Online Reputation: Crucial To Get More Customers

I could easily begin every post on this blog with one simple fact: You need customers or you don't have a business.  This fact is why you are here.  There are ways to get more customers:

• Advertising
• Word-of-Mouth
• Organic Search Engine Optimized Blog Posts With Great Content
• Hiring a guy in a Chicken Suit

But...

No matter what means of advertising you employ to get your business in front of customers, no matter how snazzy your storefront or website, if every review they read looks like these:

• "WOULD NOT RECOMMEND!"
• "I left in tears!"
• "Never going back here again!"
• "Total rip off!"
• "Scam!" 

Everyday, your professional image, and the professional images of every business out there, is slowly changing.  We live in an era of customer reviews being instantly available to searchers in the "modern yellow pages" (i.e. Google)

Either your business is getting lots of positive reviews, and rising to the top; or it's getting no reviews, and is being buried by those businesses which are getting positive reviews; or it's getting negative reviews and suffering the business-version of cardiac arrest -- in this case the situation is dire and the prognosis isn't good.

FACT: Customers Won't Shop Where They Don't Feel Comfortable.

Don't believe me?  Dig this.

Click to Enlarge

FACT: To Get More Customers, You MUST Be Aware Of Your Online Reputation.

Right now, on dozens of websites, from Yelp.com to Google + Local, your business already has a listing, and may have reviews.  And may have bad reviews.  Seriously, go check.  Right now.  I'll wait.

And when your potential customers are searching for you online, what do they see?  Yep.  We'll talk about managing this later.