go undetected though, and that’s where you may need to get involved to take the review down. \nman giving thumbs down gesture for negative facebook reviews\n\nShould I remove Facebook reviews?\nBefore we get into how to remove Facebook reviews, let’s talk about whether or not you should try to remove every bad review that comes across your business’s Facebook page. \nNot all bad reviews are necessarily bad for business. Sometimes a bad review, if legitimate, can even be good for business if you handle it well by responding and resolving the issue with your customer. \nBad reviews can provide valuable feedback, bringing to light issues with your products, services, staff, or facilities that you might not hear about from other sources. \nAnd if you take the opportunity remedy the situation, this often results in a more loyal customer than one who doesn’t leave a review at all. \nSo, to answer the “should I remove negative Facebook reviews?” question: if the review is legit and from a real customer, you should probably not try remove it. \nThis brings us to another good question. \nWhen should I remove Facebook reviews?\nWhen a Facebook review seems suspicious, fake, or spammy, that’s when it is a good idea to try and get it removed. \nHere are some tips for spotting fake Facebook reviews:\nThe description is vague (no specific detail about the business offerings)\nThe reviewer is connected with a competitor\nThe reviewer is connected with a former employee\nRead more: \nHow to spot fake online reviews\nHow do I remove reviews from my Facebook business page?\nThere are two main ways to remove reviews from your Facebook page: reporting the review to Facebook or turning off reviews and recommendations on your Facebook page. \nWe recommend the first option because turning off your reviews completely isn’t going to help your online reputation. Customers expect to be able to read reviews, and if you don’t allow them, it may seem like you’re trying to hide something. \nSo, let’s go over the process of reporting reviews. \nHow to report reviews on your Facebook page\nIf you are fairly certain that a review is fake, then you should definitely report it. To report a review, go to the review on your page and click on the exclamation point in the comment box icon. \n(Image)\n\nFrom there, you will have the option to tell Facebook what about the review goes against their policies:\nNot relevant to the company\nUnfair review\nNudity\nHarassment\nViolence\nSuicide or self-injury\nDrugs\nHate speech\nSpam\nMore often than not, if you are reporting a false review it will fall under “not relevant” or “spam.” Select the reason that fits best, and then click “Send.”\n(Image)\n\nFrom there, Facebook will determine whether or not the review qualifies for removal. And that’s about as far as you can take it on your own. \nIf you personally know who left the review, you can also reach out to them and ask that they remove the review. \nHow to turn reviews off on your Facebook page\nThe other option is to hide your reviews from your Facebook page completely. The benefit of this is that no one can leave false reviews on your Facebook page. The downside is that no one can leave any reviews on your Facebook page. So, if possible, try to avoid this option in order to provide a better experience for consumers who are researching your business. \nTo turn off Facebook reviews, follow these instructions:\nGo to your Facebook page and click Settings. 
\n(Image)\n\nOn the left menu bar, click Templates and Tabs.
\n(Image)\n\nScroll down to the Tabs list and find Reviews. Click Settings. 
\n(Image)\n\nClick the ON switch so it says “OFF” and then click Save. 
\n(Image)\n\nIf you’d like to remove Recommendations from your business page as well, you can follow these same instructions for Recommendations. \nBest practices for Facebook reviews\nThe number one best practice that we can give you for Facebook reviews is to always respond to them. Even if the review is clearly fake, you still need to wait for Facebook to check your report and remove it. In the meantime, respond to the review letting the reviewer (and all who read the review) know that you don’t have a record of them as a customer. \nWhenever a review comes in—good, bad, or fake—leave a prompt response that shows you acknowledged the review and, if bad, are working on fixing the situation. \nLearn more: \nHow to respond to negative reviews\n\nA few easy best practices to keep in mind when it comes to Facebook reviews:\nAlways respond\nRespond quickly\nRemind people that you appreciate their feedback to encourage regular reviews\n

How to remove Facebook reviews from your local business page

Today’s customers have opinions about your business, and lots of them! It’s never been easier to learn what your customers think. If you’re not getting the message, you’re not listening.\nCustomer feedback is essential to improving your product and keeping your customers happy. And though most companies know that customer feedback is essential to business success, many don’t know where to start. Fortunately, there are many customer feedback tools that you can use to start receiving customer feedback today.\nCreate a survey\nAsking your customers to complete a survey can be one of the most effective ways to find out exactly what they’re thinking, but where do you begin? To make sure your survey is successful, start by clearly defining your goal. What is it you want to know? When developing the customer feedback questions, keep them short and easy. If there are too many questions, or if the questions are complicated, customers will quit.\nIf you’re wondering what to ask, there are several free customer feedback \ntemplates\n and online tools (like SurveyMonkey) to help build your survey. If you use a template, make sure to add your company’s personality and let your brand shine through.\nFinally, make sure the survey ends up in your customer’s hands. Either email it to them, display a clear link on your website or on a receipt, or create an in-app prompt. Always close the feedback loop by thanking them for their time and input, analyzing their thoughts, and taking action on their suggestions.\nPut a feedback box on your website\nAdding a feedback box directly to your website or app is a great way to quickly survey your customers. A feedback box is similar to a customer feedback survey, but is much smaller and should be even easier for your customers to complete. You can create a page on your website with a form, or use a pop-up/\nYour feedback form should ask very direct questions — no more than five closed-ended questions and three open-ended questions. Keep it simple! Always thank the customer for their opinion with an automated email response or webpage redirect. Just like in a traditional survey, the most important step is to analyze the results and use the customer’s input to improve your company.\nAsk customers to text you\nIf you really want to make the customer feedback process easy for your customers, consider accepting feedback by text message. That’s right — there are customer feedback tools that allow your customers to send you their thoughts directly via text.\nIt’s an easy, convenient, and effective way to receive their feedback and open a one-on-one dialogue with customers. Another benefit to text message feedback is it allows your customers to send you a complaint directly instead of airing their grievances online. If you respond quickly and correctly, they’re less likely to post a negative online review.\nRead online reviews\nOnline reviews have become the dominant venue for customer feedback. Customers love shouting the good, bad and ugly from the hilltops of the online world. And, would-be customers go straight to online reviews to research brands and products before ever making a purchase. Make sure you read all of your reviews and take them seriously.\nTake action\nYour customers have opinions about your company — find out what they are! Whether you receive customer feedback through surveys, text messages or online reviews, the key to customer retention is truly listening to your customers’ positive and negative opinions about your business, and then using their feedback to make it even better. 

121 articles found in “Customer relations”

The complete guide to removing fake reviews

Restaurant owners: Why Yelp is more important than your own website

Facebook ads for local business: Read this first!

Best practices for small business participation on industry forums

How to remove Facebook reviews from your local business page

4 ways to get customer feedback

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