We’ve emphasized the importance of having an online presence for your business, from having a successful website to ensuring your business is on Google My Business. In addition to having your online presence, having positive online reviews are vital for taking your business to the next level of success. 90% of customers searching online for any services will read customer reviews prior to using a service from a business. Even more, they trust the reviews as much as they would trust a personal recommendation. When a customer trusts your business’s online reviews, they’re more than likely to choose your services over your competitor with lower reviews. Online reviews are a huge influence on your customer’s decisions and are one of the essential methods to attract new potential customers and grow your sales.
With online reviews being a significant and positive affect on your next potential customer’s decision, it’s vital for your business to increase the amount of reviews you receive. You can ask for a review from your customers in person or by email, but how can you consistently capture online reviews from your customers on your great service? We’ve provided you with 5 tips to help ensure your business captures good online reviews:
1. Ask At The Right Moment
It’s important to capture reviews, but your main goal must be to capture good reviews about your services. You can capture good reviews by asking your customers at the right moment, which is when they’re content and satisfied. The right moment will consist of when the job is complete and your customer is excited or when you have resolved an issue or problem successfully. After your customer’s successful experience with your business, they will be content and willing to leave a positive review of your business. You can find out about their successful experience when you follow up with them about your recent service, and at that moment also ask if they can leave a review about your business.
Another moment to ask can be when they re-purchase your services or if they refer someone to you as these are other signs that your customer was content and had a positive experience with your services.
2. Make It Easy For Your Customers
You want to ensure when your customers are ready to provide your business with their positive review, they can easily do so. While it may seem like a simple method, a lot of businesses don’t practice it, so you want to ensure you make it as easy as possible for your customers in order to stay ahead of the competition. Taking the extra step to minimize the amount of pages or clicks that your customers have to take will lead to an increase in reviews. The following are a couple of ways to make it easier for your customers:
- Send an email as a follow-up after a successful completed job to your customer with a link to your review section.
- Include a dedicated review page on your website, or a link to direct them to your Google My Business reviews.
- Take advantage of your social media presence and upload posts about leaving your business a review that can direct your customers to your review page.
Whether your reviews are on Google My Business or your website, remember to make it easy for your customers to have access and be able to leave their reviews about your business.
3. Use Incentives
Whether you’re asking your customers in person or via email about leaving your business a review, consider incentivizing your requests. Offering an incentive can encourage customers to leave a review, and will be greatly appreciated. Your incentives can be small offers such as gift cards or a discount on their next service with your business. You can also set a limit such as the first 5-10 people to leave a review will receive the incentive so you’re not going over your budget.
When you find an incentive offer that works for your business and customers, remember to always make it clear in your subject line in order to attract as many respondents as possible.
4. Provide Clear Direction
When your customers are ready to leave a review, they may get stuck on what to write about your business. This is also another way to make it easy for your customers, for example you can give them a prompt asking “Will you leave a review about your experience with your most recent service?” Giving your customers a prompt will provide clear direction, save their time, and will lead to more and better reviews. You want to ensure leaving a review for your business is not a hassle as your customer will be less likely to do it.
5. Acknowledge and Respond To Your Reviews
After you’ve received your reviews, the next step is to be responsive to all reviews on any online presence your business has. This is important for your business as your next potential customers that are looking for reviews about your business, will also be looking at your responses as 89% of customers read businesses’ responses to reviews. Actively acknowledging your reviews, whether they are positive or negative, will ensure an increase in customer reviews for your business. Additionally, showing your customers gratitude will boost loyalty and encourage a better relationship between your customers and your business.
Also, use this as an opportunity to connect with any customer that may leave a negative review in order to resolve any issues, make improvements, and ask what you can do to restore their trust in your business.
Recommendations
In addition to consistently capturing online reviews, here are a five recommendations for increasing quantity and quality of online reviews:
- Even the customers that had a positive experience with your services can be busy, so it’s helpful to ask more than once. Remember remind your customers by following up with them about leaving a review
- Thank your customers for their reviews by posting their reviews on social media or your website. This is another form of showing your business is engaged and appreciative of your customers.
- Before asking for a review, start with an open-ended question such as “Are you ready to purchase our services again?” This allows you to start a conversation and see their level of satisfaction with your services in order to determine if they will be willing to make a review.
- When trying to get reviews, use a common online platform such as Google My Business, Home Adviser, or Facebook as it will be easier for your customers to access.
- Your customers may think it will take a long time to write a review, so remember to let your customers know how long it will take. For example, you can say “It will only take 2 minutes” as a side-note.
Finally
Whether it’s marketing support, website audits, or design support, Central is the right partner for your business. Our highly experienced Marketing team has decades of experience to help you identify best-practices and implement initiatives that deliver results. We’re ready to help you grow!