Marketing: Let customers do the talking

Q. How can we show off our success stories to other customers to build trust?  

A. Success stories can get real complicated, real fast. You could spend ages collecting stories, writing content, and finding the best ways to appeal to existing and potential customers. But there’s an easier way to go about it.  

Let your customers do it for you.  

Checking reviews is second nature for customers these days, even when it comes to health care. That means half the work is done—they’re already looking for and writing reviews about your business. However, it also means, like your customers, you need to care about review sites. 

Two common review sites are Google My Business and Facebook. (Bing, Yelp and Apple also have review sites, but start with the two largest.) Make sure you’ve claimed your business pages. It’s relatively easy, and more importantly, it’s free.  

However, once you’ve claimed your pages, your work is not done. Respond to reviews—good and bad. Then begin cultivating favorable reviews.  

Let’s say you have about 15 employees who are each making about 20 deliveries per day. In a five-day workweek, that’s 1,500 customer interactions. This is a great opportunity to equip each of those employees with a leave-behind flyer containing a URL and QR code that leads to your review page. Hand them out to customers who’ve had a good experience.  

For example, customer Harold was thrilled with the service he received during his new CPAP setup. With the leave-behind card, you’ve made it easy for him to head online and rave about your business. 

Next, provide incentives to employees to collect good reviews. Add their name to the leave-behind and run a contest. Reward the winner with a gift card or even an hour of PTO. You’ll gain positive reviews, helping your rankings online and putting success stories in front of your customers. Plus, it motivates employees to go above and beyond.  

It’s a win-win-win.

Christina Throndson is a business developer with Moxie & VGM OTS. Reach her at Christina.Throndson@ExperienceMoxie.com.