What Consumers Research Before Calling
Nowadays, before a potential customer picks up a phone to call a business, they are absolutely checking you out online first. There are so many ways a customer can determine whether or not a business is trustworthy just by doing a few things online.
I want you to be ready for customers doing this type of research. There are a lot of businesses out there who are not getting phone calls, and they don’t even know why! They don’t know what is going on behind the scenes when their potential customers do this online research. Here are things you can do to be ready when people look you up online:
1. They Will Google Your Business:
Before a potential customer calls you, they are absolutely, positively, going to Google your business. When they Google you they’ll find your website and any other ways that your name comes up. If you’re a solo practitioner like a yoga instructor or a CPA, you are the business, and so your potential customers will Google your name.
So, Google your own business or name and see what’s out there! You need to know what is coming up when your potential customers do a search for you.
2. They Will Check Your Social Media Accounts:
They’re going to check out your social media accounts. If you’re a solo practitioner, they’ll look at your LinkedIn account. But whatever business you have, your prospective customers will absolutely check out your Facebook page to see what you’re all about. I’ve said this many times before—if you haven’t updated your page since 2012 they may wonder if you’re too busy to keep up with it, or even if you’re still in business at all!
If your Facebook account is up to date but every post is super “salesy”, or aggressive, or begging for business, that may be a turn-off as well. Always make sure your content is up to date, and also make sure that it’s very helpful, safe, and value-driven.
3. They Will Read Your Reviews:
This is the most important one—they’re going to read through your reviews! Don’t let this scare you, though. If you don’t have 100% 5-star outstanding reviews, guess what? That means you’re normal. We all have hiccups in our businesses, and we’re going to get that occasional customer who gives us a bad review. But more and more consumers are looking at what you do after that review. How do you respond? How do you fix the problem?
If you don’t have any reviews, you need to get some! No one wants to be someone else’s first customer. Be sure you’re asking your current customers to give you a review, whether it’s on Google, Yelp!, Facebook, wherever. People are going to gather this information to see if they’re going to use your services, so you have to put your best online foot forward.
Where we come in is we give our clients this reputation that gives our potential customers this warm and fuzzy feeling. It’s tough to track the warm and fuzzies, but we all know that we make buying decisions with our gut, not necessarily with our brains. Our job as a social media firm is to make sure that whenever someone does research one of our clients they are getting those warm and fuzzy feelings, and they think “Wow! This is a person/business that I can really trust!”
So make sure you Google your business, look over your social media accounts and make sure they’re up to date, and make sure you’re asking for reviews!
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