What businesses can do to get customers? Why customer retention has become even more important

Here is the link to the recent story  http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/business/2013/09/23/exp-lead-intv-howard-bragman-crackdown-fake-reviews-yelp.cnn.html

I want to repeat one of the most repeated things in customer retention--staying in touch with your past, current and potential customers can increase retention by about 80%. That itself can make it amazingly inexpensive to run your business.

Internet is one place to get customers through affordable and long lasting marketing. It is very important for every business to build their presence online and take control of their online presence. There has to be one place where every business can login and see all their online assets (reviews, local listings, videos, asset sites, track their keywords, see their results over a period of time for keywords, store all their social media links and track their progress (and sometimes track the progress of the agency they have hired).

If businesses start with this, they will realize that they will build a long lasting source of customers they can rely on, which is always referrals from existing customers. Online reviews are a form of referrals. It is a public referral from a customer which makes other customers purchase from a business.

Is perception everything? Can customer reviews change perception about a business?

It can be everything. If you Google "old town mexican cafe san diego", you will probably find better reviews than any other place. It is a tourist location hence the perceived value is higher. The food isn't anything great, neither is the service. In fact, you probably won't get good service most of the times. But overall, people seem to say that it's a great place to eat. I don't think any amount of bad reviews will change the opinion of people decide to go there because of most of them seem to think ok and some of them think it's exceptional.

The question I am trying to ask is if reviews are the only way people believe in something. It's easy to answer- NO. Google reviews are only a guidance for people who are searching. Reviews can tell if something is horribly wrong with a business, or if something is truly exceptional about a business. All the other experiences might tell you details which might be biased. There is no real number to define if reviews can change perception about a business. Reviews might bring first time customers, but overall perception about a business differentiates the best and places which are perceived to be the best.

Try searching for desserts and look up the reviews of a places, you will be surprised how good reviews are and how many people write reviews for dessert places.

How local businesses using Groupon are attracting bad reviews?

Businesses using Groupon are attracting fair share of bad reviews along with the customer traffic to their business. The easy come easy go groupon effect has left businesses wondering about the long term usage of groupon and other daily deals sites. Advertising coupons and giving out small coupons to bring returning customers is one thing, but using coupons as the business model for your business is the road to crash course in brain surgery (it is almost a thumb rule in business).

These are some of the papers already published discussing the relationship between online reviews and reviewers who were using daily deal sites like Yelp. Below are sample points from the study

Here are some of the key points from the study

1) Good news! The reviews are real. Most of the people who say the word "Groupon" in their reviews seem to be pissed about their experience.

2) Most businesses get business through Groupon by using attractive coupons that promise the world to the customers for a super low price. Of course, the shiny ads attracted customers, but I think the customers world wasn't as pretty once  they saw what was on the other side of the coupon.

3) It shows how the U.S small business economy responded by  trying to attract customers at any cost. That cost proved to be decrease in customer experience. 

4) Customer acquisition is good for business. But to maintain a healthy competition and a healthy online space, is it good to go to any lengths to get extra customers?

Is your business attracting new customers using groupon? Have you heard of customer retention? Do you know that if you retain all your customers you will always have customers and the cost of acquiring new customers is always high (at least in the long term after Groupon Wave passes)? As opposed to "seasonal" or "pay for hits" marketing,  it is always important to have permanent online assets which will bring you customers in the long run. Such a online building takes time, lot of effort and strategy which sometimes need professional help. KeepCustomer is one such customer retention company that will take care of your entire online strategy and put you in control for permanent success.

Notes: the graph and ideas came from this blog