Considering the findings that project cannabis consumers to grow to 71 million users by 2030, it’s important to look at cannabis online reputation management tactics. When done correctly, the overall strategy can help your dispensaries easily attract and retain customers and grow revenue in the long run.
To ensure that your cannabis brand attracts and retains users while also gathering more revenue, it’s important to lean on your own customer reviews. This will serve as the foundation for your online reputation management plan that can ensure long-term success. When paired with reputation management software, they can serve as a way to build trust with customers, valuable operational insights, and additional boosts to online visibility. To get the most out of your customer feedback, here are three ways to start your cannabis online reputation management plan today.
Cannabis Online Reputation Management Step 1: Respond to Reviews
Responding to reviews is a simple, yet effective way to build trust with current customers. The art of knowing how to respond to negative reviews is especially useful in this area because the way your team responds to someone who had a negative experience can be a deciding factor in whether or not they give your dispensary another chance. The response can also have an effect on someone who is looking for their next cannabis purchase.
The way in which your team handles both negative and positive reviews can be a differentiator when the time comes to make a purchase decision. In fact, customer review data shows 44.6% of consumers will be more likely to visit a business if they respond to negative reviews. Start by thanking the reviewer for leaving feedback and then provide some information about the issue they had at your dispensary. If necessary, take it offline to find an amicable solution that will hopefully lead to a returning customer. Each lost customer is a blow to your bottom line, but finding the right words to use in a response can turn a one-star reviewer into a loyal fan.
Cannabis Online Reputation Management Step 2: Get Insights From Your Reviews
The reviews you collect are not just informative for other consumers; they are a valuable source of insight into the customer experience. With just a handful of reviews your team can tell if a new aesthetic is working or if a certain staff member is not adequately helping customers.
By default, finding these insights involves plenty of manual reading and note-taking of certain trends. Fortunately, modern technology provides a better solution. With customer experience analytics your team can utilize AI, or artificial intelligence, to sift through hundreds or even thousands of reviews in a matter of minutes to provide accurate, and more importantly, actionable insights. For instance, the technology can easily find a positive trend for keywords like “atmosphere” or “vibe” suggesting that the current aesthetic is well received. It can also reveal a negative sentiment for a pattern of terms such as “diverse” or “variety” which can reveal that your current selections need to be expanded.
What used to take days or even weeks now takes minutes. More importantly, the insights gained through customer experience analytics can help you improve staff productivity and the dispensary’s overall offering. These changes can meet or even exceed customer expectations, which turns them into happy and loyal customers.
Cannabis Online Reputation Management Step 3: Use Your Best Reviews to Gain Visibility
As a cannabis brand, you can easily hand pick your best reviews and use them as a crucial part of a dispensary marketing strategy. Data shows 49% of consumers trust reviews, which underlines their importance in your cannabis online reputation management plans.
The voice of the customer, a.k.a. your reviews, are a powerful piece of marketing collateral, and you can easily make them a part of your online presence. Using a tool like Amplify, you can easily put review widgets on your website next to specific listed products. These help a consumer get more information about your offerings and show that real people enjoyed it. You can also showcase reviews on your Google listing, which is how 93% of consumers find a business. A high overall rating along with a list of positive reviews on your dispensary listings can easily convince consumers to learn more about your brand and its products. It goes without saying, but constant local listing management of your online brand is crucial for getting more reviews and ensuring that people can easily find your dispensaries online and in person.
Conclusion
Starting your cannabis online reputation management plan does not have to be complicated or expensive. By leaning on customer reviews, you utilize free assets that authentically speak to the state of your customer experience. Gaining insights from them while also promoting those reviews helps improve dispensary operations while attracting potential long-term customers. To get started on a cannabis online reputation management plan that fits your needs, keep the following checklist handy:
- Respond to customer reviews
- Use analytics to gain operational insights from feedback
- Promote your best reviews to easily attract new customers