6 Tips for Growing Your Reputation During the Holiday Shopping Season
With the holiday shopping season upon us, businesses should pay attention to their online reputation and customer experience. However, during this time of year, businesses can overlook key fundamentals of good customer service. It’s easy for you and your employees to get distracted by the surge in business and increased demands from customers.
This situation can lead to poor customer experience delivery and and tarnish your online reputation. The ultimate result is a decline in customers and revenue that can linger long after the holiday rush. Here are 6 tips that businesses can employ to help grow their online reputation during the holidays.
1. Provide customer experience training
For most, the holidays mean more customers and it’s not unusual for businesses to add seasonal employees to meet demand. It can feel like an “all hands-on deck” situation. However, it’s important to take the time to train these new employees on how to deliver on the customer experience. And, reinforce that training during the holiday shopping season.
2. Have extra incentives ready
The holidays can stress out even the most optimistic of all of us. In fact, studies have shown that customer satisfaction scores typically dip during this time of year. With this knowledge in hand, be generous with incentives like free shipping and a no-hassle return policy. This can go a long way to keeping customers happy during this stressful time.
3. Stay on top of online reviews (and social mentions)
With the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it’s easy forget to pay attention to customer feedback. Make sure you are monitoring both online reviews and social mentions. Investing in an online reputation management dashboard will make this task easy. Holidays or not, it’s important to have a 360-degree view of what’s being said about your brand online.
4. Respond to online reviews
Even during this busy time, responding to reviews is important and will put you in position to get repeat and new business. Also, promptness is key. Don’t delay in responding to reviews and engaging with your customers whenever they reach out to you. If there is a problem, make sure you resolve it quickly.
5. Ask for online reviews
The increase in customer traffic during this time of year provides a great opportunity to ask customers to rate their experience on popular review sites like Google, Yelp and Facebook. Building the number of online reviews and generating a stream of “fresh” reviews is important. Doing so will boost your local SEO rankings and help potential customers find you.
6. Give back
It is the season of giving. So don’t forget the less fortunate during the holidays. If you do not already have a charity your business supports. Consider supporting causes that impact your local community. Not only will this act of kindness make you and your employees feel good, it will provide positive vibes for your brand reputation.
To sum up, the holiday shopping season is a boon for most businesses. However, it can cost you your reputation if you and your employees are not prepared to handle the increase in demand. These tips are designed to give you some ideas for you to use in your business right away to help bolster your online reputation.
ReviewIgnite helps businesses leverage online reviews to improve their reputation and increase sales. Our state of the art online reputation management dashboard helps you know what people are saying about your business on popular review sites and social media. For more information, contact us. And, Happy Holidays!
