Online Reviews
Google reviews. Facebook reviews. Yelp reviews. How many places can your potential customer go to find your score? Store reviews matter online because your customers are looking for them. According to eMarketer, 35% of people leave online reviews to inform others about the customer experience. Meanwhile, 15% of customers don’t leave reviews at all. Why? In theory, the retail stores are the ones to blame (we know, it’s hard to hear). In reality, we don’t blame you because the world of how to collect reviews in an ethical and lawful way have changed over the years. Not only have the methods changed, but the reviews themselves have been difficult to understand. Product reviews, store reviews, company culture reviews (think: Glassdoor), there are so many types of reviews available to your retail store. Which ones should you be focusing on tho increase you customer’s confidence in your brand and boost your local SEO?
Store Reviews vs. Product Reviews
The past few years have turned local SEO on its head. Changing Google and Bing algorithms, introductions of new citation resources like Yext, and the retiring of local business citation machines like DMoz and Yahoo Places have all played a major role in where your furniture store lives on the internet. Many retailers are focusing on product reviews. While it is essential for eCommerce furniture retailers, it doesn’t hold as much value for brick-and-mortar retail stores as the location reviews. If you can have both, great. If not, focus on store reviews to improve your local SEO “juice” and customer satisfaction.
How to Get More Reviews
The same eMarketer survey from earlier shows that 77% of customers are willing to leave a review if asked. That begs the question… “How should I ask a customer to leave a review?” Right now, it’s likely true that you’re not getting the majority of that 77%. Many retailers wonder what’s the best way to get reviews from their happy customers that spread their content through word-of-mouth. The best strategy you can implement is to make it easy for your customers to leave a Google and/or Facebook review of your business once they’ve completed their purchase process in the store. A customer with newly purchased home furnishings has a glow about them during the checkout process. You want to make the most of that glow with the least amount of intrusion. This is the golden hour for review collection.
Google mail (Gmail) has grown since 2004 to become the world’s most popular email service with over a billion active users as of February 2016. Meanwhile, 1.74 billion active users are logging onto Facebook through their mobile phone every month. Why do these stats matter? With so many active users on two of the most popular and search engine-boosting platforms, the chance that your customer, basking in the golden hour, has access to that platform right now is extremely likely. So ask them to log on, find your page, and leave a review of their experience. Seems simple enough, right?
MicroD’s Partners with Podium
Our big secret is finally out.
At MicroD, we want to make it easy to collect reviews from more of your home furnishings customers. We are happy to announce our partnership with Podium, the best name in review management. MicroD customers have the opportunity to save big and collect more reviews. With our resources, expertise, and the power of the Podium platform, we can help your local search optimization through review collection and improve the customer’s confidence in your store’s reputation.
Want to learn more? Click on the banner below to get more information on the new solution made available by MicroD’s new partnership!