Electronic Merchant Systems Explains How Businesses Can Boost Online Reputation

Cleveland, Ohio -

Electronic Merchant Systems (EMS), a national payment processor based in Cleveland, Ohio, has recently released a blog post that offers advice on how businesses can boost online reputation. The article explains the importance of customer reviews, how to encourage positive reviews, how to deal with negative reviews, checking on the competition, and understanding how online reviews can affect search engine optimization (SEO).

Having positive reviews is a necessity for a business because studies have shown that 82 percent of consumers read online reviews for local businesses and that 47 percent of people would only consider using a business with five star reviews. Therefore, it would be a great idea to encourage positive reviews, which is part of online reputation management. There are three ways to encourage happy customers to leave positive comments. First, it would be a good idea to monitor third party sites like Yelp, Open Table, Facebook, Google, and more where customers may have been writing reviews about one’s business. Second, one can always ask for feedback from customers. And third, one should always respond to reviews, whether positive or negative. Responding to negative reviews is an opportunity to turn it into a positive by sincerely apologizing for the disappointing experience of the customer and then fixing what was not working properly.

It is also important to know how to deal with negative reviews. This requires four steps. The first step is to find out if the review is real or a fake review. There are a number of things to look for to spot spam reviews. What can be done is to report these fake comments to the platform or social media site. The second step is to create a list of possible responses to start off the conversation. These responses should reflect the business owner’s genuine concern about the customer’s negative experience, that it was not done on purpose, and that things will be done to ensure it will not happen again. Third, it is important to always personalize responses if possible. The fourth step is to explain to the customer how the problem is being fixed.

Meanwhile, it is a good idea to always check on how one’s competitors are doing. It is possible to discover some mistake that competitors are doing and one’s business is doing the same thing. This will also allow the discovery of weaknesses of competitors and how to take advantage of them by doing things differently.

It is also a good idea to encourage customers to upload photos they have taken of the business establishment. Studies have shown that 77 percent of consumers believe customer photos have a greater impact compared to professional photos of the business. People know that professional photos are carefully taken and selected to show the best side of the business. On the other hand, customer photos are more candid and people consider them to be photos of what is really happening rather than the staged professional photos.

And finally, it is important for businesses to understand that online reviews can have an impact on SEO. This is because businesses with four-star ratings and higher are most likely to be found in the Google “three-pack,” which are the business that are at the top of the Google Map listings. This blog post can be accessed at https://www.emscorporate.com/news/7-ways-to-boost-your-online-reputation.

Launched in 1988, Electronic Merchant Systems is as a national payment processor and merchant services company with over 30 years of experience in the payment industry. They have been helping local businesses with regards to their payment processing requirements and in obtaining different kinds of electronic payment processes, such as all credit cards, major debit cards, stored-value cards, electronic bank transfers, and electronic check services. They offer 24/7 customer support whenever it is needed and present, they have already helped tens of thousands of Internet, start-up, and retail businesses in different locations in the United States. Approximately 95 percent of EMS customers have already benefited from the big savings through a rate review. EMS has 11 regional sales offices all over the country and over 100 cities in the US have an EMS presence.

People who are interested in learning more about the services provided by Electronic Merchant Systems can visit the EMS website, or contact them through the telephone or via email.