Local business listings are an excellent way to market your business and spread the word about who you are and what you do. However, if you don’t have any positive reviews in those local business listings, they can be detrimental. This is because when reviewing all of the different businesses within your industry or category, users will always look to the reviews to give them a better idea of the service and product quality they can expect. And if you don’t have any reviews but your competition’s page is full of them, you’re sending customers to them rather than to you. So follow these tips to get positive reviews for your business, and prepare to have customers line up outside your door.
Make use of surveys.
Surveys are beneficial to businesses. They can provide insight into what your business is doing well and where to improve, whether online or in print form. Surveys, on the other hand, can help you get positive reviews in your local business listings. First, make sure you ask for the customer’s email address somewhere in the survey. Then you can go through them, find the cheerful surveys, and ask those customers to leave you a positive review on the local business listing of your choice.
Leave the link for sites to review.
Customers are so used to scanning receipts for discounts, deals, and surveys that including a link to a review site on them is a great way to get positive feedback. Inform your employees about the existence of this link and encourage them to inform customers about it. This will help to reinforce the idea that the customer should look at the receipt, which may lead to them leaving you a positive review.
Understand when to offer incentives and when not to.
Giving customers a reason to leave a review may seem like a good idea at first, but it could backfire. Customers are often turned off even when offered something for free, believing that they are providing you with positive feedback when they may not have otherwise. Word spreads quickly, and it has the potential to tarnish your company’s reputation. Trust that customers who want to leave a review will do so, and provide a link for them to do so. Staff members are the people to whom you can give incentives. Each time they refer a customer to the link on their receipt or direct them to the review site another way, give them a small percentage more on their paycheque or another incentive, such as making them Employee of the Month.
It is simpler to use a tablet.
If you inform your customers about the review site and provide them with the link, you must rely on the possibility that they will go home and find it on their computer. However, this is not always the case. So instead, have the review site already up and ready right within your business and hand it over to them after you’ve made a sale. They’ll be able to do so without having to do any work or being inconvenienced, and you will see the number of positive reviews on your listing increase.
Watch your social networks closely.
You don’t always have to work so hard to find people saying nice things about your business. Check out your social networks and see what people are saying there. Follow up any positive comments with a simple ‘thank you and ask them to share their opinions on the review site. Chances are, if they’re that impressed with your company, they won’t mind saying so again.
Know where and when to refer customers
It won’t do you or your customers any good if you give them the link for a review site that doesn’t apply to them. For instance, it’s not so easy to send customers without a Gmail address to Google+, and if they’re not a registered Yelp user but leave a review there, the chances are good that Yelp’s filters will send it to the trash bin. Knowing which review site is best for specific customers will make it even easier for them and increase your chances of receiving a positive review.
Use your database
The chances are good that you’re already using your database for different marketing campaigns, so why not use them to get reviews as well? Set it up just like you would any other movement, telling customers that you’re now on Yelp, Google+, the Yellow Pages, or any other business directory, and invite them to join in the conversation and leave a review. Remember to leave the link to the review site within the email to make it easier for them.
Respond to existing reviews
People like to know that they’re not just sending something into cyberspace so it can get lost somewhere along the way. Respond to the reviews that are currently on any review site, good or bad. Thank those that have left good reviews, and try to help those that have left negative reviews. Even if it’s to say you’re going to contact them, people like to know that if they’re taking the time to get involved, you are too.
Ask for them
Business owners sometimes believe that asking for a review will look desperate or will turn their customers off. It won’t. How else are customers supposed to know that you’re even on a review site or that you’d like them to leave a review for your company unless you say something? After you make a sale, ask the customer to leave a review for you in any one of your local directories. Again, make it easy by providing them with the link. Sometimes, you have to ask to receive.
Ask immediately
If a customer purchases something from you, they’re likely not to give you a review if you ask for it three weeks later. So instead, ask right at the time of sale, and you’ll be much more likely to get the results you’re looking for.
