Strive mightily for high ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but don’t forget that your feet are necessarily on the earth.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1900
This quote came to mind when I was recently reading an article about encouraging customers to leave positive online reviews. The article is a great guide to setting up online reviews (and some of the most important things to keep in mind when you do!) but it all comes down to the same thing - dream big, but work hard to make those dreams come true.
With immediate access to Yelp, Google reviews, online app store reviews, Facebook, and others, customers have a ton of information about you and your business before they ever click on your website or walk through your front door - and in a recent survey, 93% of them said that online reviews make a difference in their buying decisions.
So how about you, what has your experience been with online review sites? Do you care about the 'stars' or are you focused on the practicalities of running your business day to day? Have you considered hiring someone to manage your reviews? If you do manage your own reviews, do you respond to every review?
Whether you are just starting up, or have been fighting the good fight for awhile now, we'd love to hear your stories.