These reviews help other people while they are still searching and are yet to establish a relationship with you to see what other people have to say. And of course, most people on the Web are savvy enough by now to realize that the feedback systems may not be 100% accurate but that they are overall trustworthy. And most people drive down to see several feedbacks from several sites before making a decision. After all, isn’t research and the ability to find information sufficient to make an informed decision part of what makes the Internet so great?
Reputation management should be part of your Website strategy for the future. Have a look at how important reviews and rankings are by performing a few searches on Google and see that many (especially service companies) Websites are ranked along with their feedback scores.
And even if they are corollary relationships (feedback vs. ranking) you can bet for sure the results are still having an effect as people decide which link to click on. HMMM Should I click on the one with one negative review or the one with 129 positive reviews.
Keeping on top of your reviews and controlling your online reputation through reputation management can be accomplished by promoting feedback requests to your clients. Yes, ask them to show you some love, give some feedback and tell the world about their experience!
An excellent way of keeping the process of asking for requests is by using an e-mail marketing system. A great example of this is a simple two step process that we use and it works wonderfully.
Step one: Create a autorepsponder (an e-mail that goes out at a prescheduled time based on an event) e-mail to go out to clients when they inquire on your Web Site (like inquiring through a contact form or Request for quote form on your Web Site).
Step two: Send the same e-mail to your e-mail distribution list once a quarter.
You will be pleasantly surprised that your clients will help you and the results will be very positive for your future traffic and sales.
Using e-mail marketing systems to manage your online reputation can be accomplished through correctly integrating your Web Site forms to an e-mail marketing data base and then sending HTML based e-mail letters to your contact list that is generated organically from your Website.
Reputation Management Made Simple
http://www.webindustry.com/blog/?p=35
Paul Hoover has more than 12 years in the Web marketing field and currently enjoys managing his compnay Webindustry.com
www.webindustry.com