I gave a talk at Encore Drinks recently where we had a great discussion around the importance of external reviews.
As I’m sure you know, reviews are one of the most important aspects of your profile when trying to win business online. If you’re anything like me, product reviews on Amazon and other online shops are extremely important when you’re deciding exactly which product to buy.
The same is even more true for customers spending hundreds or thousands of pounds on live music, especially if they’ve never done it before (the vast majority of our customers!).
As you win more bookings on Encore, you should receive plenty of 5-star reviews, which will enhance your profile and boost your ranking. There is a brilliant flywheel effect here: Win more bookings, get more reviews, increase the strength of your profile, leading to more bookings, and so on…
We understand that many of your gigs are booked outside of Encore, so we built a tool which enables you to convert positive customer feedback into Encore star reviews. This can be any type of feedback! External reviews can come from:
- Emails
- Text messages
- Facebook Messenger/WhatsApp messages
- Reviews from other booking platforms
- Written thank you notes
- Facebook or Google+ reviews
- Head to the External Reviews page: https://encoremusicians.com/reviews/external/add
- Copy and paste the feedback written by your customer, enter their email address, then hit send.
- Your customer receives an email asking them to confirm the feedback. As soon as they do, the review appears on your profile!
So, why are these External Reviews so important? Three reasons.
1. Increase your Encore Ranking
Having more reviews gives you a higher Encore Score and a higher Encore Ranking, which means you appear higher in search.
Your Encore score is calculated using a variety of measures, including:
- Number of Encore bookings
- Number of Encore reviews
- Number of External reviews
- Average Response Time
- Number of videos, photos, etc.
Reviews are heavily weighted in this calculation, as they’re one of the most important factors for customers when deciding who to book.
Adding External Reviews will instantly boost your Encore score, which means your overall Encore Ranking increases and you’ll appear higher in search. As you know, being on the first page of search is crucial to winning customers. Ask yourself this: when was the last time you looked at the 2nd page of a Google search results page…?
More and more of our customers are beginning to use our search page to make Direct Enquiries with musicians, instead of creating jobs and requesting quotes from the entire network. This means that your Encore Ranking is becoming much more important.
2. You’re more likely to appear in the “Instant Recommendations”
After customers submit an enquiry, we show them “Instant Recommendations”, which are high-ranking Encore musicians who match their enquiry. This is the first thing a customer sees after completing their enquiry, so being in this coveted top spot is extremely valuable.
Customers can then “Request a Quote” from one of these recommended musicians. If a customer requests a quote from you, you’ll have a space reserved for you in this job, so even if the job fills up quickly, you’ll be able to submit a quote and you’ll be automatically shortlisted.
The musicians who appear in Recommendations are automatically chosen based on their Encore score, so having more External Reviews means you’re much more likely to be recommended.
3. Increase your Client Conversion Rate
Did you know that wedding customers want to see an average of 7+ reviews before feeling comfortable booking a supplier?
The stats are very similar for all other customers, and the conclusion is clear: reviews matter.
You might have the best promo material in the world, but customers want to be sure that other customers had a great experience when they booked you, and this is especially important when people are booking for the most important days of their lives.
Hopefully, you now understand the true importance and value of having plenty of Encore External Reviews.
So, what are you waiting for?
Add some External Reviews to your profile(s) today! Click here to get started.