Online reviews can be a handy tool for people to learn about your products or services, as well as for your business to continue improving from feedback. If a customer is especially satisfied with your service and leaves a glowing review, this can motivate others to engage with your business. On the other hand, if your service doesn’t deliver, a negative review can keep someone from becoming a customer.
Reviews are clearly important to a business’s success, but business owners can easily feel overwhelmed or helpless when it comes to asking for and receiving online feedback. Is it ok to ask customers for a review, and how should you do it? Is it really worth the effort?
Business owners have a lot of responsibilities to juggle, and keeping up with how many Google reviews they have can easily fall to the bottom of the priority list. So why are online reviews so important? Research has found that people highly value recommendations from others. In fact, a 2022 Local Consumer Review Survey by BrightLocal found that 49% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This is a big reason to monitor your company’s Google reviews and put a strategy in place to continually generate new reviews.
Think about it this way: if you are comparing a similar product from different providers, will you go for the one with 439 reviews and an average rating of 4.5 out of 5, or will you choose the 4 average with only 6 reviews? If you are like me, you will probably choose the product with the higher rating and higher number of reviews (the more reviews there are, the more likely people are to trust them).
Additionally, the quantity and quality of your Google reviews also influence local SEO rankings, which impacts the online visibility of your business. Just another reason to pay attention to reviews!
So now you’re convinced they’re important, what can you do to get more positive reviews?
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a platform that offers great insight into your company. From contact information to opening times, make sure your profile is as complete as possible. This will help clients find the correct information about your business, making for a positive start right off the bat!
Whether you sell tangible products or intangible experiences, make customers feel like you share their joy. From advising before the purchase and providing assistance throughout the process, to high-quality aftercare, make sure your service stands out. You don’t just want a review, you want loyal customers, so take your time for each one of them.
A sale isn’t done when the product is delivered. Reach back out to the buyer to see if they’re satisfied with their purchase. For physical products, this can be a great moment to upsell (if you bought the reusable coffee cup, you may also want the smoothie straws), or to ask for a review.
If your business provides a service, you can try to share a special moment with your client. For example, a meeting you had with them (snag a picture for social media - with their approval, of course) or a recent milestone your client reached. Make sure you celebrate with your customersā —and then ask for feedback or a review!
Figuring out how to ask for a review might be the most difficult step to getting reviews from your clients. Depending on your business, you might want to consider asking in person, digitally or passively.
It might be hard to determine when the right time is to ask for a review, but a good rule of thumb is to wait an adequate amount of time for your customer to truly experience your product or service. You can’t write an honest review about your new camera if you haven’t used it yet. It’s ok to give clients a few days to consider everything before asking for a review.
Help your customers get started by asking simple questions about their feedback. For example:
The question depends on your product or service, but make sure your customers feel heard.
When asking for a review, provide direct links to review platforms for your clients to make it even easier for them to leave a review. Google reviews are the most important for boosting your local search rankings so this is the best place to start. If you know a lot of your customers find reviews on another platform, like Yelp, then offer review links to those as well.
You can share your Google Business Profile’s short URL with customers to encourage them to leave a review.
Besides links, it is also beneficial to let customers know how long it will take to leave a review (usually not more than a minute or two).
If you’re lucky enough to receive a review from your customer, make sure you let them know you appreciate it (even if it’s a negative one). Writing a review takes time, and the effort for someone to sit down and share their experience shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Take your time replying to negative reviews and try to come to a resolution with the client. If you successfully resolve the issue, the client should not only be satisfied with the product, but also the service you have offered to make things right. Although it costs time and energy to go through this process, it will hopefully leave you with another satisfied customer!
Bonus: in most cases, a review can be updated, so if a customer is unsatisfied you still have time to make things right.
Receiving positive reviews is great! Make sure that these people also feel heard by replying to their comments and showing appreciation for their time. In addition, you can share positive reviews on social media to show customers how much their words mean to you.
A great example is Cedar Spring Family Dentistry sharing this funny, yet wonderful review they received from a client:
Writing a review is quick and painless and it can help a company immensely, so why not go the extra mile? If you have more questions or need help getting started, send us a message! We’d love to help.