The video version can be found here.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day. We can learn a great deal from how MLK dealt with adversity and stayed true to who he was. Here are some lessons you, as a business owner, can take from Martin Luther King Jr. MLK was known for a lot of things. Compassion, empathy, peacefulness, and taking action are all facets of what MLK stood for that business owners should consider today. In particular, I am talking about interacting with people that leave you reviews online.

1. Compassion - The way MLK engaged with even his opponents was something to behold. When you find that people aren't kind in their words about your business, take the higher road, ask them why they felt this way and what you, as the business owner, can do to fix those problems, and respond from a place of love rather than ego.

2. Empathy - This goes hand in hand with compassion. You don't know where customers' heads are at when they come to your business. They might have experienced some personal problems just before they visited, they could have been in a bad place with their own job, who knows where they are at in life. That's why you must separate the emotion from your response and be as understanding as possible. Everyone has their own lens that they see the world through, and although it may be very different from yours, showing them you are compassionate goes a long way with them, as well as the thousands of consumers that will read it in the future. Review these MLK quotes and notice how often he is speaking as if he was the person reading it. Empathy was a trademark of MLK, and we should learn that lesson as business owners.

3. Peacefulness - An online squabble, or Twitter battle, or emotionally charged review reply almost never benefits the business in the long run. MLK was always so calculated in his interactions. Take a deep breath after reading your feedback, take it in and reply appropriately. There are five main points we hit with every reply. Acknowledge, thank them for the review, point out something specific from the review so they know you read it, invite them to refer or return, and cross promote to your most active social media.

4. Take Action - Yelp, Google Business Listings, and even Facebook calculate the responsiveness of their business profiles. People also take note of a business that is responding quickly to their feedback, and it goes a long way. Quit giving yourself excuses to not respond to your customers and clients. When you receive the notification (and you should always have review notifications on for all platforms), jump on it immediately. MLK could never be accused of missing an opportunity because he was busy with something else. He took every opportunity he could, and with reviews, you can as well.

Happy MLK day to you, your loved ones, and your business. If you would like to learn more about #Smart Business Consulting or our CEO Paul Mackiewicz, head over to www.hashtag-smart.com. There you have a chance to generate a free company snapshot report that will show you how you are doing with your reviews, how your social media activity compares to your competition, how your paid ads and website are doing, and much more. Enough with the excuses ... be #smart out there.

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