By the third day of the Social Media Week you’d think that everything that had to be said about Social Media has been said twice and thrice already – but we’re really only in the middle. There are so many great and inspirational talks to attend and watch online, that you wish that the day had a couple more hours to it!
Today, I cycled over to Carlsberg HQ to watch a presentation by Peter Muhlmann from TrustPilot that could be summarised as “how to deal with reviews online”. If you want to see some short take-out points from it look for #smwtrust on Twitter for audience interaction. And here’s my summary from it:
Social Proof is Everywhere: Google Search > Browse Website > Price Comparison Sites + Company Reviews + Social Media > Checkout
According ot Muhlmann most of our purchases made offline are affected by the choises we make online. The most important source of opinion are usually our friends. And as any small business owner knows: word-of-mouth is the most powerful tool of bringing customers to your door. Online reviews are like digital word-of-mouth available to anyone. Anyone can use Google nowadays and everyone knows a good value in shopping around. So, it is important to have an active digital presence – but it is also great to have a good digital reputation. So, you Googled yourself and found bad reviews?
Bad reviews are not always a bad thing. Lack of bad reviews is actually what is more untrustworthy and a review page full of flattery could look fake to the customer. It’s teh way you deal with negative reviews that’s the key. So what do you so?
1. NEGATIVE REVIEWS. Apologize. Don’t make any excuses- the best thing is just to accept your mistake and learn how you could change from that. This is polite, and it also shows that you’re taking in feedback and adjusting your business and behaviour for the good of the customer. We all make mistakes and have bad days at work – we just need to apologize for those if they have affected others.
2. ANONYMOUS REVIEWS. Most of the time these are negative – but are they trustworthy? Would you rather trust a reviewer who has made a few reviews and has a photo, name and possibly a link to Favebook page or an anonymous reviewer who only commented once?
4. GOOD REVIEWS. Say “Thak You”. It is that simple. And not only to the people praising your services but also to your employees who have provided this great customer service and gave you good reviews online. Get your employees a cake. If you’re your own employee – get yourself a cake – you deserve it!
If you are looking for reviews on a particular product – here are some DOs and DON’Ts on how to collect the reviews
5. A LITTLE TRICK. If you have a Facebook “Like” button on your website you might change it to the little banner that displays photos of people who liked your page, together with the “Like” button. People trust faces. And if they see that other people like it too, especially if their friends are on the list – they will also “like” it!
The general vibe of the whole Social Media Week in Copenhagen seems to be revolving around “happyness at the workplace”. You can really see why Denmark is considered to be the “Happiest Country in the World” – it’s just people want to be happy throughout the whole day. And as noted in this talk too – we spend more time at work than socializing with our friends or doing, well, anything else. So, why not take enjoyment and pride from what you are doing and pass it onto customers? Great mood and good job will alwasy be appreciated well.
You can watch the full talk here: https://new.livestream.com/smwcopenhagen/events/1886304
I attended another event later that mose more related ot the personal interest of mine – music business. I don’t think it would be relative to this page to put some points from it down, but still there are good few things a small business could learn from it.
– enjoy your work (as before) and work for personal fulfillment rather than money. If you’re interested in the project you’re working on, or your job in general it is more fulfilling and would bring better results rather than you just chasing the profit.
– sometimes it’s better to allocate some work to other people. There are plenty of free resources for self-marketing and production but if you do it all by yourself it could take away from your creative process – and if it’s the essence of your business, why not appointing someone else to do these jobs for you? Especially if they know how to do it and do high-quality work?
If you are interested in this talk anyway, you could watch it here: https://new.livestream.com/smwcopenhagen/events/1886304
If you have any questions or comments I would like to hear them!
Regards
Alex @ MicroPro.ie