I see far too many businesses that have plenty of positive feedback on Google but they never respond. This is poor form – for a number of reasons. In this article, we’re going to highlight the benefits of responding to all customer reviews and comments on social media. Here’s why it helps.
1. Responding to reviews builds trust
What is the overall goal of getting reviews? You want to prove to your prospective customers that you are a brand and business that can be relied upon. Not only that, but you also want to gain some actionable insights from your customers as well.
In responding to all of your reviews, it’s a great way to establish trust.
-Because it shows your legitimacy; taking the time to respond in a meaningful way.
-It shows prospective customers (and those thinking of leaving feedback) that the comments do not go unnoticed.
-It gives you an opportunity to share your thanks and humble yourself.
2. Responding to comments encourages more engagement
The more you speak with your audience on social media the more inclined they will be to engage.
For example, if you were to ask a friend to dinner and they declined, it wouldn’t be too big a deal. However, if you asked them again, and again, and again, and each time they said no or made up an excuse; how much longer would you be inclined to keep trying?
The fact is, your audience works in a very similar way. If you reward their efforts to communicate with you with engagement – they’ll continue to respond in kind.
Certainly, it will be difficult to respond to every single comment on your social media – especially as your audience grows. However, especially in the early stages, some meaningful engagement is important.
Following that, as it does become almost too difficult to manage, you can at least take the time to respond to the more constructive comments.
3. Nurture relationships
Giving your audience more engagement is a great way to nurture them and keep them loyal to your cause. In fact, if you give certain fans enough attention, they will soon become brand-ambassadors. In other words, they’ll be spreading the word and sharing their admiration of your brand with friends, families, and their online peers.
4. Turn negative feedback into a positive outcome
You should respond to all feedback, especially the negative. It won’t always work but sometimes it may be possible to turn a 1-star customer into a satisfied, returning customer.
Just be as constructive as possible. Is the review legitimate? Is there evidence to back up their claims and was the fault genuinely with you? If so, what can you do to right the wrong?
Often, simply being “heard” by people is all a disgruntled customer needs.
5. Even greater visibility
Every response to a comment, every response to a review, every single form of engagement you have with your audience online leads to even greater visibility.
Reviews are a signal to Google that your website / page is being actively managed. And of course, the more positive the feedback, the stronger these signals will be that yours is a business people are interested in talking about.
As such, your online visibility can be improved greatly using this approach.
Final thoughts
It’s not always possible to run a business, handle your digital marketing, and have the spare time to meaningfully engage with every one of your customers online. This is why more and more people are outsourcing their social media management to a professional social media marketing company.
After all, you’ve already got a million and one things to worry about so why waste even more time chatting with your customers when you can have social media experts handle all interaction for you?
It may be tempting to use AI to handle all engagement with your audience, but we believe that genuine human interaction is what people are after and it can be far more impactful than having a robot respond with boring, empty comments.
Whatever the case, we hope you’ve found this article handy and wish you the best of luck with getting more positive engagement from your audience online.
