• A customer typing on a website to leave a review

Importance of Building Online Reviews for Your Cleaning Business

Looking to Build your Cleaning Business?

Online Reviews are a must!

Being specialists in online marketing for twenty years, we have discovered that online reviews are essential. Online reviews are the backbone of cleaning business today.

We have helped cleaning companies grow from startup to their successful cleaning services. Reviews have always been a significant aspect.

Let’s take you through step by step of online review for the better of your cleaning company.

What is it about using reviews?

It is tempting while running a local business to think that word of mouth is enough to grow your business.

However, recent research shows otherwise.

Eighty-two percent of the US adults read reviews.

While 88% of people trust online reviews as much as an individual recommendation, 90% use the internet to search for online reviews of a local business before visiting.

Additionally, customers tend to spend 31% extra on companies with best reviews.

What do people think?

A whopping 72% of the US population trust local businesses with positive reviews.

Just by getting four stars, 92% of users are ready to trust your company.

Nevertheless, 86% of the people will be reluctant to buy from a business with low ratings.

A single negative review can cost 30 customers.

Three persons in front of a chalkboard with light bulb drawings on top of their heads

What can you expect?

While doing online business, it is natural to get both positive and negative reviews.

Positive reviews are good for the business, but negative reviews are a setback.

Approximately 65% of buyers may be turned away because of one to 3 negative online reviews.

converting negative reviews into positive contributions to your business.

The presence of negative reviews in online marketing should not worry you.

How to Handle Negative Reviews

Dealing with a negative review is essential to maintain your reputation.

Response to negative reviews should be immediate.

By doing so, the customer feels that his/her opinion has value and that the business cares about it.

Consequently, this can influence the customer who had a poor experience give your business a second chance.

Depending on the reviewer, a prompt response can impact the customer to revise it to be a positive review.

A person writing on the blackboard the negative word

Keep some issues offline

Some issues can be solved best when handled offline. This reply can be made through email or by phone.

After resolving the matter with the customer amicably, then you can leave a comment on the public post.

This approach makes a customer feel a part of the business.

Be polite

Being polite is important when replying to an online review. A negative review with a sensitive opinion may stimulate feelings. It is necessary to take time to gather your thoughts and respond politely.

Responding politely to the customer can be done by appreciating the feedback and requesting to talk to the customer as soon as they can be available.

In case it happens that after a talk you find sense from the comments, then you can offer a coupon or a gift to the reviewer to mend the relationship.

Request for deletion

Most consumer rating sites and review sites cannot allow you to delete or alter reviews. In the case of one that is damaging, you can request that the site takes it down.

However, you must ask your business listing just before you apply.

Monitoring your online presence is vital to your business. Before responding to reviews, it is critical to know what buyers are saying and the location in which they are commenting. In achieving this approach, you can use online reputation monitoring tools like Reputology or Review Trackers. Google alerts, or Talk Walker can send email alerts.

All these tools can help you monitor your social media reputation.

An image of a red delete button on the keyboard

Understand How Rating and Review Sites Work

Different consumer review and rating sites filter and rank reviews differently.

For example, with Yelp, the algorithm recommends ratings based on quality, reliability and the activities of the reviewer.

TripAdvisor ranks business depending on the rating stars. This trend goes on to other sites offering review and rating services.

Take Negative Reviews Seriously

In most instances, people do not leave negative reviews so that they can slander your business. They only try to share their experience with your company.

Take those negative reviews with merits as they may offer you a leeway to improve your business.

They hold a high stake to reveal an area your company is lagging behind. Favorable treatment of negative reviews can help you grow your business.

It is good to know that if you only get four stars and five stars reviews, customers can become suspicious. They can quickly think that you generate reports for yourself and not customers.

Encourage Customer Reviews

To shed off the effect of negative reviews, encourage customers to rate their experience with your business.

Do not try to influence them. Yelp discourages such practice.

You can support customers to review your business by putting up signs in the store, adding notes to invoices and receipts or put badges leading to rating sites on your online platforms.

These kind ways will encourage customers to rate your business, increasing customer response.

Four silver stars on a concrete wall

Share Reviews with Your Employees

To share reviews with your employees, help mold team spirit.

Both negative and positive reviews should be available for all employees to see. This behavior will help create a customer-based mindset as well as help avoid similar problems in the negative reviews.

What Next

In the past, online reviews were for the big restaurants and e-commerce, but competition has made it an avenue for local businesses.

It is crucial for a cleaning business to push through rivalry using online reviews. Online reviews will give your business an edge ahead of your competitors.

Statistics are providing hope to cleaning businesses to embrace online review platforms.

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