Four Myths of BBB

There are plenty of urban legends out there, meant to entertain you with their mystery and spookiness. There’s the one that warns to never flash your headlights at a car who has theirs off and there’s always some tale of a man with a hook.

There are even some myths about the Better Business Bureau. Let’s take a look at some of the most common myths associated with BBB.

BBB is a government agency

The Better Business Bureau is not affiliated with any government agency. It is actually a not-for-profit organization focused on advancing marketplace trust. It was established in 1912 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since then BBB has grown to include 112 BBB locations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Learn more about what BBB does by watching the 90 second “Why We Are Here” video.

BBB is for consumers only

BBB prides itself on helping consumers make smart choices when searching for a business. One of our goals is to help consumers identify trustworthy businesses and those that aren’t. However, we also do a lot for businesses, whether they are accredited or not. We offer business reviews, mediation services, advertising opportunities, a business magazine and industry driven webinars. At least three of those services are available to non-accredited businesses. Learn more about what we offer by visiting bbb.org/northwest.

BBB only reports complaints

Not true. We actually provide customer reviews as well. BBB Customer Reviews allow customers to post positive, negative or neutral reviews about organizations with which they have done business. Reviews are vetted by BBB team members before they are published online and reviewers, upon request, must be able to provide substantiation of the marketplace interaction. Write your customer review today by visiting our Customer Reviews page.

No one uses BBB

Staying relevant is extremely important to BBB. That’s why we have an outreach program designed to inform both consumers and businesses about the organization. Did you know that every four seconds someone searches a business on bbb.org? In fact, nearly seven million customers visit BBB website each year looking for a company to hire. And 95 percent of consumers recognize the BBB Seal. What’s more, seven out of 10 customers prefer to do business with a BBB Accredited Business.

People know the BBB and when they need help learning about a business they oftentimes come to us.

So consider this one myth busted.

How to Build Online Customer Reviews for Your Business

Competition is tough, bad news spreads much faster than good news and most entrepreneurs try their luck online where it’s hard to stand out. How can one succeed in this tough market?

The old recipe of combining quality services with traditional marketing, search engine optimization and social marketing still works, but actually obtaining results takes a lot of time and effort or some customer reviews.

How Do Online Customer Reviews Help Businesses?

Nowadays, online reviews make or break businesses and it is easy to understand why. It is obvious that buyers will stay away from any business with bad reviews, but how do positive reviews help?

• They draw potential buyers. Internet users are more likely to check out a business with a four- or five-star rating than one with no rating.
• They turn prospects into buyers. When people read about other buyers’ positive experiences, they gain confidence in the business and the products or services it offers. The buying decision follows naturally.
• They help improve the business’ position in the search results. Businesses with positive reviews are listed with priority by the search engines.

Otherwise put, good reviews guarantee quality products and services, they inspire buyer confidence and they consolidate a business’ position in search engine results pages (SERPs). Businesses with poor reviews or no reviews will either go unnoticed or be ignored by their target customers.

Now that the value of positive reviews is clear, the most important question is how to obtain them.

Three Steps to Obtain Positive Reviews

Getting customer reviews isn’t hard, but it is hard work. You are most likely already doing a lot of the work, so you’ll just have to make small changes to see big results.

1. Ensure Customer Satisfaction

Positive reviews are obtained from satisfied customers, so the first thing every business needs is a few satisfied customers. The funny thing is that satisfied customers are far less likely to post reviews than unsatisfied ones.

This is why it is important to identify not only satisfied customers, but unsatisfied ones as well. This could be accomplished through periodical online and phone surveys. The results will reveal what aspects of the business need to be improved and can be used to counteract client dissatisfaction.

Finding the Best Review Websites

With so many review websites out there, covering all would be impossible and ineffective. It is better to identify the most important ones for each business and focus on them, at least in the beginning. How to identify them?

• Company and Brand Name Search. It involves searching for the name of the company and of the brand online, with and without the words “review” and “reviews” in the search query. The purpose is to identify any existing reviews and their character. Websites with several reviews are a great starting point for anyone trying to build more reviews.
• Non-Brand Keywords Search. Searching for keywords relevant to the business and its location online will reveal, among others, the most important review sites covering businesses in that field.
• Industry Leaders and Competitors Search. The search should lead to websites hosting reviews of the competition. These, again, could be the starting point of any review-building campaign.

The results of these three searches can be compiled in a short list covering the review sites on the first positions in the search results for several queries, as well as the sites already hosting reviews of the business.

The next step is to drive customers toward those review sites, but, before that, it is important to make sure the company profile is up to date.

2. Get Customers to Post Reviews

Because some review websites do not allow businesses to request reviews from their customers, the terms and conditions of each site should be reviewed. Assuming that the review site does not prohibit requesting reviews from customers, the next step is to get those reviews, and here are a few of ways to do it:

• Creating a Webpage Linking to the Most Important Review Sites. The webpage can include links to the company’s profile on those review sites and a call to action, a message encouraging customers to check out the existing reviews on the company.
• Including Links to the Review Sites in the Company Website and Email Signatures. The same message encouraging customers to check out the company’s reputation can be added on the company website and in the email signatures.
• Handing Over Business Cards and Flyers. Make sure they include the URL of an important review site. Customers will most likely reach the site in search of reviews and end up leaving theirs.
• Asking Clients. Clients can be asked to submit reviews by phone or email.

3. Turn Negatives Reviews into Positive Ones

All businesses get negative reviews sooner or later. In fact, a business with lots of positive reviews and no negative reviews would look suspicious. The trick is to keep the number of negative reviews under control and use those reviews to improve the services or products offered.

Try to contact unsatisfied customers and address their issues. Sometimes the best and strongest advocates for a business’ service are unsatisfied customers who become satisfied after you’ve given them personal attention and solved their problem.

Customers will treasure a company that cares about their satisfaction, admits its faults and goes the extra mile to improve its services. What matters is to show commitment to client satisfaction and progress as far as the number of positive reviews vs. negative reviews is concerned.

 

4 Ways to Use Email Marketing for Small Business Growth

One of the best ways to get and retain customers is to effectively use email marketing as a two-way communication tool. For instance, did you know that for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return on investment is $44.25?

Email offers the ability for you to deliver direct messages to your customers with personalization and hyper-relevancy more than any other marketing execution. So, before we dive in, let’s take a look at a few more reasons why email marketing should be held with high regard when it comes to growing your small business:

• Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter. (Campaign Monitor)
• Eighty-one percent of online shoppers who receive emails based on previous shopping habits are more likely to make a purchase. (eMarketer)
• Personalized emails deliver six times higher transaction rates. (Experian)

With that in mind, here are four ways to use email marketing for small business growth:

1) Get Customer Reviews

Leverage email as a way to communicate with your customers after the transaction to get reviews and testimonials on your products/services. Doing so will enable you to build trust and credibility, especially since 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

2) Promotional Offers

Make sure you segment your email lists so that you can send personalized promotional discount offers to customers who are more likely to buy again. Sending the same offer to an entire list of subscribers without much thought behind it can do you more harm, i.e. incur unsubscribes. Additionally, getting repeat business from existing customers is much easier as it is low hanging fruit versus trying to gain new ones. So, treat your existing customer base with enticing promotional offers that will drive sales for your business.

3) Contests and Giveaways

A fun and creative way to get engagement is to run a contest or do a simple giveaway. There are two ways you can do this – one being that you run an exclusive contest for just customers and second, you promote this contest via social media channels to get more participants. Not only will this help you put your brand in front of current customers, it will also help build awareness for those who have not yet heard about you.

4) Sponsored Emails

Run a co-marketing partnership email campaign by teaming up with other businesses who offer complementary products/services to yours. This will allow you to expand your reach and tap into different markets for growth. Make sure you tie in this campaign with a targeted landing page or implement URL tagging as a way to track and measure any new sales that come through.

In Summary

Make time and have patience for continual testing. Just because one email doesn’t convert, doesn’t mean you should stop your initiative altogether. Harness the power of email marketing to help you grow your business while also nurturing customers for retention.