At the time of writing this article Reassured’s Google My Business listing had generated an impressive 2,011 customer reviews with an average rating of 5-stars.
No mean feat in this day and age, when a negative online opinion is never far away. But why is this such a good thing for Reassured, now the UK’s largest life insurance broker?
SEO manager Ben Bendall explains how and why they have harnessed Google reviews to grow their brokerage business and enhance their digital presence.
Google Reviews for Local Ranking
We know that when companies deliver good service they are often rewarded with positive reviews from their customers.
The more positive reviews a business obtains, the more confident Google is that you are a credible business, and Google only wants to serve up trusted results to users. Improving our local ranking and featuring in Google’s 3-pack map results helps generate free and high qualified organic web traffic.
Showing Appreciation for the Customer
As a business we always respond to a customer review on Google, whether it be a 5-stars or a 1-star review. We also have a target of responding within 3 days to ensure the customer feels both appreciated and acknowledged, (although often we reply the same day).
Our responses are always unique, addressing the customer directly and are not a generic blanket reply – which we believe is somewhat insincere and impersonal.
When a customer reviews Reassured online and for example states they would recommend us to their friends and family, this is genuinely the ultimate compliment we can be paid. Especially when you consider we operate in the financial services sector, where authority and trust are vital to people’s financial wellbeing.
Like any business, we do receive the occasional negative customer review. When we receive these on Google we try and get to the bottom of the negative experience, so that we can further improve our customer experience. We ask that the customer in question contacts our dedicated customer service team directly to explain in detail the nature of the compliant.
This is not a cliché response from a corporate organisation, but a genuine attempt to further improve our service.
In fact, sales agents are targeted not just on selling suitable life insurance policies but also hitting quality assurance levels and so a negative Google review could be very damaging.
This is all about making sure the customer is always front and centre at everything we do. We operate the same incentive on Trustpilot too, where we have over 37,000 customer reviews with an average rating of Excellent.
Give the Customer What They Need
Google My Business listings, and to a lesser extent Bing Places listings, provide a great, fast and free way for any business to give their customers’ key information. For example, a website address, phone number, office location and opening times.
During times such as public holidays and especially now during the Convid-19 pandemic, this provides a great platform in which to display an important change in opening times to customers.
Don’t Take It From Us, Take It From Our Customers
Let’s face it, we will always suggest to prospective customers that they should come to Reassured to arrange their life insurance policy. However, this is a much more compelling and powerful marketing message when it is coming direct from independent customer reviews on Google.
About the Author
Ben Bendall is an SEO specialist with 17 years’ experience working within digital marketing. He currently manages the SEO team at Reassured Ltd in their Portsmouth office.
Reassured are an award-winning, FCA regulated life insurance broker. They have sold more than 400,000 life insurance policies since launching in 2009 and are now the UK’s largest life insurance brokerage.
