We’ve officially reached the time of year when business owners ask themselves this million-dollar question: “What strategies will we use to grow next year?” Successful business owners ask themselves that question every day, but as a new year approaches, the urgency to find the answer accelerates. And it’s getting more apparent by the day that business owners will need to find those answers while navigating uncertain economic times and recession concerns.
In 2023, the ability to capture market share will become critical. One of the best ways to proactively grow, and play defense against the competition, is by building your online reputation. Consider one study where more than 90 percent of consumers indicated online reviews influenced their shopping choices, and nearly 60 percent read online reviews at least once a week. As consumer habits shift digital, your public reviews are one of the first places prospective customers look to find information on your business. It’s not your company’s website and has nothing to do with your Net Promoter Score and other internal metrics.
To remain viable, businesses must embrace that their newest growth metric is measured in stars and the experiences current and past customers share about their brand for the world to see. Businesses that dismiss the importance of Google reviews and refuse to shift focus run the risk of being crushed. Sounds dire? It is. If there is less business to go around, businesses must work harder to capture what is there. One of the best ways to do that is by leveraging the power of online reviews to look like the best company in your local area.
Google reviews not only build brand awareness but are directly tied to how a business ranks on the search engine when a consumer looks for a product or service or types in specific keywords. The more reviews, and the higher the reviews, the better your SEO and the higher the potential for valuable organic leads without an expensive ad spend.
This dynamic especially plays out in the franchise world, where most franchisors rely only on Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys and other outdated internal feedback loop metrics to gauge success. NPS is a common customer survey that companies do that ask customers “How likely are you to recommend xyz company?” on a scale of 1-10. The feedback is collected but not publicly visible anywhere online where a consumer can find and learn about the quality of a business. A business might have a high NPS rating and glowing internal reviews, but that doesn’t do them any good in ensuring customers can find information about their business exactly where they’re looking for it. At the end of the day, focusing too much on NPS at the expense of online reviews means a business loses out on the revenue growth it could have experienced if the public could access that invaluable information when making spending decisions.
As we welcome a new year and the challenges and opportunities coming along with it, developing an action plan to capture more online reviews is the easiest way to continue to grow.
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