How to Improve Reviews for Multiple-Location Businesses | Vicinus.ai
Here’s the golden rule of customer service – the customer is always right, even when they are wrong. Especially when what they say about your company online makes up nearly 25% of your market value.
While handling the online reputation for one business location is hard enough, managing reviews for multi-location businesses is much like fighting multiple bulls charging at you from every direction. Yet, online review management is an important part of branding for your multi-location business – and you can never be complacent about it.
Because when customers look at reviews, there’s a good chance they’re looking to purchase your product or service. Because it only takes 13 minutes and 45 seconds for a customer to make a buying decision, here’s how you can make sure the odds stack in your favor.
Action Steps for Improving Reviews for Multi-location Businesses
Online reviews are the first thing a prospect looks at when thinking of doing business with you. Want to improve your multi-location business’ reviews and ratings? Consider our three-step approach below.
1. Respond to Reviews, But Selectively
Customers like to know you care about their pains as much as they do. You see, dissatisfied customers are increasingly seeking out brands on social media, often expecting a response to complaints/questions within 24 hours. So, when you interact with them or respond to their opinions online, you make them feel heard and valued.
It’s essentially a gesture of care and willingness to solve your customers’ problems, which fosters greater customer loyalty. A gesture Nike Support is a great example of! Through a dedicated account @TeamNike on Twitter, they handle all customer complaints/reviews on a single platform. This is a simple yet effective method to say: yes, we’re listening.
Take simple action steps like:
- Listen to what they have to say
- Show empathy
- Apologize
- Take some action
And the result? On an average, enterprise businesses see a 4% increase in revenue by responding to at least one customer review online. Clearly, responding to reviews helps a great deal.
However, you mustn’t go overboard. Only respond to reviews that seem important in your larger marketing scheme.
2. Draft a Standard Approach to Review Response
You can’t avoid negative reviews, but that doesn’t mean you should ever dismiss them. Why? Because there’s an opportunity for your multi-location brand to grow here too. But cookie-cutter responses can sound insincere, making it difficult for the customers to believe you.
A key to handling reviews for multi-location businesses? Give consistent responses across locations. To that end, here are the five factors you must always consider:
- Brand voice
- Ways to address the customers
- Time of response
- Quality of remedy/solution
- Follow up
Responding to customer reviews thoughtfully while maintaining a consistent approach can reinforce a positive brand image and identity online.
Remember, online reviews are visible publicly. Think of a potential customer who could be looking at reviews of your business online the next time you respond to a review. 47% of those may even visit your business simply because you respond to negative reviews.
3. Recognize the Recurrent Themes in Review
Here’s why listening to your customers is vital to improving your online reputation.
Source: https://napoleoncat.com/blog/manage-google-reviews-for-multiple-business-locations/
The lesson here is never to overlook customer experiences. In fact, you can harness a wealth of insights from these reviews, whether good or bad. Especially since customer reviews for multi-location businesses can differ vastly from one location to another, identifying common themes in reviews can help you diagnose the underlying issues for customer dissatisfaction across locations.
Auditing your negative and positive reviews will give you the necessary intel you need to prosper. Always rely on customer experiences to understand and counter common challenges effectively.
Why Consider a GMB Profile for Marketing Your Multi-Location Business
The next time someone searches Google for a common query like: Where can I purchase organic mango marmalade in X? And you run a marmalade business chain across X, Y, and Z – you should ideally come up in the local search results for location X. The higher your local rank, the better!
But what if they can’t find you on local lists? That’s not even good for your bottom line– forget online reputation.
Luckily, this is where a Google My Business (GMB) profile can help your multiple location business. Setting up and maintaining a GMB profile can aid your local marketing efforts by:
- Increasing your business location’s discoverability online
- Driving customer engagement by listing your multi-location business in Google’s search results
- Saving time, money, and efforts on costly marketing tactics
You not only get listed on local search results but also Google Maps. No wonder GMB optimization is one of the most valuable local marketing tools, yet it’s absolutely free!
Also, input as many business details as possible about every unique location into Google, including their services. From operation hours to the ‘about the business’ section – every little information will help your multi-location business rank higher for any local query.
Don’t have a huge marketing budget? No worries! Oddly enough, a lot of information about your business is already listed on the web. So, when you claim a GMB profile, you get the power to edit or verify that information and thereby exercise control.
What’s more, having an up-to-the-minute GMB profile for all your business locations is one of the best ways to improve local SEO and create backlinks to direct traffic to your website. The results? Improved traffic and ultimately revenue!
Parting Thoughts
Did you know that customers are more likely (nearly 270%!) to buy a product with five reviews than the one with zero reviews? So, it’s not just about getting good reviews for your enterprise business. It’s more about the number of reviews, including negative ones.
Whether you’re a business with only two locations or thousands scattered around the world, keeping a robust online presence is vital to brand building.
So, by ideating an online reputation management strategy, you can improve reviews for your multi-location business and ultimately drive more sales.
