Conquering Google Reviews
What’s that lurking behind you, casting a shadow over your bright, sunny day? What’s haunting your thoughts and making you want to pull the covers over your head, hiding and losing sleep? It’s time to face a major fear many health care business owners would rather ignore. Google reviews. What could be more terrifying?
One of the first things that pops up about your company when someone searches for it is an average star rating based on reviews. It can be intimidating, especially if your company doesn’t have that many reviews. The few negative reviews may not be balanced out by all the positive experiences you know your residents, team members, and families have had.
Your Google rating should reflect all the happy residents your community serves and the top-notch care you provide. So how can you increase your overall, average rating from Google? How can you encourage your residents to publish positive reviews?
It can be scary to see a new review posted where someone leaves less-than-stellar comments and a below-average star rating. Watching it impact your overall rating can hurt and feel scary. What if their one negative experience outshines all the positive ones you know so many more people have had?
Most people read less than ten reviews of a company before deciding whether to consider working with or buying from them. They mustn’t see only negative reviews. Encourage your residents to share their experiences with your community online and share all the reasons they love living there.
Even just having more reviews, regardless of content, can make a company look more reputable and trustworthy to searchers. If you look up a company and it has no reviews, you might wonder if it’s real or still in business. With recent reviews, at least you know it’s legit and operating. Of course, the more positive reviews, the better.
We know it can feel overwhelming, but try to respond to your reviews as well. Whether they’re positive or negative, it’s important to answer so that clients know you value their opinions and care about their experience with your company – even if you think their claims are unjustified.
Negative feedback itself is less damaging to a company’s reputation than ignoring it. It reflects poorly on the business and leaves the impression that you’re difficult to work with and ignore any problems that may occur. Responding to negative reviews is a must, but make sure to respond in a respectful, caring manner that feels authentic and offers a way to address the issue they had.
Getting your residents to leave reviews and share how much they love your community can be challenging, but here are some tips on how to get them more interested in sharing their thoughts.
The easier the process of leaving a review is for your residents, the more likely they are to do it. If they have to jump through hoops and follow a trail of ten links, they probably won’t end up doing it. And can you blame ‘em?
To make the process quick and painless, try sending out an email campaign with updates or news that has a call to action directing them to leave your community a review. Provide direct links to the review page so they just have to follow the CTAs without any other fuss.
Another idea is to have a poster with a QR code they can scan to leave a review at events and other activities. After a fun event, they’ll surely be willing to leave a review in two easy steps. Just scan the code and fill out the review. Easy as pie!
If you want to make it easier for residents to leave a review at any time, put a QR code by the front desk or in another common area that everyone can access at any time. The simpler, the better. Make leaving a review easy, or most people won’t put in the extra effort.
We know Google reviews can be scary, but with these tips, you can conquer your fears and take back control over your online presence.
