Getting a cannabis dispensary or brand up and running in the cannabis industry takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Not only does it take a substantial amount of time and money to get started, but it also takes a substantial amount of time and money to get off the ground. Between marketing, inventory, and employees, starting a dispensary is anything but easy, so don’t let your hard work go to waste because a bad review tainted your online presence.
Where do a majority of people hear about your dispensary? Where do a majority of people go to find information about your dispensary? Online. Specifically Google. One of the first things people see when they look up your dispensary or any business on Google for that matter is its ratings and its reviews, which is why online reputation management (ORM) is so important.
Like it or not, other people’s opinions, legitimate or not, will have a huge impact on whether or not customers decide to try out your dispensary or the one down the street, which is why ORM should be a vital part of your digital marketing strategy. So, let’s jump right into the 5 tips for maintaining your dispensary’s online reputation.
5 tips for maintaining your online reputation
Prioritize Google reviews, but don’t forget Yelp
For a majority of people, their first impression of your business will come from when they search for you on search engines, and specifically Google. The first thing they’ll see will likely be a picture, the name of your business, and a rating directly under that followed by things like your dispensary’s phone number and address.
This Google landing page will be crucial to bringing in those new customers who are essentially forming their first opinion about your business solely from looking at that page. This is why it is so important to prioritize google reviews and Google MyBusiness.
Making sure that you not only keep an up-to-date Google MyBusiness page, but also encourage your customers to leave reviews for you on Google is a must if you want to make sure that you make a killer first impression.
That being said, don’t forget about yelp. While more people use Google, you want to make sure that those who do use Yelp to learn about your business aren’t left with the wrong impression.
Monitor and respond to online mentions
A major part of maintaining your dispensary’s online reputation will be monitoring and responding to online mentions. That means responding to your customer’s reviews and questions on Google and Yelp as well as responding to comments or statements about your business on social media.
Regardless of whether or not the mentions are positive or negative, responding to them is crucial. If you’re responding to positive mentions, then not only are you engaging with customers, but you’re also encouraging more customers to mention your dispensary positively online.
If you’re responding to negative mentions, then you’re showing people that you’re not afraid to take criticism, learn from it, and if necessary make changes to ensure customer satisfaction.
Respond to and address negative criticism quickly
On the topic of negative mentions, responding to and addressing negative criticism quickly and respectfully is extremely important in maintaining your online reputation. Letting a negative mention sit online unaddressed for too long can cost you potential customers and sales. Just one negative review can have a huge impact, and the longer it sits unattended, the more time it has to degrade your business’s reputation.
This is why it is so important to respond to and address criticism quickly regardless of the platform that it’s on. If there’s a problem, apologize for the issues, take what your customer or customers are saying, and address it. Everyone makes mistakes, and if you show that you’re willing to learn from negative comments and that you won’t make the same mistake twice, that will speak volumes to you and your dispensary’s character.
Gather, listen to, and learn from customer feedback
In order to maintain your online reputation, you have to make your customers happy and listen to them, and there’s no better way to do that than by gathering, listening to, and learning from customer feedback.
Whether it’s coming from online comments and reviews, or whether you’re sending out customer surveys, listening to what your customers have to say is important to understanding them and thus making sure you’re doing everything you can to satisfy them.
Be transparent
Last but not least in maintaining your online reputation is being transparent and communicating with your customers. Sometimes things happen: You’re out of stock of a certain item, your computer system crashes, or you’re short-staffed. Whatever the case, simply communicating the issue with your customers can help ensure that they’re aware of the issues and that they don’t get the wrong impression.
Get customer reviews and feedback with springbig
With springbig, maintaining your dispensary’s online reputation has never been easier. With our text message marketing capabilities, communicating with your customers is speedy and effective. You can use text message marketing, combined with our loyalty rewards program, to do things like encourage customers to leave reviews. For example, you could send out a text message marketing campaign like…
Thank’s (customer name) for your recent visit! If you’ve got a second, leave us a review on google and show it to us on your next visit to receive 20% off!
Improve your reputation with Budtender
On top of everything else, you can also send out customer surveys through BudTender so you can gather, listen to, and learn from customer feedback as we talked about above. Budtender is an extremely useful platform that allows you to access customizable customer surveys. With these, you’ll be able to identify where you’re doing things right, and where you could use some improvement.
If that wasn’t enough, Budtender allows you to track and analyze survey results in real time. Not only can you track it, but Budtender organizes it for you in terms of importance, key insights, and more. Click here to learn more about Budtender? (We’ve acquired budtender!)
Interested in learning more? Check out these links to learn more about our loyalty program software, text message marketing, and more!
CEO and Co-founder of springbig
Jeffrey Harris