Small businesses across the U.S. saw significant dips in how consumers rated their online experience throughout COVID-19, according to a new exclusive interactive report, “Did Small Business Lose Its Good Reputation?”, produced by Thryv Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:THRY), the provider of Thryv® software, the fully integrated, end-to-end customer experience platform for small businesses.
Read More: SoftServe Achieves Premier Consulting Partner Status In AWS Partner Network
The report is derived from 58,000+ small business customer experience analysis scans conducted by Thryv over the past 12 months.
“Like all of us, small businesses across America were not prepared for the effects of COVID-19, particularly the swift adoption of new consumer behavior that required digital solutions, such as the demand for contactless payments, curb-side pick-up and – especially – the move to communicate and interact with customers virtually,” says Ryan Cantor, VP of Product and Marketing at Thryv.
“Many small businesses were considering the need to improve their online customer experience, but once quarantine began, if they weren’t able to interact with their customers virtually in a significant way with accurate information, they absolutely lost out on customers – and their online reputation took a hit, as we show in this report.”
Read More: According To A New Oracle Retail Survey, Consumers Set To Dish On Holiday Shopping Plans
Not only did industries see significant drops in their online reputation scores, some sustained low scores throughout the summer. Industries such as construction and educational services dipped drastically in April and May, respectively, and have struggled to maintain healthy scores ever since.
Other industries, such as hospitality and entertainment, took a big initial hit, and their reputation scores are now starting to recover. However, all industries continue to struggle with online reputation and presence scores, overall.
The report allows viewers to use interactive content to discover how 16 different industries have been impacted over time. In addition, the report provides insights into what contributes to online reputation success and offers strategies small businesses can use to improve their scores and ultimately deliver a better customer experience.
Thryv conducted these scans with the businesses’ permission, capturing key information focused on three main categories:
- Reputation, based on online reviews and sentiments from customers as well as their star ratings
- Presence, capturing accuracy of business information across the internet, as well as website speed and performance
- Outreach, which scores social media presence and activity
In this report, Thryv offers free access to the business analysis tool used to collect the data, so small business owners can request a scan and receive a score and tips to improve their own customer experience.
Read More: Accenture And MIT Team To Create A Supply Chain Resilience Stress Test