November 14, 2012
Not having a Google place listing can be a frustrating experience as a business owner, especially considering how many people turn to Google places each day to find what they need. If you are wondering what you can do to improve your listings, one of the biggest goldmines that you can possibly hit is that of customer reviews. If you crack a way to get customers to drop a review each time they avail your services, you’ll be amazed at what a long way this can go to boost your listing.
Customer reviews on Google places work in two ways for your business. The first is of course, as mentioned above, a better listing on Google Places for your industry. The benefits of having top ranks on Google places go without saying. It means that every time someone searches for the products/ services that you provide, in the region that you are based, your name will be right there around the top. The second benefit that comes with having customer reviews on Google Places is the word-of-mouth marketing that it generates for your business.
With customers sharing honest opinions about businesses all over the web, a huge fraction of internet users relies on these reviews more than any other form of advertizing, to decide on the reputation of a particular business. If you manage to get enough positive reviews on your page, customers are sure to have no second thoughts while picking you over your competitors with lesser reviews. However, it is important to ensure that you keep your strategy of gathering reviews absolutely white-hat, since generating fake reviews is sure to backfire soon enough, pushing you way below on Google Places listings.
As in everything else, in Google Places reviews as well, with the good comes the bad. So if you are putting yourself out there for positive reviews, you must also be ready for the inevitable negative ones. The good news here is that by tackling these negative reviews in a positive way, you can dampen their impact and make them work in your favor as well. This can be done by responding in a smart way to these reviews, explaining why the issue mentioned arose, and how you plan to resolve it in future. You can also offer some compensation to irked customers. Doing so will improve your company’s goodwill among prospective customers who read these reviews.
We at Centex Technologies plan Google Places Optimization for our clients providing local services. We are located in Austin, Dallas and Killeen Tx. For more information, feel free to call us at our Toll Free number – (800) 236-1497