For many industries, Christmas is the busiest (and most magical!) time of the year. It’s a prime opportunity to fill up your bookings, get more customers through the doors and increase revenue along the way.
But did you know that it’s not just business that gets a boost this time of year? The number of customer reviews left on platforms like Google, TripAdvisor and Facebook increases by a substantial 35% (1) from early November to early January.
In this article, we’re going to explore all the ways you can use this uptick to your advantage and make 2023 your best year yet. Here’s what we’ll cover.
Table of Contents
- How More Reviews = Increase In Revenue
- 1. Respond To Every Review To Increase Revenue
- 2. Leverage Customer Reviews To Drive Even More Business
- 3. Extract Key Information So You Can Take Action
- 4. Survey Your Customers For Greater Insights
- Conclusion
How More Reviews = Increase In Revenue
First, let’s talk about why reviews are such a powerful tool for business success. High-quality, positive reviews do a number of things. They:
- Increase your online visibility, attracting more users to your website
- Provide social proof and guide customer decision-making
- Build trust and loyalty by improving your online reputation
- Have been shown to have a direct impact on sales
For certain businesses, like the restaurant and hospitality industry, the importance of good reviews can’t be stressed enough. An overwhelming majority of customers (92%) (2) read reviews before deciding where to spend their money.
In other words, an influx of new reviews is simply too powerful to ignore!
1. Respond To Every Review To Increase Revenue
Research by Harvard Business Review shows that responding to reviews has a direct result on your performance. Over time, it can lead to 12% more reviews for your business and a rating increase of 0.12 stars. (3)
Why? Simply put, responding to your reviews shows existing and potential customers that you value them and their opinions.
The best responses share the same key characteristics. They:
- Include an element of personalisation, such as the reviewer’s name or a mention of something specific they wrote in their review
- Express gratitude for the customer’s business, regardless of whether their experience was good or bad
- Maintain a friendly yet professional tone
- Are posted in a timely manner (ideally within 48 hours of the review)
Remember that a considered response even has the power to change a reviewer’s opinion. Statistics show that after a company responds to a negative review, 33% of people go on to post a positive review, while 34% even delete their original negative review. (4)
The best course of action for negative reviews is to acknowledge, apologise and offer a resolution. For more complex complaints this may involve inviting a private call or email and taking action offline.
2. Leverage Customer Reviews To Drive Even More Business
As we’ve covered, getting more reviews can have a big impact on your success. But there are lots of things you can do to maximise their potential and increase revenue. Here are a few ideas:
- Distribute reviews to all the most important platforms for your industry (our software helps you do this automatically!)
- Proudly display reviews on your site, for example with a widget or on a dedicated page
- Share great reviews across your social media channels
- Add select reviews to landing pages as a form of social proof
These methods are not only cost-effective but transform your reviews into powerful marketing tools. Make the most of increased reviews over Christmas and you’ll be able to generate more leads all year round.
3. Extract Key Information So You Can Take Action
Along with all the benefits listed at the start of this article, reviews are also a fantastic source of data. They are explicitly telling you which areas of your service they appreciate the most and also what can be improved. Work with this information and you can get a solid plan in place to increase revenue next year.
But how do you do this? While you can go through your review manually, this is extremely time-consuming and leaves lots of room for error. A good voice of the customer platform allows you to see all your reviews in one place. It will also enable you to easily filter your reviews and even analyse the text for more valuable insights.
This is really helpful because it tells you exactly where you can improve customer satisfaction. For example, a hotel’s reviews may frequently mention the breakfast. Text analysis will be able to discern whether the breakfast is being mentioned in a positive or negative light.
If the feedback is mostly negative, the hotel owner can dive deeper into the topic on a dashboard and discover not only what the problem is but what they can do to fix it. This results in a better experience, more happy customers and ultimately, more business.
4. Survey Your Customers For Greater Insights
Surveys help you make the most of the busy period by getting to know your customers and collecting key insights into your business. What’s great about surveys is that they can be completely customised and targeted. So when used in combination with reviews, the results can be truly insightful.
It’s essential to make your surveys as easy and convenient as possible, and this is especially true over the festive period. One thing to bear in mind is that your surveys shouldn’t take too much time to complete. (5 minutes or less is ideal).
Another great way to do this is to send your surveys through multiple channels. For example, you could use email, SMS, QR code, tablet and even your Wifi and Bluetooth. These methods help you cast your net wider and increase customer participation, giving you even more data.
Armed with lots of valuable insight into your customer experience, you can then take action to improve and skyrocket customer satisfaction next year!
Conclusion
Taking advantage of the increase in feedback over the festive period can make a huge difference to your future success. By using the tips and techniques listed here, you can gather valuable information, generate leads and create even more happy, loyal customers.
We know that it can be hard to keep on top of reviews, particularly during busy periods like Christmas. That’s why having the right tools in place is essential for maximising your revenue. Our voice of the customer platform gives you everything you need to harness the power of feedback and increase your revenue. Book your free, live demo today and see what we can do!
Sources:
- Are They Happy Blog, 2019
- Brightlocal Consumer Review Survey, 2020
- Harvard Business Review ‘Study: Replying to Customer Reviews Results in Better Ratings’, 2018
- 1440 Blog, 2020
