Six things to consider when choosing a reviews website to promote your training
Encouraging people to submit reviews about your training courses on an independent website, can be a bit like doing a bungee jump. It’s exciting but there’s the fear of not being in control and it feels risky.
The good news is that you don't have to perfect and if you know you run good courses and you generally get good feedback, then you have nothing to fear. The benefits or using an independent reviews website can be considerable but not all reviews sites are the same so here are six things to consider when choosing one:
1. How trustworthy is the site?
When it comes to reviews websites, trust is everything. So what steps does the site take to ensure that all reviews are genuine and where a review breaches the site’s rules, how is this dealt with, and how promptly. And what about confidentiality? Make sure you know who owns the data that’s being collected, how securely it's being stored, what rights each party has to use the data and what happens if you stop using the site.
2. Is the website optimised for search engines?
Search engines like reviews because they perceive them as authentic and rate them higher than other forms of content. But reviews on their own, will not guarantee you a place on the first page of any search results. People search for courses using key words so to be effective, it’s essential that reviews be displayed alongside a full description of the relevant course. The SEO benefits can be significant and not something to miss out on.
3. Can the reviews be integrated with social media?
Social media can be hard to control but we all know how powerful it can be. So having submitted a review, make sure it’s easy for learners to share their comments on social media without having to create a new post from scratch. And make sure that it’s easy for you to track what’s being said and by whom.
4. Is there a right to reply?
In the event of a negative comment – or indeed an extremely positive one, it’s important that you have the ability to respond promptly and publicly with a carefully worded comment of your own. Time is of the essence so there should be a means of alerting you to any feedback that might require a response.
5. How do you integrate the feedback into your own website?
If you’re getting positive feedback on an independent reviews website, then you’re going to want to make the most of it by integrating it into your own website. Check how easy that is to do, and if there’s a particular course you want to promote, then you’ll want to be able to filter the reviews so that only reviews about that particular course are displayed.
6. Can you configure the survey form?
Like many training providers, you probably already collect feedback from everyone you train. But if you can configure the survey form on the reviews website, then you may find you can kill two birds with one stone and adopt it as your primary customer survey tool. You will probably want to ask some questions that might not be appropriate for a public website so it’s important to know whether you can control what gets published and what doesn’t.