Driving and managing online reviews are crucial for small and local businesses. That’s why we created KnowMe Reviews, a smarter way to engage customers and drive reviews.
KnowMe Reviews is predicated on three core principles:
- Focus review requests towards satisfied customers;
- Catch unhappy customers and try to convert them (and their experience);
- And do it quickly.
To “do it quickly,” KnowMe Reviews primarily relies on text messaging – the most direct and fastest way to communicate with consumers. So built in to Reviews is business texting.
1. Get your customer’s number
It’s no secret that customers are willing to give businesses their mobile phone numbers in exchange for value. KnowMe Reviews include a stand-alone business texting platform. “Can I text you when it’s done/ready?” And voila – enter the customer’s number.
Other techniques include “text ‘happy’ to xxxxx for a discount/coupon.”
An advantage to working with a seasoned partner like KnowMe is that we’ve grown up with consumer privacy laws – and the requirements for texting are rigorous. Suffice to say, your customers need to opt-in (more than once) to receive texts from your business.
2. Check the temperature
At the end of an engagement, after the customer has paid, is the best time to hit them up for a review. But first, let’s check their temperature. Are they a “cool” customer? Happy with the service and experience? Or are they “hot” under the collar.
KnowMe Reviews starts with a simple, customizable text message, e.g. – “thanks for being a customer, how was your experience 1- excellent; 5 – horrible.”
Customers who rate their experience a 1or 2 are significantly more likely to take their time to leave a review, and most likely a positive review.
But for customers leaving a 4 or 5, we give you, the business owner, complete control on how you address these people.
A simple, “Sorry to hear it. We’ll try to make it right next time” text might work. Or solicit feedback: “Sorry – what can we do to make it better?” Some businesses may want to offer an escalation path a la “we take customer satisfaction seriously, would you like a manager to call you?” – and KnowMe can connect the call immediately.
The point is, you know your business and your customers, we give you the power and control to handle less-than-satisfied customers.
3. Making reviews easy
Once we’ve identified customers likely to give their time to offer a positive review, we need to make it easy. Which review site (Google? Yelp? Angie? Other?) is most important for you?
It’s easy to watch sentiment and reviews increase over time – and translate it into more business for your store.
Ready to get started? KnowMe Reviews starts with KnowMe’s Pay-As-You-Grow plan. There’s no charge to get started, ever. You only pay when your business starts to grow.
