A Storefront To Be Proud Of 

Running a physical location means that you need to make this as attractive to potential customers as possible. Storefront glass installation can be a great way to showcase a business and attract some attention. There are graphics that you can also invest in to help get people in the door. The need for various things depends on the services or products being sold. You don’t exactly want to have a flashy storefront if providing financial services as this is a more serious type of business. 

Monitoring Online Reviews

Monitoring online reviews is always going to be important regardless of what a business does for its customers. People go to review websites before using most businesses. A plethora of negative reviews without any responses is not a great image to promote. Most people that leave a negative review just want the situation to be addressed. With this being said, you are not going to please everyone, which is something to keep in mind. 

Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail marketing has seen a drop in ROI over the course of time. Email marketing has taken the place of some forms of direct mail marketing. These campaigns can be very important but also costly when compared to email marketing. When you are taking part in a direct mail marketing campaign, it is important to put your best foot forward. This means to have an impressive design on the mail and to make sure that it is branded appropriately. You might find that certain companies handle this quite impressively while others might not. 

Handling Digital Marketing 

A number of businesses are better off outsourcing their marketing efforts when it comes to digital marketing. Enlisting the help of a digital marketing agency can allow true results to be driven. Freelancers can be an option while you look at your options for agencies to source work to. The freelancers can even be used to consult when you are given results to translate them. Unfortunately, there are plenty of agencies that produce mediocre results then try to dress them up to be more impressive. A marketer with experience can usually identify these less than impressive results. 

Digital and traditional marketing along with quality customer service can build a business consistently. A dedication to marketing consistently is always important as it is not just a one-time investment. Marketing spend is easy to part with when you know it is generating more business.

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However, some customers are less than pleased with their interactions with a business. This discontent may lead them to leave a negative review that may damage the company’s reputation. Learn useful strategies for avoiding these negative online reviews and how to handle them when they occur.

Reasons for Positive Gulf Coast Western Reviews

Led by Chief Executive Officer and President Matt Fleeger, Gulf Coast Western maintains a culture of transparency in every aspect of its operations. The company also possesses a commitment to customer service and building of long-term investor and partner relationships. These priorities have long been important to Gulf Coast Western’s success.

Many Gulf Coast Western reviews tell of investors’ and partners’ satisfaction with their investment experiences. These positive accounts have contributed to Gulf Coast Western’s A+ rating, and five-star level, from the Better Business Bureau (BBB). This is an honor rarely achieved in the oil and gas industry.

Gulf Coast Western on Why Responding to Negative Reviews Is Important

Responding to positive online reviews is an enjoyable experience. The customer is pleased with their product or service, and they want to tell everyone about it. Here at Gulf Coast Western, a happy customer likely had a good investment experience, or they have positively interacted with the company in some way, and they were pleased with the outcome.

However, negative Gulf Coast Western reviews also play a key role in the company’s growth. Although no one wants to read a critical company review, here are three reasons why obtaining this feedback is important.

Enables a Constructive Response

By objectively reading a negative review, the business has an opportunity to design a constructive response that acknowledges the person’s concerns. As a result, potential customers are likely to view the company more favorably.

Promotes Improved Retention Rates

Every negative review provides an opportunity for a positive response. That timely communication may lead current customers (or partners, in Gulf Coast Western’s case) to receive validation of their confidence in the firm. In turn, they may continue to do business with the company.

Provides an Opportunity for Growth

Businesses should always be open to new ideas that may increase their efficiency, save them money, or otherwise improve their operations. At Gulf Coast Western, transparency runs throughout every element of the company. From this perspective, a negative review simply means an opportunity for further improvement.

Gulf Coast Western on How to Avoid Negative Reviews

There isn’t a foolproof way for any company, including Gulf Coast Western, to prevent negative company reviews. By taking several concrete actions, however, it’s possible to greatly minimize the chances of less-than-positive customer feedback. Businesses in varied industries can see similar benefits from these six strategies.

Provide Top-Tier Customer Service

No matter what the industry, a company should place a strong emphasis on customer service and satisfaction. In fact, customers should be a key part of the business model. By consistently implementing this strategy, customers will be less likely to express their frustrations on the internet.

Increase Communication Channels 

Provide customers with multiple communication methods. Some customers prefer email or chat, while others want to speak to a live customer service associate on the phone. This opportunity for live interaction can increase a customer’s favorable opinion of the company. In turn, they may be more willing to listen to reason if an unexpected problem occurs.

Verify Customer Authenticity

Feedback from actual customers is valuable to any business. Make sure each respondent is a current (or previous) customer and not a competitor or dissatisfied employee. To do that, use a closed review system, in which the company asks previous customers to provide reviews of their experiences with the business.

Offer a Timely Response

When a customer contacts the company with a concern, make sure they quickly receive an initial response. To do that, adequately staff the customer support center during the hours customers are most likely to need assistance. If they receive a timely initial response, they may have a more favorable opinion of the company.

Personalize Each Customer Interaction

Resolving customers’ concerns is a key part of good customer service. Effective customer service associates also add a personal touch to each customer interaction. 

Instead of sending a preformatted response that may cause the customer to feel like they don’t matter, send them a signed personal note. If the customer feels valued by the company, they are less likely to post a negative review.

Deliver on Every Promise

When a customer contacts the business with a concern, make sure the customer service associate keeps their promises throughout the interaction. If they promise a callback within a certain period, they must keep that commitment. If the associate coordinates a response with another team member, the associate should take steps to ensure the customer’s issue is resolved.

Gulf Coast Western on How to Handle a Negative Review 

A company’s approach to handling negative reviews plays a big role in its future customer relationships. When potential customers see the business’ positive online response, they may view the company favorably and consider doing business with them.

On the other hand, a negative response may create the impression that the business does not care about its customers. This may cause potential customers to take their business elsewhere. These seven guidelines have proven useful in responding to Gulf Coast Western reviews.

Learn About Online Review Sites

To obtain a full understanding of how review and rating sites work, the business should learn about each one’s operation. Depending on the industry, one platform’s reviews may have a bigger impact on customers than other sites’ postings.

It’s also important to consider which site’s reviews will have the most influence on the company’s reputation. Note that certain industries may have their own targeted review platforms, so gain an understanding of those review sites.

Gulf Coast Western Acknowledges the Reviewer

When a customer takes the time to leave a review (even a negative one), cordially acknowledge their effort and thank them for the response. This initial message helps to create a positive first impression and shows that the customer is important to the business.

By failing to respond to the review, the company is saying it does not care about the customer’s experience. That sends the wrong message to current and potential customers.

Provide a Concise Response

When a negative review details several specific points, the company may be tempted to respond to each one. However, this can further increase the customer’s irritation level, making it more difficult to resolve the issues.

Therefore, limit each initial response to three or four sentences. Include an acknowledgement and a sincere apology for the customer’s inconvenience. If possible, offer a constructive solution. Conclude with a personalized closing that includes the customer service associate’s name (or the first name and the initial of the last name).

Move to an Offline Conversation

After the business sends its initial response, the customer may want to continue the conversation. If so, move to a private message format or set up a customer service phone exchange.

This strategy accomplishes two goals. First, the business can more efficiently address the customer’s concern in a more appropriate format. In addition, a private exchange keeps the conversation out of public view.

Provide a Constructive Solution

Ideally, each review-related customer conversation will include a positive solution. If the company is in the wrong, the customer service associate should issue a sincere apology.

If there’s a way to make things right, the associate should take steps to do that. At Gulf Coast Western, that’s an important part of the company’s customer service philosophy.

If the problem does not have a concrete solution, assure the customer that the company will consider their feedback when handling other customer interactions. In other words, their response may help other customers to avoid negative experiences.

In a retail setting, offering a discount or coupon may be enough to get that customer to return to the store. However, it’s important to make sure they don’t have similar problems during their next interaction.

Send a Follow-Up Message

Soon after the initial conversation, follow up with the customer who posted the negative review. Make sure the issue has been resolved to their satisfaction. Finally, remind them that the company continues to value their opinion about its products or services.

Request Removal of Fake Reviews

Most platforms’ service agreements do not allow “fake” reviews from individuals who were not actual customers. The posters may have been former company employees or competitors’ employees. Prospects who decided not to do business with the company may have posted the negative reviews.

Here, the business should report the issue to the platform’s administrator. They will have the authority to remove the “fake” review from the site.

Gulf Coast Western on 5 Ways to Build a Good Online Reputation

In the oil and gas industry, performing regular preventive maintenance keeps Gulf Coast Western’s equipment in good working condition. The same philosophy applies to the company’s online reputation. Use these five effective strategies to proactively build an online presence that helps to balance negative Gulf Coast Western reviews.

Tell People How to Get in Touch

If a current or prospective customer has a question or concern, tell them exactly how to bring it to the business’ attention. Provide details on the best communication channel (e.g. a dedicated company contact or social media page). It’s equally important to guarantee a response within a short time frame.

Monitor Regular Communication Channels

At Gulf Coast Western, all communications go through the company’s two phone lines. Some companies may provide a website-based contact form. Other businesses encourage followers to contact them via the firm’s social media pages.

Regardless of the communication method, assign an employee to monitor the appropriate communication channel(s). By taking that extra step, concerned respondents won’t feel that their message has been ignored.

Participate in the Conversation

Gulf Coast Western strongly believes that resolving any issue begins with a constructive exchange. When reading negative Gulf Coast Western reviews, starting a conversation is the first step. Offering to make things right, and stating a concrete plan to do that, are also positive actions.

Remain Humble and Respectful

There’s something to be learned from every interaction. In the case of negative Gulf Coast Western reviews, responding with humility and respect is important. Patiently listen to the person’s underlying message, and objectively address those real concerns. Above all, assure the customer that they matter to the company.

Proactively Formulate a Crisis Plan

At Gulf Coast Western, it’s important to keep on top of developing problems with wells or other drilling sites. Facility managers always have an action plan in their back pockets, although they often won’t need to use it.

It makes sense to approach negative Gulf Coast Western reviews the same way. By having a crisis plan in place, it’s easier to avoid a hasty response that may not be stated in the most constructive way.

Gulf Coast Western on Ongoing Opportunities for Business Growth

Responding to negative Gulf Coast Western reviews offers an opportunity for clarification and constructive feedback. With the company’s strong customer service focus, every review provides a chance to build relationships and encourage customer satisfaction. Gulf Coast Western will continue its commitment to those ideals in its future interactions.

Gulf Coast Western: An Oil and Gas Industry Leader

Since its 1970 inception, Dallas-based Gulf Coast Western has been a leader in the acquisition and development of domestic oil and gas reserves. Gulf Coast Western primarily operates in several resource-rich Gulf Coast regions. In addition, the company continues to explore new opportunities in other parts of the United States.

Gulf Coast Western’s wide-ranging industry network is enhanced by its multiple strategic partnerships with investors. The company is the managing venturer of numerous joint ventures (or oil and & gas general partnerships).

While staying apprised of current technological advances, the company plans to pursue additional oil and gas opportunities. Each property under consideration offers substantial return potential and calculated downside risk for investment partners.

The post Gulf Coast Western Shares Tips to Avoid and Handle Negative Reviews appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Consumers are regularly crowdsourcing for the scoop on products and services, in particular reading online reviews. According to quarter three data from 2014, Yelp averaged 139 million monthly visitors.

And consumers are increasingly relying upon these reviews. According to Nielsen’s 2012 Global Trust in Advertising survey, featuring responses from more than 28,000 people globally, online consumer reviews are the second most-trusted form of advertising.

But the information contained in online reviews is often not factual or a business’s review page may simply not be representative of actual customer satisfaction – whether overly negative or even inflated positively.

Thus businesses cannot turn a blind eye to online reviews, as these reviews are often quite influential and can impact the success of any business, fair or not.

Generating positive reviews

In today’s world, it would be difficult to find a thriving business that has a negative online reputation. First impressions are frequently based on what is on the internet, not only among consumers but also other parties including job seekers, investors, and other businesses seeking to establish meaningful business-to-business relationships.

Further, no business is immune from negative reviews, and businesses often suffer from a sampling bias: for many, reviews tend to be disproportionately negative, but an increase in reviews leads to a better balance of positive and negative comments.

Accordingly, businesses should consider implementing a content-neutral program to generate additional reviews – that is, without providing any incentives (e.g. cash, gift cards or discounts). Not only do websites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor prohibit businesses from unfairly influencing reviews, but government agencies have gradually started to crackdown on false and deceptive reviews.

The best mechanism for neutrally generating reviews may be to establish a program – perhaps utilizing a third-party review platform – that involves sending a professional email soliciting feedback from customers within 24 hours after they leave. The email should ask customers about their experiences, encouraging them to submit a review and take a brief survey to help the business improve.

Verified customer reviews will provide helpful feedback for businesses while simultaneously contributing to an aggregate profile of the business which would likely appear highly in search engines (and ultimately help generate more business leads). Even, say, a five percent participation rate among customers will substantially increase a business’s reviews.

Alternatively, a business may try to circulate a URL to the desired review website or platform, whether through an in-store card or flyer or by placing it on their website. Similarly, businesses will want to avoid asking for positive reviews.

Monitoring for negative reviews, posts 

Notwithstanding having an effective content-neutral program in place to generate more reviews, it is inevitable that a business will receive negative reviews on websites such as Yelp. Thus, a business cannot stand idly by and hope that these negative reviews go unseen.

Businesses should consider implementing a real-time monitoring system that makes it easy for the appropriate persons to become aware of negative online comments and prepare responses. The sooner negative reviews (or even reputation attacks) are detected and can be addressed, the greater the opportunity a business has of mitigating the harm and potentially getting the reviews removed.

For most businesses, monitoring involves keeping a watchful eye out for anything that could impact them including: bad reviews, reports on complaint websites, and social media posts. The designated person or team should routinely keep an eye out for negative reviews or other threats, the frequency of which will depend on the size of the business.

Responding to negative reviews

Once a business becomes aware of a negative online review, a trained customer representative should contact the author of the review within 72 hours if his or her contact information is known. Otherwise, the representative should send a response asking them to contact the representative offline (through a private message when possible). For example:

Thank you for your review and I’m sorry to hear that you feel the blades are not lasting as long as previously. We have numerous quality checks throughout our manufacturing process, so this is not something we would expect. It may be helpful to know that the item fading is just a guideline and we recommend changing the cartridge when it begins to feel dull… If you would like, give us a call at 1-800-_________.

If a business is able to get the reviewer to contact them offline, the trained representative likely should try to resolve the situation by offering a refund, replacement, or some other concession to make the reviewer happy. If a business is able to resolve a situation with a customer, it should then kindly ask him or her to remove their negative review.

While a negative review is not ideal, if it is honest criticism and not false, the business should not threaten any legal action. On the other hand, if there might be a basis for legal action (e.g. defamation), the business should contact an attorney.

Why focusing on reviews is important

As consumers continue to read and rely upon online reviews, businesses can ill-afford to let their online reputations rest completely in the hands of third parties – including potential disgruntled customers wishing to harm the businesses.

As an aside, last year, Google rolled out an updated search algorithm – dubbed “Google Pigeon” by Search Engine Land – which modified local search results. These changes are largely internal, but various websites reported that the updated algorithm was supposed to impact how local businesses rank in Google.

Considering online reviews generally can have a substantial impact on local businesses, smaller businesses will want to ensure business listings on third-party websites are not filled with negative reviews should these review pages appear higher in Google search results – now or down the road.

Today, first impressions of most businesses are frequently made by what meets the eye when the businesses are searched online. Thus, businesses must be proactive and work to achieve positive ratings to the extent that they can legally and ethically.

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And so it comes to bear on the Internet. Protecting your reputation is an activity all people and organizations should participate in. Companies are especially keen to this practice because the liberation of publishing has led to the simple fact that anyone can post anything about anything online, regardless of motive or motivation, with little recourse in the offing. Sure, libel and slander online are still libel and slander, but there’s a whole lot of reputation-sensitive content that won’t fall under the guise of legal precedent.

Anyone can jump online and say, “You suck, company!” That’s not libel. That’s opinion.

Unfortunately, many sites, especially those in the business of aggregating ratings and reviews, take a company or an individual’s power to protect their reputation away from them. Allegations abound from Yelp to ResellerRatings.com and more. Heck, even RipOffReport.com — the site you’re supposed to be able to go to and report ripoffs, has been alleged to trade payment for positive reviews or removal of bad ones.

If these sites are allowing anyone to post reviews of businesses and individuals, there’s no issue. However, many of the sites have been caught or alleged to have filtered out positive reviews only to tell the businesses in question they’ll post the positive ones, or perhaps have a writer from the website produce a positive story about the business, in exchange for money. No pay, no positive reviews. That’s not only not fair, it leaves the businesses powerless.

Forcing a business to pay to add positive or remove negative reviews is nothing less than blackmail

Yelp even has gone so far as to discourage businesses from encouraging their customers to post reviews on the site. As we’ve discussed before, while their terms of service don’t explicitly state so, an answer on their FAQs in as much says Yelp doesn’t think businesses will solicit reviews in and of themselves, but will only solicit positive ones, thus biasing the content. They assume businesses will exchange discounts for reviews as well, not considering that a business owner may just say to their customers, “Good or bad, review us on Yelp. It will help us get better and/or look better.”

From the review site’s perspective, I can see second-guessing the transparency of the random business owner. I stopped counting the number of clients who have asked me to take down negative reviews or delete negative posts on their Facebook page without even addressing the situation first. So there may be a need for a policy against pushing positive reviews.

But from the business’s perspective, if the only way to combat negative reviews is to pay the site to allow them to solicit or produce positive ones, you’re biasing the information just as badly.

We’d like to assume that every business would solicit reviews — good and bad — and respond to each accordingly. But the honest truth is that most business owners would only solicit positive ones and would just as soon sweep the negative ones under the rug. Still, holding positive reviews hostage and forcing the business to pay is simply put: blackmail.

Is There A Solution?

While a perfect resolution for the great ratings and reviews quandary probably isn’t in the offing, if I were made King of Ratings and Review sites tomorrow and could write policies for them all, I would construct something like this:

It is our intent to offer our site visitors organically posted reviews of every business listed, both positive and negative, that are not solicited from any interested party. However, we understand that businesses may want to use our platform to host customer reviews and ratings for all to see. As such, here are some basic guidelines for businesses on doing so:

• If you ask your customers to post ratings or reviews to this site, please only ask them to do so honestly and refrain from asking only for positive reviews
• Do not offer customers a discount or incentive for posting ratings or reviews to this site
• Should we discover evidence that any business has or is soliciting only positive reviews, or is incenting people to post reviews, we will remove any reviews (positive or negative) we determine to be produced during the timeframe of such encouragement or solicitation and temporarily suspend the businesses ability to mange its page and content on the site
• Repeat violators of our policies will permanently lose the ability to manage their brand page, access brand page analytics or receive any benefits of premium or advertising partner relationships with our company
• Actively respond and participate in discussions about your ratings and reviews on the site, but do so in a fair and professional manner with the spirit of serving your customers — good, bad or indifferent — with excellence in mind

Upon request, we will supply your business with point-of-sale and on-premise signage to encourage customers to use the site. For those wishing to, we also offer both advertising and premium business subscriptions which provide more exposure and brand page management benefits. We reserve the right to suspend any of those paid or premium activities for businesses violating the terms above.

Call me romantic if you like, but I can’t see much wrong with that kind of approach. It’s fair to the business that doesn’t want to fork over money to the site, to the business that does and to the financial prospects of the site itself. It’s also infinitely more useful to the site visitor, whom one would assume is the top priority for all parties in question.

So, Yelp, ResellerRatings.com, RipOffReport.com or any of the others that might fall into the pay-to-play review sites, you’re welcome to the above. We’d be tickled if you used that approach. We don’t even need credit for it. All the payback we need is the knowledge there’s a better way to do business here and someone is following it.

Did I miss anything? What would you add? Are you being held hostage by one of these sites? Share your story in the comments. (But please remember to report your situation as honestly and fairly as possible. Libel and slander online are still libel and slander.)

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