Review Management 101 for A/V & Security Companies
No matter what business you’re talking about, everyone needs a way to manage their reputation online and in real life to guarantee strong integrity. You have the best A/V and security business around, and your customers are always more than satisfied with your service. However, the competition in your industry is quite stiff.
With competition in the A/V and security industry so heavy, failure to properly manage your reputation online will have you losing a ton of sales to the other guys down the road.
Online review management is the name of the game to keep a good word out there about your business. It may be odd to think that an A/V and security company needs reviews to garner a good reputation, but you’d be surprised! Most people associate online reviews with more service or product-based industries like restaurants and hotels. However, word-of-mouth opinions can factor greatly in every business, especially A/V and security.
Research suggests that 93% of consumers are impacted on their purchasing decisions from online reviews. Actively managing your presence online will immediately begin to help your reputation turn in a better direction, thus propelling your company’s presence and successfully implementing a digital marketing strategy.
Look, your profession lies in the physical world. You are in customers’ houses helping set up security and cyber security. However, just because your work is done in the physical world doesn’t mean you need to show your online presence a little TLC.
Don’t fret just yet! Getting started with online review management is as simple as reading through this article. Welcome to review management 101!
What Is Review Management?
Before you learn how to manage your online reviews, you must first know what that actually entails.
Let’s say you have little to no online presence for your A/V and security company. Even though you’ve barely mentioned your business to the almighty power of the internet, there will still be information and opinions about it as previous clients can leave reviews on third-party platforms like Facebook, Google My Business, and Yelp. If your business fails to keep up with these reviews floating around, the credibility of your service will be sure to suffer.
Here are the three ways online review will affect your business look:
- Trustworthy: The service you provide isn’t an everyday kind of service. When you install security measures in a customer’s home, they need to know it’ll be done right the first time. Managing online reviews will help establish a sense of trust within the customer.
- Credibility: The more high-rated reviews you receive online, the more credible your A/V and security company will come across, which can be a big boost in the eyes of Google’s algorithm.
- Awareness: Generating positive reviews online will play a key role in your A/V and security company dominating the first page of relevant internet searches.
As online reviews management is great for refining your company’s image, it also is an effective tact of search engine optimization (SEO). Google’s algorithm loves content, and reviews count as content. So the more reviews you have, the more Google has to judge your legitimacy.
How Does Online Review Management Work?
Now that you know the basics of online review management, how great would it be if every customer you had gone online and left a review about your service on a social media platform?
Unfortunately, it’s not so simple. However, what’s to stop you from trying to drum more of them up?
Generating Online Reviews
As mentioned earlier, reviews=content. Google craves content, so the more reviews about your A/V and security company, the better. Not every customer cares to share their opinion online, but a little encouragement goes a long way!
Here’s how to generate more reviews to help your digital marketing strategy:
- An easy-to-use review widget on your website.
- Dedicate a whole web page to your reviews and show them off.
- Send personalized reviews requests to previous customers and include reviews links in your content.
- Use direct lines of communication like email or social media to encourage customers to leave a review on your website or another third-party platform like Facebook or Google My Business.
- Provide incentives for customers to leave reviews such as coupons and other promotional offers.
Generating more reviews is the first step in polishing off your online reputation. However, with more reviews, you must keep an eye on them!
Monitoring Reviews
When you have more reviews rolling in, it’s best to check for new ones daily, weekly at the bare minimum. Take advantage of online review monitoring tools like Google Alerts to help keep track of them.
Additionally, you can take advantage of professional reviews management software that provides review monitoring 24/7, allowing you to respond to both positive and negative reviews in real-time.
Responding to Online Reviews
In a perfect world, you will satisfy every single customer in your career. However, this isn’t a perfect world, and not everyone is satisfied with great service. Sometimes, you can’t make a customer happy no matter what you do.
Of course, you should show gratitude and give thanks to all your positive reviews, but what about negative reviews? Believe it or not, formulating a proper response could turn that negative review into a positive one!
Remember, every response you make to a review is visible to the rest of the public, so taking time and thinking about your reply will benefit you and your business.
Here’s how to properly respond to a negative review:
- Thank the reviewer for sharing their feedback.
- Apologize for their negative experience.
- Inquire how you can meet their satisfaction.
- Offer a more personal line of communication like a phone call or email to hash out grievances.
- Advocate for a solution and don’t make excuses.
Negative reviews will not make or break your business, but the way your company responds might!
Receive Professional Review Management Services With Triton
When you need assistance with digital marketing strategies like online review management, call on Triton Commerce! Our marketing experts are highly trained in web design as well as other digital marketing tactics.