Over the years, service providers have become more reliant on review sites as a way to market their level of excellence. These platforms give consumers the ability to make quick decisions on businesses without stepping foot on property or visiting a service provider’s website.
Having an online reputation is essential in all service based industries. Do you already have a collection of online reviews? Are there any common themes or trends in the responses? On which platforms are they more frequently found? Are the reviews positive in sentiment or mixed?
The first step in your journey should be knowing which review platform - or platforms - you need to guide your loyal customer base to. When developing this strategy, it’s always best to look at the options while weighing the pros and cons.
Here are alternative options aside from Yelp that may yield more favorable results.
The Yelp Dilemma
Yelp. We’ve all heard of it. We’ve all used it to learn about businesses. And more than likely, we have used it to leave a review. So, what’s the dilemma?
Just like any online review site, anyone can review whether they were a legitimate customer or not. However, illegitimate customers are found on Yelp more than any other site. Additionally, Yelp will accept payment to remove bad reviews. While small businesses may not have the funds for this, larger corporations are more willing to hand over a check to remove those few bad reviews they’ve received, making the small businesses look worse.
So if not Yelp, where should you drive your clients to review? Here are a few of our favorite review sites:
GMB is now the most commonly used review and listing tool for businesses. It is one of the top review sites, replacing what was previously called, “Google Local.” An essential tool for garnering a credible online reputation, it can also help with ranking your business in various kinds of search results, increasing your business’s digital footprint - or “SEO.”
A business can turn on, or off, the ratings and reviews capability in its Facebook Page settings. If turned on, clients will have the opportunity to leave ratings, reviews, and recommendations on your page.
TripAdvisor is a review platform built for the hospitality industry, by giving consumers the ability to share reviews of hotels and other establishments, like spas or restaurants, connected to the hospitality industry. We highly recommend creating a profile on TripAdvisor to host your positive reviews as the platform has collected more than 878 million reviews.
Now that you know where to send your clients to leave a review, how do you guarantee that they will?
Here are a few recommendations to garner reviews:
With the ever expanding World Wide Web, it’s time you took advantage of it! We hope you find these tips helpful, and we can’t wait to see all of your reviews start rolling in.
Want the control to work how you want, when you want, and where you want? Apply to be an esthetician, nail tech, or massage therapist with Spa Space today!