Deck the halls because the holidays are just around the corner! Once again, it’s the time of year when businesses welcome a surge in customer traffic. The majority of the rush for Christmas gifts won’t happen in malls or physical stores, though, but online.
According to a 2021 holiday retail survey conducted by Deloitte, 71 percent of consumers prefer digital channels as the starting point of their holiday shopping journey. This leads businesses scrambling to project a good first impression online.
Just because businesses have a lot of online preparations to do for the holidays doesn’t mean they can overlook their online branding. This is a major blunder for online businesses since their online reputation can make or break their year. A good reputation can bring hoards of user traffic to your business—potential customers who are all excited to fill their carts with your products. Most businesses even hire marketing companies to start a good online reputation or perform some internet reputation repair.
If you want to attract more customers during the holidays, here are some tips to get you started on building your online reputation.
Update Your Google My Business Page
What is Google My Business, and why is it important? This platform enables businesses to list their business location on Google Maps and local search results. When online users search for businesses on Google, they will most likely see company details through the Google My Business pages first. Businesses with updated information—address, phone number, website, and more—are more than likely to pull potential customers toward their products and services.
Review your contact information and make sure you update your page when you have new holiday business hours. Allow more opportunities for potential customers to interact with you by enabling the messaging feature and turning on alerts for questions and answers as well as reviews.
Consult Online Reviews
If there are online customer conversations regarding your business, that’s a good thing. Find the time to monitor the digital word of mouth surrounding your brand, and take note of what’s being said about your business. Learn how to track the reviews and mentions of your brand in Google, review websites like Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even local message forums and online business directories.
Customer reviews are useful when building your online reputation. A prompt response to either positive or negative reviews encourages your customers’ confidence in your business.
Train New Hires on Your Holiday Rush Protocols
To deliver exceptional customer experiences during the holiday season, most businesses hire more employees to accommodate the rush of customers. If you are one of those businesses, be sure to train your new hires on your customer service protocols.
Customer service is very important for online businesses. To keep everyone on the same page and maintain consistent performance among your employees, you can hold regular meetings reminding them of how you want them to treat the customers. Keeping them motivated will also inspire them to deliver a great customer experience.
Zhuzh Up Your Customer Service
Provide as much convenience to your customers as they shop for their holiday goodies. Make it easy for them to do business with you—extend business hours, offer a 24/7 customer hotline, offer free shipping. Make the customer experience so smooth and simple that your customers will return for future purchases. These little improvements in your customer service greatly contribute to reducing their holiday stress.
Conclusion
A lot of work comes into building your holiday online reputation. You need to be thorough, attentive, and quick to respond. If this seems like too much work for you and your team, you can hire online marketing companies to build year-long campaigns solely focused on your brand reputation. This is an effective strategy to ensure you’re always in good standing with your customers.
Present your best self online and build a stellar reputation that your current and potential customers can trust. Internetzone I can help you achieve that status with our personal and business online reputation services. We are the online reputation management company that can build a powerful and sustainable online brand for your business.