{"id":13453,"date":"2018-03-05T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/?p=13453"},"modified":"2020-10-26T14:54:45","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T19:54:45","slug":"guide-to-building-your-senior-care-business-with-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d30braiqprupoq.cloudfront.net\/blog\/2018\/03\/guide-to-building-your-senior-care-business-with-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Build Your Senior Care Business with Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Importance of\u00a0Senior Care Business Reviews in 2018<\/h1>\n

Remember when word-of-mouth was the best advertising money couldn’t buy? It’s still true, only now word-of-mouth takes the form of online reviews that can reach hundreds or thousands of prospective customers.\"The<\/p>\n

Not convinced that pixels can take the place of a personal recommendation?\u00a0Seven out of 10 consumers check online reviews<\/a><\/u>\u00a0before they decide where to spend their money and 85% consider recommendations from people they know and online reviews to be equally trustworthy.<\/p>\n

Senior Care Business Reviews Online<\/h2>\n

How can you find out where your business is reviewed, get more reviews, and use that feedback to grow your business? We’ve got you covered.<\/p>\n

There are dozens of review sites today. Some review all kinds of businesses, while others are more specialized. For now, we’ll focus on some of the most popular general review sites where your business should have a presence to reach consumers:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Facebook:<\/strong>\u00a0A business page on Facebook can include reviews along with contact information, photos, posts and video tours.<\/li>\n
  2. Google:<\/strong>\u00a0Whenever someone Googles \u201csenior communities near me,\u201d Google will serve up a map\u00a0with local\u00a0results, including Google reviews, reviews from other sites (including SeniorAdvisor.com), contact information, photos and more. Does a search for your business turn up this\u00a0kind of\u00a0information? If not, we’ll show you how to change that below\u00a0by claiming\u00a0your Google “My Business” listing.<\/li>\n
  3. SeniorAdvisor.com:<\/strong>\u00a0We’re\u00a0tooting our\u00a0own horn because SeniorAdvisor.com has more than 100,000\u00a0client and\u00a0family reviews of senior care businesses across North America, making it a natural first stop for families exploring their options. Nearly all reviews on the site have been verified by a SeniorAdvisor.com staffer, and every year the team analyzes\u00a0the reviews\u00a0to find and feature the\u00a0best-rated senior\u00a0care businesses<\/a><\/u>.<\/li>\n
  4. Yelp:<\/strong>\u00a0Yelp is a user review\u00a0site that\u00a0covers all types of businesses, with a focus on helping\u00a0people find\u00a0things nearby. Like Google, it encourages business owners\u00a0to claim\u00a0and manage their listings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you maintain a presence for your business on these sites, you can reach most people who are looking for senior care services.<\/p>\n

    How to Claim Your\u00a0Senior Care Business Profiles<\/h2>\n

    The first step in managing reviews from your clients is to claim the listings where those reviews appear. Here’s how:<\/p>\n

    Facebook offers a guide for setting up your business page<\/strong><\/a><\/u>\u00a0on their platform. Google also has detailed instructions for\u00a0claiming your Google “My Business” listing<\/strong><\/a><\/u>\u00a0on your desktop computer or your phone.\u00a0Yelp’s “Claiming Your Business”<\/a><\/strong><\/u>\u00a0page walks you through their process as well. For each platform, have your business logo and photos ready to upload.<\/p>\n

    To claim your SeniorAdvisor.com business profile<\/strong>, click “Log In” on the upper right side of the homepage. On the next page, in the “Not a Member” column, click the “Get Access” button. You’ll see a pop-up window with a link at the bottom for community managers to sign up. Click on that link and enter your information. Then go to your business profile, click on the blue “Claim This Profile” link, and a request will go to SeniorAdvisor.com. Within two business days, you should get an email letting you know your request has been approved. After that, all you have to do is sign into the site to use the community management tools on your business page to edit your profile, respond to current reviews, and invite clients to add reviews of their own.<\/p>\n

    How to Respond to Customer Reviews<\/h2>\n

    Once you’ve claimed or created your business profiles, it’s time to respond to any reviews that clients have already left. Here are SeniorAdvisor.com’s recommended three steps for responding to customer reviews:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Thank each reviewer for their feedback, whether it’s positive or not.\u00a0<\/strong>Your reviewers devoted some of their time to giving you feedback, so show them you appreciate it. If their review is negative, you may also want to apologize for their bad experience.<\/li>\n
    2. Try to acknowledge their concerns.<\/strong>\u00a0You can thank positive reviewers for pointing out a great thing about your community and then reiterate why it\u2019s so great. For negative reviewers, acknowledge their experience and explain how you plan to fix the issue \u2014 or how you’ve already corrected it.<\/li>\n
    3. Remember to invite the reviewer back, if appropriate.\u00a0<\/strong>If you have an upcoming event, you can invite positive reviewers to join you. This is a good way to catch the eye of prospective customers who are reading your reviews because they’re considering your community for themselves or a family member. You can also invite negative reviewers back to see how you’ve used their feedback to correct the issue they mentioned.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Here are two fictional example reviews, one positive and one negative. You see how the sample responses follow the 3-step process.<\/p>\n

      Negative Example Review:<\/b><\/p>\n

      <\/u><\/p>\n

      Positive Example Review:<\/b><\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Reading and responding to customer reviews gets easier and faster with practice, so make it a regular part of your work schedule. Responding in a timely way shows that you’re keeping an eye on your customers’ experiences, and it can help you spot any changes in quality of service as soon as they arise.<\/p>\n

      One easy way to keep track of what people are saying about your business is to set up Google alerts for the name of your company. On the Google Alerts page, enter your brand or business name in quotes into the \u201cCreate an alert about\u201d box. Hit enter, and then you can\u00a0click\u00a0\u201cshow options\u201d to set your preferences for how often you want updates, the sources you want to use and their locations and where Google should email your alerts. Then click the \u201cCreate Alert\u201d button and you’re done.<\/p>\n

      How to Request Customer Reviews for Your Senior Care Business<\/h2>\n

      Whether you already have plenty of reviews or none yet, you’ll want more as your company and customer base grow. It’s important to know the right way to ask for reviews to get as many customers as possible to participate and to stay on the right side of review-request rules.<\/p>\n