March 2021
New Feature
Google Reviews in LoyaltyLoop Promoter Plan
Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash
During the last several months we’ve added multiple features relating to Google reviews, including: (1) a feature that allows you to monitor all your reviews by connecting LoyaltyLoop to your Google My Business account, (2) allow you and your team members to receive alerts when new Google reviews are posted, and (3) allow you to reply to Google reviews from right inside LoyaltyLoop. We want to provide a one-stop shop for the what, where, and how.
The What: Google reviews are where future customers find you and learn about you and your business. Maintaining an active engagement with every review you receive instills trust in those who are looking for your products and services. LoyaltyLoop can connect to your Google My Business page so you and any of your team members can sustain the engagement needed.
The Where: Log into LoyaltyLoop, on the left, click on Reviews. If you haven’t already, click on the Connect button. (You may need to log into your Google My Business account so LoyaltyLoop can complete the connection.) It’s here you can see your reviews and whether you’ve replied or not.
The How: On this same page, as we covered last month, you or any member of your team can reply to each review and they’ll get posted along side your customer’s review in Google. If you need to edit your replies for any reason, you can also update what you’ve said before. Staying on top of reviews is critical in showing potential customers that you keep the lines of communication open and resolve issues to customers’ satisfaction.
But how do you know when there are new reviews? You can set up alerts by going to the settings area by clicking on your email in the upper-right. Go to Alerts and Notifications and you’ll be able to add yourself and team members to the list of those who receive New Online Review Notifications. Make sure any team members you add have user accounts so they can log in and take care of business. Setting up alerts will let you know right away when action needs to be taken!
Make sure you connect your account to your Google My Business page right away so you can take advantage of this great new tool! And be sure you reply to every review, as it’s been recently confirmed that replying to Google reviews increases your SEO! Read more here. If you have any questions, reach out to Support@LoyaltyLoop.com. and we’ll be glad to help!
Tip
Gmail Users – How to ensure emails land in your inbox instead of the Promotions folder
If you use Gmail or Google Workspaces for your email client, you likely have tabs across the top of your email client where Google automatically categorizes email by Primary, Social, Promotions, and other topic tabs. You may have noticed that certain emails, such as this very newsletter, may be placed automatically in a Promotions tab by Google.
If you don’t find this convenient and in fact want certain emails to land in your inbox instead the Promotions tab, here’s how to fix this.
The first and easiest method is to click on the Promotions tab, and any email you have listed can be dragged to the Inbox tab. Once you release the mouse button, the email will be moved to the Inbox. Then at the bottom of the screen an image will appear asking if you want all future emails from that contact to be sent to your Inbox. Click “Yes”.
The next option is to tell Google that the email in question is not a “promotion”. To do this, simply find the Promotions folder on the left in the Categories submenu. Click on it and then click on the email in question. Notice at the top of the email on the left side you’ll see a button “Not Promotions”. Simply click the button and Google will move this email, and future emails from this sender, to your Inbox.
The last somewhat reliable option is to add the sender to your Contacts. To do this, click on the email and then hover over the sender’s
name.
Click on the “More Info” linkthat appears and click on the Add Contact icon 
to add
the
sender to your contact book.
Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash
Learn
What the What? Replying to Google Reviews Increases Your SEO!
Sure, Google reviews are the brass ring; more and more people use Google reviews to make purchasing decisions and they contain the information future customers need to contact you: Do you engage with your customers? Do you respond to problems quickly? Are other customers happy with your products and services?
But you have to appear in search results in the first place so potential customers can have the opportunity to read your reviews. There have always been the little tricks to improve search engine optimization (SEO), like making sure your links aren’t broken, that your page loads fast, or linking and being linked to. But Google confirmed a suspicion that had been kicking around for a while, that replying to Google reviews increases your SEO.
Google’s Support Team writes here:
“Respond to reviews that users leave about your business. When you reply to reviews, it shows that you value your customers and their feedback. High-quality, positive reviews from your customers can improve your business visibility and increase the likelihood that a shopper will visit your location.”
When they say “your business visibility” they don’t mean on your street. They mean online searches.
This is great news. If you read our post above on connecting LoyaltyLoop to your Google My Business page and stay current with your reviews, this part of your SEO work takes care of itself. And be sure to read our August 2020 post on Veracity and Transparency in Reviews, and the importance of replies and public communication!
Photo by Derzulya Zaza on Unsplash
Learn
Google My Business releases tool to track reported reviews
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People make mistakes. It happens. Unfortunately, it means sometimes someone leaves a review for you and it’s meant for someone else, and you get dinged for it. You have to pay the price until Google takes the erroneous review down.
On the upside, Search Engine Land has reported that Google has released a new tool that will allow you to track the status of reviews you’ve reported to them.
Log into your Google My Business account and click here to see the status of the reviews that are due to be reviewed. If you see any other reviews in there that need to be reported, Google provides links labeled “Report a problem” so you can get them in the queue as well.
Once the reviews are examined by Google, they’ll report on this table if the review has been removed, or if it hasn’t, the current status.
As Search Engine Land explains, the page is also a great way to report back to your team about the status of your various takedown requests.
Learn
Common Net Promoter ScoreSM Mistakes
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The Net Promoter Score, created by Fred Reichheld, is a great way to track your customers’ loyalty; it’s genius in its simplicity, and yet powerful enough to track current loyalty metrics and loyalty over time. But the same merits can lead to pitfalls. Here we list some common mistakes that can be made when using NPS®.
Don’t chase the score. The NPS® score is on a range of -100 to +100, and if you have a score of 85, it can be tempting to chase after those who scored as Passives or Detractors at the neglect of your existing Promoters. Instead, go for improving the overall customer experience. How can products, services, or communication be improved as your customers go from the start to the end of their purchase experience? This way you continue to reach out to all of your customers and the increase in Promoters will improve.
Don’t bury the lede. It can be interesting and helpful to ask other questions in your survey, but don’t make the survey too long. Those who take the survey may stop reading or skip the recommend question altogether. Make sure your survey is something someone can complete in under a minute.
Too many invites. Keep up a routine when sending your invites to customers; weekly, monthly. Try not to wait too long and send a lot of survey invites at once. It will produce peaks and valleys in your feedback and Google reviews and can be too much to process and absorb when responses come in. The more regular you are in sending your invites, the more even and regular your feedback will be.
Take care of your Promoters. Naturally, you want to put out fires, and make sure you convert your Detractor and Passive customers, but your Promoters are out there selling for you. The danger is to focus exclusively on the people who have situations that need to be fixed sooner than later. Remember the Promoters and make sure they’re happy, engaged and appreciated. You can express this with sincere interactions, small gifts or discounts, perhaps even recognition in a customer of the month program, or highlighting their experience in your newsletter.