Social media marketing has taken the world by storm in recent years and many businesses and services have flourished because of it.For local businesses and services, there is one website giant that rules them all and every local business owner should look to be “king of the hill” in their industry on this particular website.That online giant is Yelp which commands a monthly 25 million visitors…and growing.You will see how, as a the local business owner, you should “claim your business” and you can immediately get some exposure to the millions that visit Yelp each month in search of good recommendations. Claiming your business on Yelp is free and you can start the process of building a good solid reputation that will attract more customers.As a business owner, you spend a lot of time and energy focusing on operating your business. You have also spent countless hours thinking of ways to advertise and set yourself up for customers to come through the door. You have probably even spent money advertising in phone book directories, sent out flyers and postcards, bought ads in local newspaper, and even spent money advertising online using Google AdWords.Yet, since the beginning of time, the best way to get people interested in your business or services you have to offer is and always has been word of mouth advertising.Some things never change and this is still the best way to promote your business.Typically, word of mouth advertising takes time and builds slowly and can take years to build momentum as more and more people learn about your business or service “through the grapevine.” But in today’s world, with a combination of your focus on customer service & satisfaction and websites like Yelp, you can spread the good word about your local business immediately.Here’s how in 2 steps.
1.) Let’s say you have a restaurant or just opened a restaurant this month and you just found out about Yelp today. Let’s also say you want to focus on your customers being completely satisfied with their “experience” at your restaurant. So, you put on a friendly smile and walk to each table as they are enjoying the food that was brought to them and you asked “How is everything? Are you enjoying the food?” Then listen for any feedback, good or bad, and be ready to correct ANYTHING that will help the customer have a better “experience” in your restaurant. Then walk to the next table and do the same. You don’t have to stay for a long conversation, but a quick “hello” (followed by the simple questions I mentioned), will give your customers that feeling that they’ve hit the jackpot and found a great restaurant where even the owner and or his staff took their time to walk around and chit-chatted with them. If you can’t do it regularly, have your employees do it regularly. A tiny genuine effort like that will go a very long way and will bring your customers back.
2.) As your customers are leaving, or better yet, as they pay their bills, have your waiters ask your customers to take a moment to go to Yelp and give your restaurant (or business) an “honest review.” You can even have your waiters write at the bottom of each receipt “Please review us on Yelp.com!” Another option is to have one designated person like the host/hostess to pass out your little restaurant/business card to every table and they can be that daily persons who will ask the customers to “take a minute to leave a review of your restaurant on Yelp.com- tonight (while the experience is fresh in their heads).”
Can you see how if you started this procedure with 20 customers today and 3 of them actually took the time to go to Yelp and leave great reviews, you would have about 100 reviews by the end of the month! But you have to do it diligently everyday.In addition, with you and or your staff trained to “want the best experience for your clients,” by interacting with your clients in that way (as opposed to just reciting the specials and bringing out the food and saying “enjoy”) you’re ingraining into their subconscious minds to always look to improve your customers experience, your business reputation, and your overall customer relations.Here’s a quick note. Starbucks built its reputation not by offering daily discounts and specials, but rather they focused on the “customers experience” while they were there. This is why when you walk into Starbucks, they’re usually very cheery and you feel like you’re in a nice big lounge and you’ll pay the high price for coffee over and over again because of this “experience.”So, to build an effective “online word of mouth” campaign about your local business or service remember, you have to initiate this. You have to decide to want extremely satisfied customers (all businesses should strive for this) and work hard to make sure they leave completely satisfied, and you must also ASK for your customers to leave reviews. Ask everyone, because only a fraction will ever take the time to do it.Can you see how, if you fully executed these 2 steps faithfully and religiously, your business could be the talk of the neighborhood within the next 30 days?Start now and take control of your business and steer it in the right direction. Regardless of how long you’ve been open, it’s never too start working on improving your image and quality of your products or services, building customer relations, and asking your customers to give you an honest review on Yelp.Make it happen now and reap the rewards of great business practices.