Google My Business: Always keep an eye on ratings and reviews

Customers can hardly ignore Google My Business when it comes to ratings and reviews of companies and products, the portal has become so dominant!

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business helps local businesses get found

Google My Business is a business platform operated by Google LCC that offers local businesses the opportunity to create and manage a business profile, which appears when users search for specific businesses or keywords in Google Search or Google Maps search for specific products or services. Google My Business helps companies to attract new customers by having their own Google My Business entry contain all of the company's offers as well as the location, contact details, website information, opening times, questions and answers and ultimately also reviews from customers who have already had experiences have done with this company.

How to be found on Google My Business

First of all, you need a Google My Business account.  Here you can create your Google My Business entry. Creating a Google my Business account is very easy, Google will guide you through this process with clear instructions. First, state the name of your company, i.e. your company name. Then you indicate in which industry (Google My Business calls this category) your company operates. Here you get predefined entries via an auto-completion list. From a doctor to a foreclosure service, virtually everything is included. In the next step, Google My Business will ask you if you want to add a location to Google Maps. If you click YES here, you can then enter your company's address details and you will be found via Google My Business Maps when someone searches for you or for products and services in this area or the street you specified. Last but not least, enter your phone number and website URL, opening hours, other details about your business, and a photo.

What is the quality of the listings on Google My Business?

Google My Business will verify the information you have provided by sending you a postcard from Google to the address you provided. This postcard contains a code that you enter into Google My Business. Once you enter this code, your business will be visible. By authenticating via postcard to the business address of companies that want to register, the quality of the entries on Google My Business is generally very good and customers rely on it.

Is Google My Business free?

Yes, your business can sign up for Google My Business for free and also change and customize your listings for free. You can even access and update your listing on the go with the free Google My Business Mobile app for Android and iOS devices.

What services does Google My Business offer?

Google My Business offers you a whole range of services that offer real added value for your company and can be configured quickly and easily via the Google My Business Dashboard. Here we present some of these services to you:

Add users

You can add additional users to your Google My Business account to manage your company data. Google My Business offers a 3-tier role model, namely owner, administrator, site manager. Each role has its own rights, which Google My Business explains in detail.

Add news & events

If you have news for your customers or would like to hold an event, you can publish the information about this via your Google My Business entry. You can choose whether it is an offer, news or an event. You can add a call-to-action button to this listing, such as “RESERVE”, “BUY”, “SIGN UP”.

Virtual 360 degree tours

Add a virtual 360 degree tour of your store, restaurant, business or practice to your Google My Business listing. Your potential customers can get an idea of ​​your location.

Statistics

Google My Business offers its users a wide range of statistics about the Google My Business entry, such as how often the entry was seen and how it compares to other companies, whether the search query came via Google Maps or via Google Search. You can also see which keywords users searched with and thus arrived at your Google My Business entry.

Questions from customers

With Google My Business it is possible for you to store a mobile phone number, but it is not publicly visible. By clicking on a link, users can then ask you questions that appear directly on your cell phone.

products and services

Add detailed product descriptions and descriptions of your services to your Google My Business listing. Our tip: Use keywords within these descriptions that you want to be found with.

Create a website

With Google My Business you can even create simple websites if your business doesn't already have its own internet presence. For this purpose, Google My Business provides an easy-to-use editor with which you can quickly build your own small homepage. With a little practice, you can even create really attractive websites.

Ads and campaigns

You can access Google Ads directly from your Google My Business account. You can use this to create ads that appear in Google searches before and after organic entries when users search for specific keywords. This Google My Business service is chargeable.

Add more companies

You can add other companies to your Google My Business account, such as branches or franchise partners. This means that Google My Business is also very interesting for large companies with distributed locations, as the locations are managed centrally and branches can be looked after by branch managers using the role model described above.

Ratings and Reviews

One of the most important functions of Google My Business is the clearly presented reviews and ratings about your company, which are created by customers. Potential customers can immediately see what experiences other customers have had with your company. This has a big advantage for you if you offer really excellent services and products and are also friendly and service-oriented towards your customers.

Why you should sign up for Google My Business

We have already implicitly mentioned many of the reasons in the previous text. Google My Business is free and you can be found via Google Search and Google Maps. So you can win new customers through your business entry and you can enter into a direct dialogue with your customers using the rating function. In addition, GoogleMy Business clearly displays all relevant information about your company and your customers or potential customers can contact you with a click, ask you questions and obtain personal information. You can also present the latest and changing offers and draw attention to events. Customer feedback via Google My Business is also very important so that you have an idea of ​​what your customers think about your company and your products and services.

You will be found “precisely”, and that creates new customers

When web users search, they are almost 90% likely to search via Google. For local searches, Google almost always displays Google My Business profiles, which increases exposure for local businesses. Google wants to give users the best online and offline experience, which is why it tries to deliver the most relevant search results. This means that if you are a restaurant that specializes in vegan delicacies, your Google My Business profile would not appear to someone searching for an Argentinian steakhouse in your area.

Maintain your Google My Business entry and you will be found better

If you want to improve your ranking in Google search results, which can lead to more views of your Google My Business profile and more clicks, then you need to optimize and maintain your business listing. Google prefers Google My Business profiles with complete and detailed information. With a complete picture of your company, e.g. Such as your opening hours, your location and your products and services, Google can ensure that your business is relevant to a search and rank it accordingly. Just as Google has algorithms to rank its ads and websites, it also has an algorithm to rank Google My Business business profiles. From the dashboard, you can add keywords to your business profile and make further optimizations to improve rankings in local results.

Tips and Best Practices: Use Google My Business ratings and reviews as a real marketing tool

Among all search engines, Google now has a market share of 86% for online searches via PC. Google Search's market share is even greater when you search via mobile devices: here, Google Search's market share is almost 98%. Read and heed the following tips from our marketing experts and Google My Business will serve you well!

Negative reviews will destroy your business!

If you have a Google My Business account and your company's listing on it, then there is a very high probability that someone who is looking for something that your company offers will actually find you. And now imagine that you are found and that the ratings and reviews below your Google My Business entry are like “all things considered”. What this means is: Negative ratings, i.e. always only one or two stars instead of five, and also rating comments that suggest that you are not really dedicated to your customers with the greatest dedication. Given the market power that Google search has, this can have fatal effects on your company: a bad reputation and thus a) customer churn and b) no acquisition of new customers.

Always keep an eye on your Google My Business reviews

Now let's assume that the vast majority of companies actually enjoy and are passionate about their customers. You do everything to ensure that your customers are happy and satisfied. Nevertheless, it is not unlikely that one or two negative reviews will be found below your Google My Business entry. Maybe someone is having a bad day, or one of your salespeople got up on the wrong foot. That's human. So you now receive a negative rating, it remains to be seen whether rightly or wrongly. Your everyday business life is hard and stressful and you don't have the time every day to look at how customers rate you via your Google My Business listing. So this negative entry about your company remains uncommented. Now a potential customer finds your company via Google search, lands on your entry and reads the comments. Since no one has left a review for 2 days, the negative comment can be seen at the top. Your potential new customer reads this and compares the reviews with a competitor's reviews, of which the top 3 entries are positive. So what will your potential customer do? He will most likely go to the competition. So be sure to check the reviews under your business listing every day to prevent something like this from happening!

Respond to every comment, whether positive or negative

Since you are not only an entrepreneur, but also a customer yourself, doesn't it seem strange to you when a company only responds to negative reviews, perhaps justifying or even appeasing? Be sure to respond to every comment below your Google My Business listing! And that really means EVERY REVIEW, regardless of whether it was written and formulated negatively, positively, neutrally, in monosyllables or in detail. The Google My Business ratings and reviews are so powerful and have such a big influence on the decision-making behavior of future customers that you should really take the time to respond to reviews.

Customers feel “cheered” when you respond to their positive feedback

If customers are really enthusiastic and leave a positive review below your business listing, that is a huge service for your company because it is free advertising, but it is not free. So saying thank you is the least you can do. And you should do that too. Because if your customers read that you actually respond to the positive criticism, they will really like it because the effort to write a review was worth it.

ALWAYS, always and without exception, respond to negative reviews

If it seems like too much to respond to EVERY review, which is our tip, then at least address the negative reviews. As described above, uncommented negative reviews are a thorn in the side of all new customers because it signals that you basically don't care whether customers are angry or not. This shouldn't happen under any circumstances, even if it STILL doesn't matter to you based on sales and the number of customers. That can change quickly in fast-moving times like these.

Don't be monosyllabic or unimaginative in your answers

Now imagine that your Google My Business listing has a whole host of reviews that are detailed and well-intentioned and you simply and fundamentally respond to each of these reviews and comments with “Thank you”. Even if you're honest and time doesn't allow you to answer in more detail, overall it still looks quite stilted.

Check out this example:

Very friendly staff and the selection of clothes is excellent. I always enjoy going there because the atmosphere is friendly and it's just fun.

Thank you!

I bought a very nice coat there some time ago and because it had a thread pulling on the sleeve, the very friendly salesperson offered to have it sewn for free in their own tailor shop.

Thank you!

There are now great scarves in the men's department that can also be worn as mouth and nose protection. Then you don't always have to have a mask with you. Great idea. And looks absolutely beautiful!

Thank you!

consider it: Customers do not write reviews exclusively for other customers, but also implicitly for you. So show your appreciation by responding appropriately and appropriately. If new potential customers read that you respond to comments in detail and perhaps even with a personal touch, then you have already won!

Now look at the examples above with a detailed and personal answer:

Very friendly staff and the selection of clothes is excellent. I always enjoy going there because the atmosphere is friendly and it's just fun.

Thank you for your kind and positive review. We want both our customers and our employees to feel comfortable in a pleasant atmosphere. It's nice that you were able to achieve this and nice that you gave us this feedback.

I bought a very nice coat there some time ago and because it had a thread pulling on the sleeve, the very friendly salesperson offered to have it sewn for free in their own tailor shop.

Dear customer, we were very happy to do this for you. Otherwise, the coat looks great on you.

There are now great scarves in the men's department that can also be worn as mouth and nose protection. Then you don't always have to have a mask with you. Great idea. And looks absolutely beautiful!

We are very pleased that you like our seamstress's idea. The scarf is also made of breathable silk and can be washed at 60 degrees due to the natural color processing.

You see the difference. The lower block reads much more excitingly for new customers, because you can also add additional product information to the reviews, which offers your new customers further information!

Get notified of new reviews from QuestionPro

So that you don't miss any reviews on Google My Business, the reputation management app from QuestionPro offers users of Google My Business and other review portals a notification function.  These notifications then appear in the notification bar of your smartphone, iPad or on the screen of your PC. And if you don't want to be notified of every new review, you can configure the notification so that, for example, you are only notified if a review has less than 3 stars. Or even 2 stars. You can customize this as you wish. This ensures that you can at least respond to negative comments IMMEDIATELY if you don't have the time to respond to all reviews immediately.

If you respond immediately to negative reviews, you can prevent customer churn

Now imagine that you, as a customer, have had a negative experience and are letting your displeasure out on Google My Business.

I was on my way to the ladies' room to wash my hands, and there was a huge puddle of orange juice in front of it. And when I came back, the puddle was still there. Don't you clean? It's stuck under my shoe!

If you never receive a response to your review, you may not visit the location again and you will also tell your friends and acquaintances about this experience, who may then no longer go there. But now imagine receiving a response to your review within a very short time.

Dear customer. We are very sorry that you had to go through this experience. We sincerely apologize for this. I consulted with our cleaning staff and in fact the employee was on his well-deserved break at this point and our waitress initially didn't notice the mishap in the hustle and bustle of lunchtime. Of course, we will cover the costs of cleaning your shoes. Please stop by in the coming days for a cup of coffee, to which we warmly invite you.

Not only will you win back your customer with a comment like this, potential new customers will also realize when reading your “counter-statement” that you really care about your customers and are trying hard to make them happy!

Never show off your customers

What you should never do is respond to negative reviews in a snarky or pretentious manner in order to appear particularly “cool” or “funny” or to serve your own ego. Let's take the previous example:

I was on my way to the ladies' room to wash my hands, and there was a huge puddle of orange juice in front of it. And when I came back, the puddle was still there. Don't you clean? It's stuck under my shoe!

Well, then you haven't washed your hands for very long ;-)

What might be meant to be really funny here - people's sense of humor is very different - will definitely backfire! This customer will never enter your restaurant again. And anyone who reads your answer will certainly not expect a good, courteous and friendly atmosphere in your restaurant.

NEVER answer tipsy or drunk!

You're probably thinking that we're trying to kid you, but no! Our experts have already experienced all of this. Imagine a small, friendly and honest craft business whose owner looks after and maintains his Google My Business account and also takes great pleasure in it. And now imagine that this honest master craftsman was at a customer's house that morning to install a new sink. The customer writes a review on Google My Business:

A very nice and friendly craftsman. Worked quickly and left no mess. Gladly again.

Now the friendly and nice craftsman looks at his Google My Business account in the evening between 3 to 5 beers and in a convivial atmosphere and of course wants to immediately respond equally positively to the positive review.

I'll be back soon, just break something ;-)

Of course you can smile at the typos and the content. But if this happens more often, then it no longer makes a really good impression.

Schedule responses to reviews with the QuestionPro app for reputation management

If you don't want to forget to respond to a review, but find yourself unable to respond directly and in detail to reviews due to time or other reasons, then mark the relevant reviews with the QuestionPro app for reputation management and simply reply on next day after that. With QuestionPro you won't lose any reviews!

Create trust

If you always respond to reviews, individually and in due detail, then you create trust. You will then not just be a place for your customers to buy something, but your customers will become loyal customers because you will also be with them outside of your location communicate. And if your customers trust you, they will continue to shop with you and tell friends about your company. Remember: Google My Business is “Local.” If Ms. Frieda L from B leaves a positive comment about your company and a friend happens to see this comment, then this friend already knows someone good experiences with your company has made.

1:1 live online presentation:
Always keep an eye on Google My Business ratings and reviews

It is essential for you as a company to deal with the reviews about your company on Google My Business on a daily basis, because ultimately it is about your reputation. If negative reviews from customers go uncommented, there is a high probability that potential customers who read this will not buy from you. In a 1:1 live online presentation, we'll show you how you can keep an eye on your Google My Business reviews and ratings and respond to negative reviews quickly and easily via the web app.

Make an individual appointment now.

Do you have questions about reviews on Google My Business and how you can always keep an eye on them? Simply contact us using the contact form. We look forward to the dialogue!

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