New Feature

New Review Site Alternator

Do you have multiple Google Profiles for your business? It is critical that you encourage and develop reviews for all of them. Typically, a Google Profile is associated with a physical location or territory. But you might also maintain multiple Google Profiles because your business operates in the territory even if you do not have a physical office there.

Maintaining and developing Google Profiles is akin to growing plants: they all require care, feeding and attention, otherwise they will wither and die.

When doing business, your back office or financial systems may automatically track which territory, and hence which Google Profile, is associated with each customer transaction. In this case, the preferred configuration is to add "Locations" to LoyaltyLoop where we parse your data by location, and each customer is requested feedback from the correct location, and each customer is encouraged to post their review on the correct Google Business Profile. The benefits of this configuration include the ability to view your results by location, and each location has its own survey, invites and review sites.

But what if your data systems do not afford the option of associating transactions to a location or territory? Or, what if it does, but you view your business as a single location regardless of how many Google Profiles you have? This is where the LoyaltyLoop Review Site Alternator comes into play.

As a subscriber of LoyaltyLoop Promoter plan, your subscription includes one set of review sites. A set of review sites allows you to add one or more unique third-party review sites to your account, such as one Google Profile, one Facebook page, etc. The Review Site Alternator feature allows you to add additional review sets to your LoyaltyLoop Promoter subscription.

Each review set allows you to control which review site is active or not in LoyaltyLoop. Using the Review Site Alternator, LoyaltyLoop will randomly present one of your active review sets to your customers when requesting reviews. This provides the mechanism to balance the requests for reviews across all active review sets, thereby balancing the number of reviews generated on each site.

Let’s look at an example using the LoyaltyLoop settings shown below. Amazing Widgets has a default set of review sites, containing both their primary Google Profile and Facebook pages. But they have also added two Review Site Alternator sets. The first Review Site Alternator Add-On set includes another Google Profile and Facebook page for that territory, and the second Review Site Alternator Add-On set contains only a Google Profile for that territory.

Notice, all review sets are active, yet Amazing Widgets has opted to disable all Facebook sites, leaving just the Google Profiles active in LoyaltyLoop. When LoyaltyLoop requests reviews from the Amazing Widgets customers, the customer will be presented with one of the active review sets at random. If Amazing Widgets wants to concentrate review requests on just two Profiles, they can disable one, and LoyaltyLoop will only present the active two sets at random to customers. You can add as many Review Site Alternator sets as you need, thereby allowing you to drive reviews to all your review sites.

Each review set is tied to a survey in LoyaltyLoop. If you have multiple surveys, such as an active customer survey for new product sales, and another survey to active customers for service sales, each survey comes with a default set of review sites, and each survey can have additional Review Site Alternator Add-On sets.

Each Review Site Alternator Add-on for a standard LoyaltyLoop Promoter plan with a single survey is $35/mo. If you have a custom configuration, please reach out to us for pricing. To add the Review Site Alternator to your LoyaltyLoop Promoter subscription, just send a request to LoyaltyLoop support (support@loyaltyloop.com) stating the number of review sets you wish to add.

Google Maps Photo by henry perks on Unsplash

Tip

Google uses AI to stop fake reviews!

Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash

Most businesses rely on Google Reviews to spread the word, find new customers, and build social proof in the marketplace. Google has become the dominant review platform for businesses all across the globe, and they are hard at work helping to ensure all reviews are authentic, and fake reviews and malicious reviewers are dealt with quickly.

In this post from Google, they outline how they are using AI and advanced machine learning techniques to make Google Reviews even more reliable and powerful by protecting all of us from bad actors. Here are a few amazing stats. Google has:

Blocked or removed more than 240 million policy-violating reviews from 2024
Blocked or removed more than 70 million policy-violating edits to places on Maps
Blocked or removed more than 12 million fake Business Profiles
Placed posting restrictions on more than 900,000 accounts that repeatedly violated Google policies

Ensure your business follows Google’s policies, and rest assured Google is working hard to protect us all from bad actors.

Tip

The importance of measuring CX before, during and after growth plans

Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash

In the normal course of running your business, chances are you develop and execute plans all the time, just like every other business. When you execute plans, it usually affects your customers, either directly, or indirectly. As a result, the execution of plans adds risk to your customer relationships and can place strain on those same relationships. Some plans, like sales growth plans, new product introductions, and acquisitions, to name a few, inject even great risk to your customer relationships.

Like any process or system change, you should be measuring how your plan is performing, and how it is impacting customers. If your business is about to execute major plans, you should strongly consider implementing a customer feedback program to measure key customer experience metrics like Net Promoter Score^SM (NPS®) before, during and after the roll-out of your new plan.

By doing so, you will establish the baseline of your customer experience (CX). As you begin to execute your plan, you continue to measure your CX metrics like NPS, Customer Satisfaction, Product Quality, Customer Effort Score and others, looking for deviations from your baseline. For example, if you see your NPS declining after executing your plans for a period of time, that might be an indicator that the changes your plan is introducing are not being well received by customers. This is akin to an early warning system, helping you adjust how fast, or slow, you drive your plans.

This same concept holds true for your employees. There is a direct correlation between how your employees feel about working for your business, and how your customers feel about working with your business. Plans you execute that are focused internally, like reorgs, team mergers, rapid hiring or RIFs (reduction in force), will likely affect your customer relationships due to the risk they inject into the business. Measuring employee satisfaction or eNPS, before, during and after the deploying of plans, will help you navigate changes with minimal impact on your customers.

Executing plans in business is what all businesses do. But not all businesses take the time to measure the impact of those changes on their customers. If the execution of new plans unintentionally drives customers away, wouldn't it be best to catch this quickly, and adjust your plans? Next time a major plan is proposed, make sure to discuss how you will measure the impact on your customers, first.

Learn

Elevate Your Reputation: How Review Software for Home Services Can Transform Your Business (part 3 of 6)

Photo by Joe Ciciarelli on Unsplash

Implementing a Home Services Review Tool: A Step-by-Step Guide

Choose the Right Tool: Research and select a feedback and review tool that best fits your business needs and budget.
Set Up Your Account: Follow the provider's instructions to set up your account, ensuring all your business information is accurate and up to date. Some providers do this for you, a valuable time-saver.
Integrate with Review Platforms: Connect your home services review tool to your Google Profile, or other relevant review sites where your business is listed.
Customize Your Settings: Tailor the feedback and review request process to match your brand voice and customer journey. Again, some providers do this for you.
Train Your Team: Ensure all team members understand how to use the review software for home services and the importance of reviews.
Leverage Integrations & Automations: Some providers can automatically connect to your back-office software so customer contact details for recently completed services flow automatically into the home services review tool.
Launch Your Review Campaign: Begin sending automated feedback and review requests to your customers after service completion.
Monitor and Respond: Regularly check for new feedback and reviews and respond promptly, both positive and negative.
Analyze and Adjust: Use the home services review tool's analytics to track your performance and make necessary adjustments to your strategy.

Leveraging Positive Feedback to Attract New Customers

There is no better way to tell the story of your business than in the words of your own happy customers. Positive reviews are a goldmine for attracting new customers. Here's how you can maximize their impact:

Showcase Testimonials on Your Website: Use widgets or dedicated testimonial pages to display your best reviews prominently.
Share on Social Media: Regularly post positive reviews on your social media channels to extend their reach.
Include Testimonials in Marketing Materials: Incorporate customer testimonials in your brochures, flyers, and other marketing collateral. Do you operate a fleet of vehicles? Wrap your vehicles with your brand and customer testimonials.
Create Case Studies: Transform detailed positive reviews into in-depth case studies to showcase your expertise.
Use in Email Marketing: Include snippets of positive reviews in your email newsletters to build trust with potential customers.

Remember, with customer feedback, testimonials and reviews, authenticity is key. Always ask for permission before using a customer's review in your marketing efforts. Some providers automate the process of asking for permission, making this process easy, too.