Isn’t it wonderful when a customer takes the time to send a thank you or post a review about your great service? Those kind words about your company do more than just make you feel all warm and fuzzy, they can boost your positioning in search results and increase the number of leads coming into your office.
Word of Mouth Goes Digital
Word of mouth has always been the service provider’s best friend. In the digital age, personal referrals come from strangers as well as friends and relatives. And while today’s consumer is well aware that fake reviews abound, 85 percent trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. How important are reviews?
- 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses.
- Reviews and review signals (comments/ratings) affect your search engine and Google local pack rankings.
- 57% of consumers will only use businesses with 4 or more review stars.
- Consumers, on average, need to read 10 reviews to trust a company.
- 89% of consumers read company responses to reviews, and 45 percent are more likely to visit one that responds to negative reviews.
One more important stat – 70% of consumers asked to leave a review will write one! All you need to do is ask, and your customers will happily praise your company! Chances are, your staff is too busy to ask every customer for a review after every service call. Luckily, your SmartConnect® integrated portal is ready to do it for you!
SmartConnect® for Reviews, Too!
Your portal is more than a tool for customers to access their accounts. The admin dashboard should include a range of communications tools, from emails to text messaging to online marketing. With automated messaging, your portal can pull service data from E3 and send review requests directly to customers’ phones (or emails), enabling them to rate/review you directly from the text. These responses can (at the customer’s discretion) be posted to Facebook, Google or Yelp, or sent directly to you. All positive reviews can then be fed directly onto your website.
While there is always the risk of a negative review, this automated process gives the (rare) unhappy customer a chance to contact you directly, so they may be less likely to immediately go the public route. Even if they do, you will be alerted and able to respond to both the problem and the comment quickly and effectively. Once the issue is resolved, ask the customer to either remove or amend the rating and review to reflect the positive outcome. No matter what happens with the customer, you should quickly respond online. Nearly half of consumers are more likely to contact businesses that respond to negative reviews, and 80% believe companies that respond care more about their customers.
Take Automated Customer Service Further
Your integrated automated communications system can do more than collect post-service reviews. Using the data available in SmartConnect® and your technicians’ connected tablets or smartphones, you can:
- Send and receive appointment confirmations.
- Send next customer “we’re on the way” alerts.
- Include technician name and photo for additional security.
- Provide customer with updated loyalty point values (where applicable).
- And more!
Get Started Now!
If you’re ready to get more customer reviews, more leads and more satisfied customers, contact PriMedia. Our SEO, marketing and ADD Systems specialists will be able to help you set up or claim your Google My Business, Yelp and Facebook pages, and expand your integrated SmartConnect® portal to include automated review requests and text and email capabilities. Our ongoing services include reviews management, social media engagement programs and search engine optimization, so you are always front and center for consumers in need of your services.
About PriMedia
Since its founding in 1993, PriMedia has been a leader in providing full-service marketing and communications solutions to the home comfort industry. PriMedia offers proprietary, custom web-based services for energy marketers developed specifically for SmartConnect® and ADD Energy E3®, including inVue Account Management, OnPoint® Loyalty Program, LeadPro®, Integrated New Customer Enrollment, PricePoint® Price Protection System and more. As a full-service marketing and communications agency for 26 years, PriMedia can assist your company with its customer communications, web and digital development, and more.
By Richard Rutigliano, PriMedia
For more information on an automated customer reviews and communications platform or other SmartConnectintegration software, please contact PriMedia at 800-796-3342 or ww.goprimedia.com, or your ADD Systems sales associate at 1-800-922-0972 or sales@addsys.com.
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