Pets are part of the family and when it comes to finding the right company to care for their precious fur babies, no one is going to just pick the nearest pet spa they can find. Instead, you can bet they’re going to ask for recommendations and scour the reviews that local pet spas have until they find one that they’re happy with.
That’s why, when you’re planning your marketing for your business, you also need to include reputation management for pet spas.
While that does mean some extra work on your part, the benefits really can outweigh the time spent.
Why your online reputation matters
We’ve touched on this above, but what other people say about you online does have an impact on potential customers. If you have great reviews and a good average star rating, you’ll be well in the running when potential new customers are searching for a pet spa in your area. If you don’t, on the other hand, you’ll need to do some work to change that. Generally, people won’t choose a company that has less than a four-star average. Recent bad reviews may well also have an impact on whether or not you get a client, or your competitors do.
Having a great reputation matters in-house too. No doubt you want a business to be proud of and you want your staff to feel good about working there. Poor reviews can have an impact on staff morale, and you may find it more difficult to recruit top people for your pet spa if your online reputation isn’t all it could be.
Reviews are what’s known as user-generated content (UGC) and Google does take note of UGC when looking at where to rank your business. You may have done everything else right, but if another pet spa has better reviews than you, it could mean that they appear in Google Maps’ local pack instead of you. Those are coveted spots, giving high visibility to local businesses, so any opportunity to boost your reputation and get great reviews needs to be taken.
Understanding your online reputation
Below, we’re going to give you our top tips on how to improve your online reputation and get great reviews.
However, before we get started, let’s go back to the basics you need to have in place to make sure you get those great reviews.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that you need to set your pet spa business up to provide a great customer experience first. Then, when you request reviews from your customers, you have the best possible chance of them being good ones.
Whether you’re just starting out or your pet spa has been going for a while, taking a few days to look at how your business works and what your customer journey is like can reap dividends later.
Think about your business from the point of view of your customers. Is it easy to book and find out more information? Are there plenty of appointments available? What’s your customer service like if there’s a problem? Have you thought about how you’ll deal with it if a customer isn’t happy with their pet’s grooming? Do you have good directions so new customers can find you easily? Even the smallest details can matter when it comes to customer experience.
Next, take a look at your online presence, again from your customers’ point of view. If you didn’t know your business, what would you think about your website, your social media, and what comes up in your search results?
Is your website easy to navigate? Does it function well on all devices? Is it accessible to people with disabilities? Are the calls to action clear and can you easily book online? Are contact details easy to find? Can your potential customers find everything they need?
Does your social media look vibrant and full of great, helpful content? Is it regularly updated with information your customers want and need? If you message your business for help, how quickly does someone respond?
If things aren’t quite as they should be, take the time now to put them right and make sure your customer experience is all it can be. People now take note of customer experience more than ever, and it can make the difference between your pet spa being chosen or your competitors.
4 essentials for any reputation management strategy
Now let’s get onto those practical steps you can take to improve your online reputation and get those great reviews coming in.
1) Claim your listings on review sites and directories
There are hundreds of review sites and directories across the internet. It’s worth listing your pet spa on as many trustworthy and genuine sites as you can. At a minimum, ensure you’re listed on Yelp, Facebook, Nextdoor, Angi, Bing, and Thumbtack.
Many of these sites will allow you to post information, add quality images, and collect reviews, all of which add to your online reputation.
While it’s a little different from a standard directory, the one you really can’t afford to ignore is your Google Business Profile (GBP). As the name suggests, the biggest search engine in the world is behind this one, so if you haven’t already, claim your GBP and make the most of your profile. You can select a category for your business so people can find you more easily, and you can fill in a full description of your pet spa. You can also add a list of your services and an FAQ. In addition, you can create posts with business updates and special offers, add quality images, interact with your customers, request and reply to reviews, and more.
Not only can customers leave a review on your GBP, but they can also call you directly from your profile. It’s also possible to let your customers book appointments on your profile, too. Whenever possible, make it as easy for them as you can, and you should find your reviews reflect that.
What’s really important about all of these sites is that you complete every part of your profile, add engaging images, and include relevant keywords to increase visibility.
One more thing to take great care of is your contact details. Known collectively as your NAP (name, address, and phone number), double check that your details are presented in exactly the same way and fully correct on every listing. Even something as small as using ‘Ave’ on some listings and ‘Avenue’ on others or altering the format of your phone number can create doubt in both Google and your customers as to whether you are the same business. Best not to risk it and be consistent everywhere you list.
That could be an extremely time-intensive task, but there is an easier way to do it than uploading your images and pasting in the same information on every site. With Surefire Local’s business intelligence marketing software, you can upload your information to over 80 directories, including your Google Business Profile, with just a few clicks. And you can update them all at once whenever you like.
Setting your business up for success isn’t just about making life easier and better for your customers. It’s about doing that for you too.
2) Ask for reviews
Unfortunately, people are more likely to leave a review or to comment if they’ve had a negative experience than they are if their experience was good. What that means for your business is that you can’t afford to leave what reviews you get to chance. You need to be proactive and go out and get them.
The other thing to consider about reviews is that most people will only look at your most recent reviews and few will bother to go back more than around four weeks to look at earlier reviews. Because of this, getting reviews isn’t something you can do once and then forget about. You need to have a process in place for how to get reviews and keep going so that there are always fresh and up-to-date reviews for potential customers to browse through.
Why are reviews so important? Well, they provide social proof that others have used your service and had a good experience. That’s far more convincing than anything you can say about yourself, no matter how true it is. People will look for word-of-mouth recommendations from people they know, and they will go online and read reviews to see which pet spa they’d prefer to try over any other. If you want to keep getting new customers, then you really do need to have a plan in place for regularly getting reviews.
So, how do you do that? The simplest way is to just ask. You already have satisfied clients, so why not just ask them next time you see them or when you speak to them on the phone? Give them a card or a leaflet to take with them to remind them. One other thing you could do is print a review request and a link or a QR code to scan on their next grooming appointment card.
Include your review links on your email signatures, on your website, and on marketing leaflets… In fact, everywhere you can.
However, it’s important to have a system for getting reviews rather than just doing it randomly. You might miss too many opportunities if you don’t plan it and track your reviews. You also need to ensure that you get reviews on all your directory listings, Facebook, and your Google Business Profile, so you do need to keep an eye on where you already have recent reviews and where you don’t. It’s also possible that you might annoy customers if you ask them too many times.
If you’d rather not tangle with Excel or manual tracking with a notebook, why not try Surefire’s marketing software, where you can easily request and reply to reviews, without even leaving our platform?
3) Respond to reviews — and do so promptly
Getting reviews is important, but responding to them is even more so. People want to feel heard and appreciated, so a simple “thank you” on your positive reviews goes a long way. This also builds a sense of community and shows you off as a responsive, polite, and genuine business owner. Those are always good words to be known for.
But what about negative reviews? Even more so than positive reviews, you do need to engage with the negative ones, and quickly. When you’ve got an unhappy customer, it’s important to reply to them and let them know that you’re listening to them and understanding them. If you can, try to resolve the complaint there and then. You may be able to get them to remove or rewrite their review. However, don’t get into a bad-tempered back and forth long debate. If you can’t quickly apologize and put it right, and particularly if they become personal or nasty in the comments, give them a phone number and offer to speak to them personally. That looks far better to other people reading your reviews than a dragged-out discussion.
And that’s the other reason to reply to negative reviews: other people do read them and form opinions. You want them to get an excellent impression of you and to be seen as caring and genuine. Even a negative review can create a positive impression if you handle it right.
4) Monitor your online reputation
You can’t keep on top of your online reputation quite so well if you don’t actually know what it is. That’s why it’s important to monitor it constantly and make sure everything is going well.
If you monitor your reputation, you’ll know instantly if you’ve had a negative review or any comments on social media that you really need to deal with. And you can start putting things right immediately rather than leaving them to fester and damage your reputation.
How can you do this? You can run a brand sentiment analysis to see how people feel about your clinic and your brand. You can keep an eye on your social media, your listings, and your blog comments to see what people are saying about you. Social listening is a great way to keep on top of your online reputation and to build on it.
It can take a lot of work to keep on top of requesting and replying to reviews, but it doesn’t have to. Why not attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform demo, so you can see what a difference our software can make?
You can update all of your business directories and Google Business Profile from our dashboard, send requests, automate follow-up reminders, and respond to reviews all from one place. You don’t need to sign in and out of multiple sites to catch up with everything, and you’ll never miss a review that needs a response again.
You can also keep an eye on what customers and potential customers think about you and your business, by running a brand sentiment analysis to find out how your clients truly feel about your clinic. That’s priceless feedback that can help you fix any problems and come up with new ideas and services.
Book your demo today and see how we can help you market your pet spa.