Category: Customer Experience

The Power of Reputation Marketing: Turning Reviews Into a Competitive Edge

5 yellow stars in a row on pink and blue background

We all love the feeling of a positive review, that virtual pat on the back that validates the hard work we put in. But online reviews are far more than just feel-good moments. In today’s digital landscape, they’ve become one of the most trusted forms of marketing.

Think about it: when you’re considering a new restaurant, a local service, or even a B2B software, where’s one of the first places you look? Those star ratings and customer testimonials carry serious weight.

In fact, studies from 2025 show:

95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. (Source)
88% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. (Source)
Businesses with 10 or more reviews see a 15-20% increase in search traffic. (Source)

Whether you’re a small B2B company or a national B2C brand, reviews matter. But here’s the good news: If you already have happy customers, you’re sitting on a goldmine of growth potential. All you need is the right strategy to tap into it.

Let’s explore why reputation marketing is worth the investment and how you can turn positive feedback into one of your strongest marketing tools.

What is Online Reputation Marketing?

Online reputation marketing is the process of managing your brand’s online presence using positive customer feedback as a marketing asset. It’s the difference between having great reviews and actually leveraging them across your website, social channels, and sales funnel to drive real results.

Why Reputation Marketing Deserves a Spot in Your Strategy

Investing in actively managing and leveraging your online reputation offers significant benefits for both B2B and B2C businesses. Here are just a few reasons why reputation marketing should be on your radar:

1. Builds Trust Faster Than Traditional Tactics

People trust people. When potential customers read a glowing review from someone like them, it removes doubt and instantly builds confidence. For B2C brands, this can mean the difference between a browse and a buy. For B2B businesses, this can shorten the sales cycle and strengthen lead quality.

2. Boosts Visibility in Search Engine Results

Customer reviews build trust and boost your visibility. When reviews are embedded on your website or show up on platforms like Google, they signal credibility to search engines. This helps your business rank higher in organic search results.

3. Provides Insight for Continuous Improvement

Not all reviews are sunshine and rainbows, and that’s a good thing. Negative or neutral feedback can provide valuable insight into operational gaps, customer frustrations, or unmet expectations. The smartest brands see reviews as a chance to listen, learn, and improve.

Turning Positive Reviews into a Powerful Growth Tool

Now, let’s dive into actionable strategies for harnessing the power of your positive reviews:

1. Display Reviews on Your Website

Don’t hide your glowing feedback! Embed Google Reviews directly on your website to build trust and improve SEO. You could place snippets of powerful testimonials or visually appealing graphics of positive reviews throughout your site, especially on key landing pages. Remember to optimize the alt text of any review images for search engines.

2. Amplify Positive Voices on Social Media

Social media is where your brand’s personality comes to life, and reviews fit right in. Share screenshots of standout testimonials, create simple graphics with quotes, or even spotlight a “review of the week.” If customers tag you in posts or leave video feedback, that’s even better! Social media tools like Mention or BuzzSumo can help you monitor brand mentions and discover user-generated content worth sharing.

Want to take it a step further? Reach out and ask for permission to feature that content in a bigger way. Many customers are thrilled to see their words shared.

3. Turn Testimonials into Compelling Content

Go beyond simply displaying star ratings. Weave compelling quotes and anecdotes from positive reviews into your marketing materials. At Green Apple, we regularly feature customer success stories on our clients’ blogs and create short testimonial videos for use across all platforms. Real customer voices are incredibly persuasive.

4. Incorporate Reviews into Sales Conversations

Equip your sales team with content such as positive testimonials and case studies featuring satisfied customers. Sharing relevant reviews during the sales process can help overcome objections and build confidence in your product or service.

5. Encourage Reviews With Purposeful Campaigns

Sometimes, your biggest fans just need a little nudge. That’s where review-generation campaigns come in. Whether it’s a fun incentive, a thank-you giveaway, or a heartfelt ask, inviting customers to share their experiences can have a powerful ripple effect.

Need proof? Keep reading.

Case Study: Online Reputation Marketing for a Preschool

The Gardner School, a nationwide leader in early childhood education, partnered with Green Apple to amplify its positive parent feedback. Recognizing the critical role of Google Reviews in building trust with prospective families, we designed the “Share the Love” campaign.

Aligned with Valentine’s Day, the campaign encouraged parents to share their love for The Gardner School and its teachers through Google reviews for a chance to win a grand prize. Personalized messaging was shared through the school’s communication platform and engaging social media posts.

The results were remarkable:

210 new Google Business Profile reviews in one month
A 1,741.67% increase in reviews across all locations compared to the entire previous year
An average star rating improvement of 21.38%
Ratings across schools increased to 4.86 stars

Most importantly, the campaign strengthened relationships with current families and created a powerful wave of positive social proof to attract new students.

Want to learn more? Get a deeper dive into the case study here.>

Ready to Build a Review Strategy That Works?

Positive reviews are powerful marketing tools that can build trust, boost visibility, and strengthen your brand from the inside out. If you want to integrate reviews into your website, highlight them on social media, or launch a campaign like TGS’s “Share the Love,” we can help.

At Green Apple Strategy, we combine creative talent with strategic insight to turn good ideas into great results. Let’s work together to build a review strategy that drives real impact.

Contact us today to schedule a consultation. We’d love to help your brand grow through online reputation marketing—one five-star review at a time.

How to Create a More Customer-Centric Culture

Cashier on squarespace register and lady customer

It’s obvious when companies genuinely care about their customers, not just as purchasers but as people. As a customer, you want to feel valued and reassured that your purchase, experience, or service is satisfactory. Building consistent and reactive communication helps you develop long-term and loyal consumer relationships. So, how do you do this? You put the customer first. A customer-centric culture revolves around making the customer happy before, during, and after their purchase, ultimately earning established loyalty and higher growth. This strategy means listening to your customers and implementing what you learn from them. Not only does this practice make consumers satisfied, it helps you stand out from the competition for potential customers. While there are several methods of the approach, we’ve gathered a top five for you to review while you begin to design a customer-centric approach in your organization.

1. Invest In Your Team

Imagine you want to make a complaint about a bad experience. If you encounter a less-than-helpful person when expressing your concerns, you likely won’t return to that business. That’s why you want to hire employees who understand the value of customer relationships.

While these customer-facing individuals do drive revenue based on customer experience, that’s not their primary duty. More than anything, team members who work directly with customers ensure the customer is understood and satisfied with their experience. To avoid disconnection between customer service and other departments, strategically merge other divisions or schedule regular meetings. Customer service shouldn’t be only certain employees’ responsibility– it should be everyone’s. Though customer service isn’t the only factor in adopting customer-centric ways, hiring and collaborating with excellent people are guaranteed ways to make your customers feel more secure.

2. Have Empathy for Your Customers

Responding with empathy is essential when developing a successful customer-centric approach. These responses consist of implementing progressive thinking, understanding emotional needs, and genuinely caring about the individual’s concerns. Empathy is a learned and valuable skill for your team members to possess.

According to a PwC study, only 38% of U.S. consumers say the employees they interact with understand their needs. That is a monumental opportunity for your company to specialize in empathetic proficiencies and automatically outshine your competition.

3. Be One Step Ahead

When planning your customer-centric strategy, think of previous customer experiences, including:

Frustrations
Clarity issues
FAQs
Miscommunication
BONUS: “What If” scenarios

As a team, compile these trouble spots and either solve the hiccups or list the solutions on your website so your existing and potential customers can have their questions asked as soon as possible. You learn these areas of improvement by listening to your customers and are rewarded by their appreciation and extended business.

4. Prioritize Your Relationships First

Did you know that customers who have a good experience are 5X more likely to recommend your product or service than if they have a very poor experience? Relationships and customer satisfaction matter. Whether it’s fun communication through social media interaction or substantiating trust in B2B discussions, you want to know what your customers’ needs and priorities are before all else. Maybe it’s the way you respond or how you market toward products that create customer attraction to your brand. Research and listen to what your audience specifies; you’ll continue to build mutually beneficial relationships.

Ready to Build Your Customer-Centric Culture?

If you’re interested in learning more about how your business could thrive initiating a customer-centric business strategy, contact us today for a consultation! We’re excited to investigate the precise approach for you and your audience.

How Text Marketing Can Build Customer Loyalty for Nashville Restaurants

With more than two million people in the metro area, Nashville restaurants have plenty of potential customers. But it takes more than getting a customer in the door to build a sense of loyalty. Modern-day marketing techniques can help, ensuring your brand is showing up in their email inbox, social media feeds, and more. However, with an open rate of 90 percent, one method is making it easier to get your message heard: text message marketing.

Text message marketing can be a great marketing tactic for local and corporate brands alike. In this post, we outline best practices for using text marketing to engage with customers, increase loyalty, and stand out in a crowded market.

Text Marketing Tips for Restaurants

Opt-Ins Only

Text marketing is highly effective, but only among the customers who want to hear from you. With this in mind, only send messages to customers who have permitted you to do so. You can encourage them to opt-in on your website, in a newsletter, or through other digital channels. You may even offer a one-time discount in exchange for signing up for text messages.

Even after a customer opts in, go the extra mile with a text that allows them to confirm their subscription to marketing and promotional messages. On the other hand, make it easy for a customer to unsubscribe, too.

Choose Words Carefully

Writing text message copy differs from writing for email, social or other channels. Because you have limited space to communicate, be sure to introduce your restaurant promptly and then stick to one call to action. Is there a sale you want to promote? What about a new menu item or a special event? Choose one call-to-action (CTA) and craft a clever message around it.

A casual tone works best for text messages when writing your copy. Yes, we give you permission to use abbreviations and emojis if that makes sense for your brand! Remember that although you can use a relaxed tone, customers still expect you to be professional and respect their time by not sending too many texts and contacting them during regular business hours. Avoid late night or early morning send times.

Have an Omni-Channel Approach

Text marketing for restaurants is an excellent way to build customer loyalty. However, it should not be your only approach. Part of successful marketing is meeting customers where they are, and not all of your customers will subscribe to your text messages. With this in mind, it’s critical to continue building out strategies that include marketing via email, social media, and at your brick-and-mortar location. Depending on who your target audience is, you can even use direct mail. This way, your brand can be top of mind even when customers are away from their mobile phones.

Follow the Rules

The path to text marketing success comes with rules and guidelines that can vary based on where you live. These include getting written consent (such as through an opt-in text), identifying your brand in the message, providing clear terms and conditions, offering an opt-out option, and always respecting your customers’ privacy. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) provides essential and detailed information on privacy laws and regulations for SMS marketing that can protect you from future legal issues.

Amplify Your Marketing Strategy

When building a successful text marketing plan, our team at Green Apple understands that it can look different for every restaurant brand. We will take time to understand your business and your needs to develop an omni-channel engagement strategy to ensure you can engage with all your customers—wherever they are. Contact us today, and let’s get the conversation started.

From Visitors to Regulars: Building Customer Loyalty in the Hospitality Industry

We all know a restaurant that always seems to have a line out the door. And if you live in a city like Nashville, you may even have a favorite coffee shop or bar where they always remember your name. It’s no secret that these cherished local spots hold onto their customers with something more than just delicious food and good coffee. They’ve mastered the art of customer loyalty.

In the competitive landscape of the hospitality industry, where competition is constant and customer options are abundant, loyalty is everything. Here are just a few of the facts:

A 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25-95%. (Source)
A loyal customer spends 67% more than a new one. (Source)
Loyal customers are: (Source)
- 5x as likely to repurchase
- 5x as likely to forgive
- 4x as likely to refer
- 7x as likely to try a new offering

With numbers like that, it’s no surprise that restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and hotels are prioritizing customer loyalty programs and strategies more than ever.

Here at Green Apple Strategy, we’ve had the pleasure of working with incredible hospitality businesses, witnessing firsthand the transformative power of fostering genuine connections with customers. While there’s no magic formula, there are certain key ingredients that cultivate customer loyalty and keep those doors opening (or tables turning)!

Key Ingredients to Build Customer Loyalty

Here are a few insights into what it takes to foster customer loyalty that we’ve learned through our work with numerous restaurants and venues over the years:

Service with a Smile (and a Listening Ear)

Customer loyalty all starts with the basics. Friendly, attentive staff, prompt service, and a genuine desire to exceed expectations go a long way in creating a positive experience. But remember, service doesn’t end there. Actively seeking and incorporating customer feedback through surveys, online reviews, or even casual conversations shows you care about the customer experience and are committed to improvement.

Strategies for Surprise and Delight

Who doesn’t love a little unexpected treat? Going beyond the expected and sprinkling in moments of joy can be an invaluable customer loyalty tactic! You could offer birthday treats, complimentary tastings, or loyalty program rewards that feel special and personal. Remember, it’s the little things that often leave the biggest impression.

Speak to Customers Directly Through Personalized Communication

Personalized communication is a high value for today’s customers. Rather than sending generic marketing blasts, it’s essential to utilize platforms like segmented email marketing and targeted text message campaigns to send offers and updates that are relevant to individual customer preferences.

Track Progress and Measure Success

You can’t improve what you don’t track! Implement tools to measure key metrics like repeat customer rates, average order value, and engagement with loyalty programs. This data-driven approach enables you to identify what’s working well and where adjustments are needed so you can enhance your strategies as you go.

Questions to Spark Your Customer Loyalty Strategy

Whether you’re a local coffee shop or restaurant franchise, here are a few thought-provoking to evaluate your current approach and identify opportunities to cultivate deeper customer loyalty:

What are my customer demographics and preferences? Knowing your audience is key to personalization.
What are my current customer touchpoints? Are you utilizing all channels effectively?
How do I encourage feedback and actively listen to my customers?
Do I offer unique experiences or moments of surprise and delight moments?
Is my loyalty program engaging and rewarding?
Am I tracking and analyzing data to understand what’s working and what’s not?

Ready to Turn One-Timers into Regulars?

Building customer loyalty takes effort, but the rewards are undeniable. By focusing on these key ingredients and asking yourself the right questions, you can transform your hospitality business into a cherished destination, turning visitors into regulars and building a community that thrives on loyalty and love.

At Green Apple Strategy, we’re committed to helping businesses thrive by cultivating meaningful connections with their patrons. Through our customer loyalty platform Olive + Leo or our marketing agency services, we’re here to help you build enduring customer relationships. Reach out to our team today and let’s embark on this journey together.

Marketing and Customer Service: Improve Collaboration to Enhance Experiences

Overhead shot of two people working on laptops

Businesses need both marketing and customer service to survive. While each team’s day-to-day activities look very different, both play an important role in engaging clients, increasing new sales opportunities, and generating more profit.

Collaboration between your marketing department and customer service team is critical for creating a more customer-centric culture. But where do you start? In this article, we want to unpack a few helpful principles we’ve learned over the years when it comes to collaborating with our clients’ customer service teams to enhance the experience for their clientele.

3 Reasons to Cultivate Collaboration Between Marketing and Customer Service

Before we dive into the “how,” here are a few important reasons to break down the silos between your marketing and customer service teams:

1. It’s more profitable to retain current customers than acquire new ones.

Let’s face it. Attracting new customers is hard. It requires a lot of time, energy, and resources to engage a prospective customer all the way through the sales cycle. In fact, numerous studies have found that it is 6 to 7 times more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to keep a current one. On the other hand, a 10% increase in customer retention levels results in a 30% increase in the value of the company. Because of the role that marketing plays within the organization, it can be a valuable asset when it comes to developing an intentional retention strategy.

2. Marketing can learn from customer service to develop smarter campaigns.

Your service team has a front-row seat to understanding how people really feel about your products and services. They know the challenges your customers face every day. They also know how people use your solutions to make their lives better. This information can be an invaluable resource for your marketing team as they develop marketing campaigns that speak directly to the pain points of prospective customers.

3. You offer the same personal experience and congruent messaging for your customers.

The last thing you want your clients to feel is that you only cared about closing the sale. That’s why retaining business requires as much involvement from marketing as it does from your service team. Today’s consumers expect a consistent journey from the brands they support. In fact, 78% of customers expect consistent interactions with your business from the time they first engage your brand until they become a customer. Combining the efforts of marketing and service not only benefits your customers, it ultimately impacts your bottom line.

5 Ways Marketing and Customer Service Can Make Each Other Better

If you’re looking to create more collaboration between your marketing and service teams, here are a few best practices to consider:

1. Ensure your product marketing resonates with new and prospective buyers.

Creating buyer personas is an important part of building a marketing strategy. If you want your messaging to resonate, it’s important to know what prospective (or current) customers are thinking, feeling, and facing on a daily basis. Because your service team is talking to your customers all the time, they likely know more about them than any other department in your company. Make time for these two teams to work together to create buyer personas. Their collaboration will make sure your marketing materials are targeted and relevant.

2. Leverage the expertise of your service team in your content creation.

Your customer service team also knows your products and services better than anyone else. They’re often the ones helping clients find ways to solve challenges or provide helpful information. That’s why they make incredible thought leaders within your company. Your marketing team should collaborate with your service team around content ideas to capture helpful best practices and share valuable knowledge about prospective customers.

3. Collaborate to monitor and respond to customers on social media.

Social media put the power of brand perception into the hands of your clients and customers. Today, people can leave comments or reviews on social media platforms, Google, or industry-specific message boards. Many times, it’s the marketing team’s responsibility to monitor these channels. But working with the customer service team is key for transforming a negative comment into a more positive experience.

We all know when a brand’s social media response seems cold and canned. Developing a process for marketing and service to respond collaboratively, even personally reaching out to the customer through their email, can make a tremendous difference when it comes to reputation management.

4. Capture client success stories and testimonials for marketing collateral.

While learning from complaints is important, capturing positive feedback can be just as valuable for your marketing efforts. When customer service and marketing work together, it helps the marketing team find testimonies or case study candidates more efficiently. This is particularly helpful if you want to turn customer reviews into a solid content marketing plan for your business.

5. Create exceptional experiences for clientele with a loyalty program or a “surprise and delight” campaign.

Your service team spends most of its time “in the weeds,” supporting customers. Finding the time or mental capacity to consider outside-the-box ways to strengthen the bond with clients can be difficult. As a department that’s generally known for being more creative, your marketing team can help enhance your customer experience with surprise and delight efforts.

Despite having different job responsibilities, marketing and customer teams share common goals of attracting and converting new visitors into customers and providing exceptional service to retain those customers. To learn more about how we can help your internal teams cross-pollinate, reach out to schedule a meeting with us.

Surprise and Delight: Tips and Ideas to Show Appreciation and Enhance Customer Satisfaction

Sqaurespace employee having coffee with a coworker

Marketing plays an important role in every part of a buyer’s journey. From creating a memorable first impression to finding ways to turn customers into raving fans, it’s important to know how to create experiences that enhance customer satisfaction.

The concept of “surprise and delight” is one of our favorite tools in our marketing tool belt. In essence, surprise and delight is a strategy to reward customers when they’re not expecting it. These customer experience tactics have proven to trigger positive feelings, create a deeper sense of brand loyalty, increase referrals, and multiply revenue. These moments work as a brand differentiator, and they can also be a highly effective strategy for fostering long-term customer loyalty.

Some of our favorite marketing campaigns over the years have included helping our clients find ways to “surprise and delight” their customers. It’s always fun to show appreciation and bring joy to someone’s day. We’ve also learned a thing or two about how to enhance customer satisfaction using this technique. Here’s what we’ve learned:

3 Tips for Incorporating “Surprise and Delight” Into Your Marketing

As you look for ways to surprise and delight your customers, here are three best practices to consider:

1. Make it Personal

The best surprise and delight campaigns are personal. Giving a gift or reward to a customer can inspire strong brand loyalty. If you have a small number of clients, consider how to make each gift or reward as personal as possible. Companies with a large number of customers can still find ways to have a personal touch. Customer segmentation is an effective tactic to incorporate personalization into your surprise and delight campaigns so that particular types of rewards target the customers who will appreciate them the most.

2. Make it Genuine

Today’s customers know the difference between a gift and a marketing tactic. For example, some companies create “surprise and delight” campaigns based on coupons or discounts. Other companies use location-based services to reach customers on mobile devices and offer discount coupons when they’re near a particular physical location. But these are classic sales promotions, rather than surprise and delight campaigns.

The best surprise and delight campaigns show customers you genuinely care about them. It could be bringing unexpected gifts or simply creating special moments in the purchasing process for consumers. Even website design can include moments of surprise and delight. For instance, an unexpected 404 error page can bring levity and playfulness to website navigation. The more small moments of joy you can include in the customer journey, the more likely customers are to retain positive feelings about your brand.

3. Make it Simple

One obstacle that keeps businesses from investing in surprise and delight is a fear of the unknown. Established brands may have trouble finding places in their customer experience for a breath of fresh air, a moment of joy, or a truly human connection. Our advice to these brands is to start small and go from there. Don’t overthink it. Maybe your sales presentation could incorporate a meme or pop culture reference. Your merchandise or packaging could include a character, pun, story, quote, or tasteful joke. With attention to detail and an understanding of your customer base, you can find places to spread joy and build brand integrity.

3 Ideas to Enhance Customer Satisfaction with Surprise and Delight

As you consider how to incorporate surprise and delight into your marketing efforts, here are three specific scenarios you can create campaigns:

1. Send Client or Customer Appreciation Gifts

According to data from Merkle HelloWorld Loyalty Report, the best ways to engage consumers is through surprise offers or gifts for being a customer. Many companies send gifts during the holiday season. But sending gifts randomly throughout the year is a great way to create a more memorable experience. In today’s digitally connected world, virtual client appreciation gifts are also valuable tools to enhance customer satisfaction.

2. Incorporate Surprise and Delight into Client Onboarding

The onboarding process is important for establishing the foundation of the relationship with your clients and customers. While creating a seamless onboarding experience and setting expectations are important for creating an outstanding onboarding experience, why not find a way to surprise and delight them from the very beginning?

3. Celebrate Your Customers’ Personal Wins

One way to show customers you care about more than just their business is to celebrate their personal victories and successes. This is where social media channels can help you stay connected with customers. As you get to know them, find ways to show you have a genuine interest in them as humans. It could be sending a personal birthday card, congratulating them on an educational milestone, or sending a meal or gift card for their newborn.

The best way to enhance customer satisfaction is to make them feel like you’re going above and beyond for them. Surprise and delight customers by doing something unexpected to show appreciation and let them know how much you value knowing them.

A Marketing Agency’s Review: Delighted Survey Platform

It’s a dilemma many businesses face: how can you capture accurate customer reviews without being invasive? For B2C businesses, review platforms like Yelp and Google Reviews do provide some feedback. How can B2B companies also leverage the type of feedback B2C organizations have more access to? While we’ve used several survey platforms to capture customer responses for our clients, Green Apple recently began using the Delighted survey platform. What were our experiences? Keep reading to find out!

What Services Does the Delighted Survey Platform Offer?

Like many survey providers, Delighted offers seven different types of customer surveys, which include simple visual assessment measures. These include a smiley face scale, a thumbs up/thumbs down indicator, and a five-point scale survey. At Green Apple, we often use their more advanced survey types, which allow our clients to track things like a customer’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), a Customer Effort Score (CES), a Product Market Fit (PMF), and a Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). These data points can help our clients make informed decisions about product or service changes they plan to implement.

Delighted Provides Powerful Data Analytics

Green Apple originally chose Delighted because it’s user friendly and cost effective, but we’ve been impressed by the data and report options available. We also appreciate the email reports and the ability to track keywords in survey responses.

We’ve been able to really dive into the metrics offered by the platform by segmenting the customer responses and isolating specific keywords. We can also isolate reviews by the employee for the customer served. We have been able to track and report how well that employee has performed with customers. We have recently started reporting on this data monthly to show the client the top technicians and their NPS score or customer feedback. The client has implemented this data into their internal review efforts.

Delighted Offers Multiple Survey Styles & Delivery Methods

Green Apple’s Digital Marketing Specialist Katie Jackson likes that Delighted offers multiple survey options, including SMS, surveys through a website, email surveys, brick-and-mortar kiosk surveys, and iOS in-app surveys. She finds the Delighted dashboard “simple and easy to understand” and says, “It’s very easy to upload and send customer surveys to our client’s customers!” Katie also appreciates the value-add that Delighted brings to our clients.

“I think that Delighted has brought value to our clients because they are able to reach out quickly to the customer to fix any issues they may have if they leave a poor review. This has created better relationships with our clients’ customers because they are reaching out quickly after they submit a survey. We have also learned that SMS surveys have a really great response rate and customers like being able to text their responses back rather than going to a link in an email,” she says.

Delighted Surveys: Our Takeaway

This survey platform has been a positive pivot for our Green Apple team. It allows us to gauge and track NPS metrics and offer actionable data to our clients. We’re also able to easily track data for customer responses through the platform. Over the past five months, we’ve come to appreciate all that Delighted offers.

Want to Capture More Customer Reviews?

Green Apple Strategy uses responsive, well-designed tools to help our clients gather and analyze essential data points. If you need more insight into your customers’ pain points, our experienced team can help provide you with the right data to make key decisions. From blogging and SEO to PR and social media management, Green Apple Strategy can craft a marketing approach to help you attract and retain qualified leads. Reach out to us today for a consultation.

Client Surveys: The Secret Ingredient for any Successful Agency Partnership

Client satisfaction is an essential ingredient for a successful partnership between a marketing agency and the businesses they serve. Whether it’s creating a website or driving your lead generation and brand awareness campaigns, marketing agencies exist to help your business achieve more than you could on your own. At Green Apple, we firmly believe that if our clients aren’t benefiting from our partnership, we want to know. This is where client surveys have become an essential tool for creating successful partnerships with clients.

Over the years, we’ve helped our clients to build customer surveys that produce the highest return on investment. Recently, we’ve decided to integrate that approach into our own workflow. In this post, we wanted to outline a few specific ways that client surveys align with our values as an agency and why we see them as an opportunity to continually learn, grow, and improve to serve others more effectively.

4 Ways Client Surveys Help Marketing Agencies Improve

Here are a few specific ways that client surveys help marketing agencies in the work we do each day:

Client surveys provide insights that help assess client needs and identify effective solutions. It’s difficult to know what’s working and what’s not without qualitative and quantitative feedback. We believe in the value of making data-driven decisions based on campaign results. We also value the qualitative feedback of our clients. Client surveys are a way for us to assess client needs and identify solutions. To formulate our approach, we combine what the survey metrics are showing with what clients express through the surveys.
Client surveys provide perspectives on how to better serve and engage clients. Client surveys provide a valuable opportunity to assess how we’re working with our clients, in addition to evaluating the work we’re doing for them. Ultimately, they allow us to assess everything from internal processes that support the work we do to the dozens of interactions we have with clients in a given month.
Client surveys give direction for change and improvement. We believe that our clients’ opinions and feedback are two of the most important factors that validate the decisions we make for our business. For example, a few years ago, a significant number of our clients needed more sales-enablement resources than general branding materials. This allowed us to find creative ways to change directions in our service offerings to invest more in sales-enablement strategies that benefited our clients’ needs.
Client surveys capture a big picture perspective & track change over time. We’ve had the benefit of working with several clients for numerous years. Client surveys allow us to uncover seasonal trends or see how any recent changes have affected our client experience throughout our partnership together.

Why We Invest in Client Surveys to Enhance Partnership with Clients

Here are a few more specific reasons we’ve decided to invest in client surveys to enhance the partnership we have with clients.

We want to live out our values in every aspect of our business. One of our core values at Green Apple is to put the client first in every aspect of our process — that is our bottom line. We believe client surveys are one of the best ways to do that. Assessing client experiences allows us to listen to clients, hear their feedback, and work with them to help them face their specific challenges.
We want to continually look for ways to create strong partnerships with our clients. Partnering with an agency that has a general philosophy and approach to business that is similar to yours is key for effective partnership. Client surveys provide a way for us to make sure we’re in sync with how our clients want to achieve their goals.
We believe that open and honest feedback is key to a successful relationship. Effective agency partnerships are based on achieving results and effective communication. Client surveys provide a way to create stronger partnerships with our clients by providing an anonymous way for them to clearly share their thoughts.
We want to continually learn, grow, and improve how we serve clients. Continual learning and growth are essential in the marketing world. This is just as true in how we serve clients as it is how we keep track of the latest marketing trends. We believe client surveys are a way for us to continue to add value to our clients’ strategies because they provide a way for us to continually learn and improve.

If you’re curious about Green Apple’s approach to partnership and how we work with brands, check out our services page or portfolio of projects to learn more.

6 Guidelines for Planning a Virtual Event

At this point in time, half of all businesses conduct virtual sessions 20 to 30 times a year. Virtual events are low friction, with fewer barriers to attendance. (No more driving in the snow or paying for parking.) They can also extend the reach of your event far beyond your local circle while having almost no overhead costs. Online events are also recordable, which is incredibly valuable from a marketing collateral perspective. Key moments from an event can be repurposed and used on social media channels to bring additional attention to your brand. If you want to optimize the events you’re already holding, or dive into the virtual space for the first time, we have a few tips for planning a virtual event.

1. Promote Your Virtual Event

In marketing, a multi-pronged approach is always best. Make use of your active email list by sending out an engaging email explaining the value proposition of the event. Advertise the virtual event on social media channels, and consider providing an incentive to attend. (Gift cards are perfect for this since they’re easy to send and easy for participants to use!) Ideally, you should build a separate landing page on your website with a sign-up functionality so that you can point potential attendees to it. Drop the link into any promotions you do so that guests can RSVP easily. This will not only give you an accurate headcount for the event, but it will also help you make the event more secure by tying invites directly to RSVPs

2. Set an Agenda

Even if you’re a freewheeling type, virtual meetings aren’t the right time to indulge your spontaneous side. If participants have a sense that you don’t have a game plan, you may lose out on their attention and their buy-in. You can even send an agenda out to attendees to keep them informed about how the event will progress. One tip: keep your timestamps loose unless you’ve had several dry runs. A simple order of events is enough to serve as a guideline.

3. Prep Your Audience

While you may be busy with administrative preparation and planning, priming your audience or participants for the event can really pay off. This pre-involvement can be comprised of sending out a poll in advance of the event, collecting comments they may want to share, or gathering questions for a Q and A. If you’re really feeling ambitious, consider sending out swag or small branded gifts to increase both event buy-in and attendance rates.

4. Check Your Tech

Running a tech rehearsal of your event can help you prevent long silences, pixelated images, weak connections, or other online event woes. The apparent ease of a virtual event can trick some event coordinators into scaling back their planning. (Don’t I just open up my laptop and go?) In reality, because of all that can go awry in a virtual event, meticulous planning becomes even more essential. When you’re doing a dry run of the event, double-check the functionality of technology for all the hosts, including mics, lighting, and sound. You’ll also want to check the permissions of the platform you’re using. Decide if you want to auto-mute participants or require video. For presentation elements, check screen sharing and hosting capacities. Finally, check your event link to make sure it directs to the correct location. While it may feel tedious, a technology dry run is the best way to ensure a professional, streamlined virtual event.

5. Secure Your Event

Incidences of Zoombombing have dropped since online event platforms have beefed up security. However, unwanted or unexpected intrusions are the type of occurrence that can completely derail an otherwise successful event. To help prevent this, set a password for every single event you host. You can also limit screen sharing to administrators and auto-mute participants so they can only unmute with administrative permission. If you do use the auto-mute function, you should assign a specific team member to unmute participants as necessary. This job will require their full attention, so it should be their sole task during a virtual event.

6. Send Out Your Event Link!

When you’re ready to launch the event, it’s time to send out the event to link to participants. While there are several schools of thought on when to send an event link out, we don’t advise sending it out too far in advance. Email links sent out too early will get buried in the crunch of an already full email inbox. Participants may have difficulty locating the link when they’re ready to attend the event. Links can also be forwarded to anyone via email. If you want to add another layer of security to your event, sending out a link no more than 30 minutes to an hour before the event can help you keep your guest list exclusive. Sending out a link right before an event can also serve as a gentle reminder to those who have push notifications turned on.

Green Apple Strategy: Innovative Marketing In Every Industry

Our clients have used virtual events to connect to their customers and promote their brands. It’s one tool of many that can be used to enhance your marketing goals. If you’re ready to enhance your marketing goals, connect to your audience more efficiently, and increase your brand awareness, contact Green Apple Strategy. We can help you build an innovative marketing strategy to attract and retain qualified leads. Reach out to us today for a consultation.

A Marketing Agency’s Review of LoyaltyLoop

With several options for survey platforms competing for your business, which one is the best for your business? The right answer for your team depends on your specific needs. So, to help you during the decision-making process, we would like to share our experience with the survey platform LoyaltyLoop.

LoyaltyLoop is a common tool used by both B2B and B2C companies to better understand their customers’ opinions about their service and improve the customer experience. You may have used one of its competitors, such as Qualtrics (formerly known as Survey Monkey) or Delighted. Or, perhaps, you’ve never used a customer survey platform before and are just getting your bearings.

Wherever you are in the process, we hope that this review of LoyaltyLoop will help you make an informed decision. We spoke to our Senior Client Relations Specialist, Olivia Cooper, to learn more about the pros and cons of this software.

Pro: Simple and User-Friendly Interface

We have found LoyaltyLoop’s interface to be user-friendly and straightforward. Still, we understand that we as an agency might have a different view of what is “user-friendly” because we use these types of tools regularly. For clients who aren’t well-versed in marketing lingo and processes, we believe that it will also be an intuitive experience. When asked her opinion on LoyaltyLoop’s ease of use outside an agency environment, Olivia replied, “For clients who are using this type of platform for the first time and want to log in and have the experience be as clear as possible, this interface will be great for them too.”

Pro: Quick and Professional Customer Service

Another benefit of using LoyaltyLoop is the platform’s quality customer service approach. Olivia notes, “I’ve had good experiences with their customer service. They’re always quick to solve our needs, and they follow up regularly on projects we’re working on.” Any time you’re using software essential for business growth—especially one you’re paying for—you want to be sure that you can reach out for help if needed. LoyaltyLoop is an excellent option for good customer service.

Con: Basic Customization Options

One element that our team hopes LoyaltyLoop will improve over time is its customization options for the survey and follow-up emails sent to our clients’ customers. Olivia notes that she wishes “there were more customization options for the communications sent out through the platform.” She went on to give an example for added context: “We use LoyaltyLoop’s follow-up email templates to send after someone completes a survey, but the customization options to design the email are pretty basic right now. However, even with those basic options, these emails are very effective,” she adds.

Though the basic customization is a drawback, it does not affect the effectiveness of LoyaltyLoop’s customer communications. We’ve found this platform to be a beneficial tool for our clients looking to build trust with their customers and improve their customer service.

Want to Improve Your Customer Service?

Your customer survey strategy can be a powerful tactic to add to your marketing efforts. Our clients use these types of strategies to monitor and improve upon their NPS scores, customer service tactics, and the overall customer experience.

We can help. Want us to join your team? Contact us today to schedule a consultation. We are happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can walk alongside you to achieve them.