Managing Online Reviews Is a Key Component of MSP Marketing

October 26, 2018October 24, 2018 Ricardo Michell IT lead generation, it leads, IT marketing, IT sales leads, it services marketing, managed services marketing, marketing for it, MSP Business, msp company, msp leads, msp marketing, msp sales, MSP services

If you own or manage a business or work in MSP marketing, you should know clients will check out your company’s online reviews. Online write-ups are a helpful tool, especially if you have an abundance of positive reviews. If your company does not have any reviews posted on the web or if the reviews are negative, your business will suffer. However, it is challenging to keep track of online reviews, manage them and ensure your business is accurately portrayed.

Read Negative Feedback

It is a mistake to ignore negative feedback simply because it does not lift the spirit. Whether the review in question is rife with anger, complaints or even illegitimate statements about your business, you should read it in-depth. You might obtain some valuable insights about your business after reading these negative reviews.

If necessary, take a full day or longer to reply to the negative reviews so you do not come off as defensive and reactionary. Keep in mind there might be some bits of truth mixed in with those negative reviews. Learn from the mistakes your team has made, make the appropriate changes, reach out to angry customers and your MSP marketing will prove easier.

Request Reviews

If your business does not have any online reviews, you will not maximize revenue. It is better to have several reviews than one or two negative reviews. However, it is a mistake to solicit reviews from any old customer. Do not provide positive reinforcement for those who leave positive reviews. In fact, the popular online review directory Yelp does not permit compensating customers to post positive reviews. Furthermore, if you pay for positive reviews and the word gets out, locals will no longer trust your business.

Finally, requesting positive reviews defeats the purpose of online reviews in the first place. If you feel the need to ask a customer to consider leaving feedback about the business on web-based online review directories, make the request without applying pressure. As an example, make it easy and stress-free for the customer to post an online review by sending a request via email.

Embrace the Online Review Management Process

Take some time to jot down the online review directories that might have write-ups of your business. Create a reminder system to check these sites every couple of weeks. In fact, some such online review sites even empower business owners and managers to set up their account so they are notified when a new review is added. There are also automated services that help manage online reviews. The cost of such a service differs by its complexity.

Respect the Power of Online Reviews

If you don’t want to pay for an automated service that manages online reviews and your MSP marketing department is short-staffed, continue to monitor the top review sites. Performing such manual checks will certainly chew up some time, yet managing such write-ups really does have the potential to shape customer perception of your business.