Improve Online Reviews
Online reviews are one of the first things potential customers can explore to find out more about florists. In most cases, customers take online reviews quite seriously and you should too. Taking control of your reputation online is critical for growing your online customer base.
An abundance of praise for a local flower business affords it greater trust with potential customers, while subpar ratings can drive away almost half of the shoppers who relied on these opinions. With no signs of online reviews becoming unpopular, here are a few best practices you can utilize to improve your flower shop’s digital reputation:
• Ask for reviews!
Customers are more likely to leave a positive review when they are simply asked to do so. It’s best to make this request as unobtrusively as possible and aim toward maximizing the number of reviews your flower business has. More reviews, positive or negative, tend to benefit your floral shop’s online presence.
• Respond to reviews!
Consumers who rely on reviews tend to notice when and how you respond to them. Most online review platforms like Yelp, Facebook, and Google provide flower business owners a way to identify themselves and respond to comments left by customers. Try to respond to as many reviews as possible, whether they are positive or negative, but prioritize the latter. Do your best to offer assistance, acknowledge a problem, or even apologize and remedy an unpleasant flower shopping experience.
• Track reviews!
As your flower shop grows and garners greater attention online, you could quickly become overwhelmed by the number of reviews that crop up in various places. In addition, those floral reviews can serve as valuable data to see trends and address customer service gaps, according to what customers are saying. Several tools, both free and paid, can be used to streamline these activities, such as Google Alerts or simply adhering to your own schedule for reading and responding to customer messages. Investing in software or services to track and manage reviews might be easier to coordinate versus a shared spreadsheet or calendar. A service like eFlorist’s Review Manager is also an affordable option to leverage.