As per a 2017 survey by BrightLocal, 92% of people consider reading online product reviews to understand the quality of a business. Reviews allow you to learn more details about the products and the customer's previous experience with the product. From marketers to doctors, customer reviews can impact every type of business. It is like social proof for all potential customers.

If you want to increase the traffic to your business, here are a few suggested ways for you.

1. Aim your Google MyBusiness Listing

We all are aware that Google is the most popular review site. 64% of customers consider checking reviews on Google before visiting a business or buying a product. You must claim your Google My Business page if you want to control Google reviews on your business. It will enable you to monitor and respond to your reviews effectively. These reviews will appear in Google and Google Maps search results, proving the quality and credibility of your business. Your response to the customer’s reviews will be labelled “response from the owner.

2. Respond to every review

Whether it is positive or negative reviews, you should always make sure to respond to them. A lot of business owners find it hard or get scared to respond to negative reviews. Not addressing to negative response is never really a good idea. It will indicate your ignorance towards the customer’s experience. Customers will never find your company to be reliable or trustworthy. But instead, when you engage with the customer reviews, it shows how much you care,, and you will do everything to fix any issues faced by the customer. This will minimise the damage caused by a negative review. Negative reviews tend to spread out fast, so make sure you respond to them as early as possible.

Responding to positive reviews is equally important to improve the traffic of the students. Appreciate the customers for taking time out of their busy schedule to give a positive review. Tell them how much the positive review means to you.

3. Think before you respond to hostile criticism

You should be careful before responding to hostile critics. Respond only if the customer has got a specific set of facts wrong. We know it can be hard to resist negative feedback at the time. Some customers can be extremely rude with their words. But you need to step back and take a breather to decide what you should do rather than what you want to do.

4. Set up Google alerts

Google alerts can benefit small business in several ways. They are free e-mail updates sent to your inbox whenever any search terms are mentioned on Google. Make sure that you set alerts for your products, your name, the name of your business and in any way people could know about your business. Make sure you add location, which will help narrow down your results so that relevant ones appear.

5. Do good work

It goes without saying that doing solid work will increase the chances of getting positive reviews. Use the feedback and review to improve the quality of your products and services. Negative reviews are a way to help with understanding exactly where you are going wrong. Ask them how they liked your service or product after they purchased it. You can also casually mention in your business review how online reviews and referrals have helped with your business.

6. Build customer loyalty

Give extra value in your response to reviews, which will help build customer loyalty and rebuild the lost trust by a bad experience. Just fixing the problem at this stage will not be enough. You need to go beyond customer service by offering extra perks to compensate for the mistake that occurred by your company. You need to show that the concerns of the customers are valid.

7. Ask away

After the client has completed the transaction and your client is satisfied, you must make your move. Thanks to them for buying your product or doing business with you. Express yourself by saying that clients like them will help your business to grow. Be direct and polite with your approach and stay humble.

8. Carefully deal with negative reviews

Bad business reviews affect a business in a major way. The best thing to do will be to respond o their review and try fixing the issue politely. But if you find the negative review irrelevant, inappropriate or written by a competitor, ask the host site to take it down. You may report the review on Facebook, Yelp, Google and TripAdvisor.

When customers find your company receiving many reviews, it shows that your business is popular, and it helps with instilling trust with potential customers. The quantity as well the quality of the reviews has a direct impact on your local search ranking. You will need to learn to control the customer reviews instead of letting them affect you.