People no more check the yellow pages for the closest restaurant, boutique, or service they need. Instead, they reach out to their laptop or mobile phone and google it. Online review platforms are the new yellow pages. A report noted that 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Customer reviews are very influential and are said to increase sales more than marketing. Now you’re probably wondering how to get good reviews that could help you close deals. It can be a tricky effort to get your customers to write good reviews for your business. Find below a few tips to get great positive reviews for your business.
1. Deliver great customer experience
When it comes to getting good reviews, the most important thing to consider is to offer great customer service. If you’re treating your customers in the right way, then you can certainly make them say nice things about your business. A happy customer will help grow your business in a lot of ways.
Happy customer = Great reviews
It’s critical to focus on customer experience as it does not just help you in getting good reviews but also helps in laying a strong foundation for your business.
2. Utilize Thank-You Pages
After customers complete a purchase or interact with your business online, redirect them to a thank-you page. On this page, express your appreciation for their support and kindly ask for a review. Include links or buttons that lead them directly to review platforms, making it easy for them to share their thoughts.
3. Respond to every review
Irrespective of whether it’s a positive or negative review, reply to every review. By responding to any review you show that you care about every piece of feedback and you can also turn any negative review into a positive experience. Moreover, replying to all the reviews will make your prospective customers believe that you are active in online communication. Before you respond to any review ensure that you have a plan regarding the tone of your response, how to respond to a review, or whose contact should be provided to resolve the issue.
4. Create an email campaign
One of the best ways to get more reviews for your business is to send a triggered email campaign. If you already have your subscriber’s email list, then it’s a great way to start with. If you don’t have an email list, then encourage your customers to join your list. Send an online review email right after every purchase to get the best reviews for your business. Before starting to send emails, create a clear messaging strategy with appealing content and good templates that prompts the customers to write their reviews.
5. Ask them at the right time, the right way
The best time to ask for a review is before they leave your place of business. Because this is the time when they still have the experience fresh in their minds, helping them to leave an honest review. Do not ask for a good or positive review, instead ask for an honest review. Be polite in your approach, ask direct open-ended questions, and stay humble. It will allow you to improve your business as well as establish trust and credibility with all of your customers. You can also gently prompt your customers to leave a review at checkout time at your physical location through a review management tool or review stickers like Yelp stickers, tabletop signs, and others.
6. Set up your profiles and claim listings
Set up the business page yourself and exploit as many online listings as possible. This will give your business a wider online footprint, making it easy for consumers to find your business on multiple sites. Select review sites that make sense for your business and industry. For example, you can use Yelp, Facebook, Google, or any industry-specific site and set up your account.
7. Share positive customer reviews
Another great way to get more good reviews is to highlight and share positive reviews from your customers. You can mark certain reviews as helpful by upvoting the review so that more people can read them. You could also share your positive reviews on your business’s social media accounts. Now that’s called social proof. Social proof is an effective marketing tactic wherein people see all the great reviews shared by others and are more inclined to do so themselves.
To sum up
The above strategies can help you in getting more online reviews and will make your business stand out from the crowd. Start by trying at least one or two a month. Getting too many reviews is also against Google guidelines and can send up a red flag for your business. So, consult with a digital marketing consultant and get to know about the review management tools and services.
