According to Forbes.com, “84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.” Now look at your business’s reviews. Are they good? Bad? Do you have any at all? Having a base of customer reviews helps to give potential customers something to base their decisions off of, which means you probably need reviews to get more business. Many of our clients have dealt with this issue before – they don’t know how to motivate their customers to leave reviews, or they feel awkward asking. We’ve come up with 3 simple ways you can get your customers to review your business online:
Don’t limit yourself to one review platform. There are a lot of sites your customers can leave reviews on, so the more your business has a profile on, the better. Your business should probably have a profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, Yelp, BBB, and Angie’s List (just to name a few). Your website is also a great place for people to be able to leave reviews – from there, you can highlight your favorites to really showcase what your top customers think of your business.
Start a referral program (AKA give incentives). Everyone loves freebies. Your customers aren’t the exception. Consider implementing a referral program that gives store credit, a small discount, or a free product to anyone who refers a friend to your business. Even though the internet has taken the world by storm, word of mouth is still one of the most impactful referrals for businesses. Encourage honesty in all of your reviews, even if you are giving away something in return for leaving one.
Just ASK. Something we see quite often are business owners that have a great following with loving customers but have no reviews. As a small business owner, it can feel awkward asking people to review your business (especially if you are the only employee), but not asking is a huge mistake. Send out an email, ask frequent customers while they’re in store, or include a review form on a thank you card/webpage to get feedback.
Whether the feedback is negative or positive, you want to be able to respond to their review, thus making your business seem credible and trustworthy. Speaking of which, it is VERY important that you know how to respond to negative reviews even more so than positive ones. Never (we repeat, never) blame the customer for whatever they are complaining about. This puts your business in a bad light. However, if you explain the situation and offer to remedy the bad experience, other customers will have a better understanding of the lengths your business is willing to take to make something right.
Do you understand how important customer reviews are to your business now? This is why Gamble Marketing Group offers a Reputation Management service to help make sure your business’s brand precedes you. Wondering what else we can do for your business to bring in more customers? Give GMG a call!