Navigating Online Comments and Reviews to Boost Customer Retention

3 Min Read By Christopher Sebes

Address negative online comments and reviews to bring back loyal customers.

It takes twice as much work to earn a new customer as it does to please an existing one, so don’t let one bad experience spell the end of a good customer relationship. If you think online reviews don’t matter, consider the fact that consumers now find a restaurant’s star rating to be the number one factor in choosing a place to dine, according to recent findings by socialmediaweek.org.

According to a Harvard Business Review Research Report by Michael Luca, for restaurants, a one-star increase in Yelp rating leads to a five-to-nine percent increase in revenue. So it’s clear that a restaurant’s online presence and reputation does in fact have an effect on its success.

Add to that the fact that 49 percent of consumers need to see at least a four-star rating before they choose to use a business, according to BrightLocal, and those reviews start looking pretty important.

If you’re thinking of letting…