Ways to Get More Positive Reviews for Your Local Business

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Positive online reviews have become much more significant in the domain of local SEO, especially after Google’s Pigeon update shook up the priorities of local search results. As a result of the update, local review sites like Yelp, Google, Facebook and TripAdvisor got a major ranking boost, and the quantity and quality of reviews for local businesses started directly impacting the ranks of those company’s web pages.

Which Review Websites Have the Most Impact in Search?

The answer to this question will vary depending on the region and location of the person searching, but for the sake of time here is a list of the more popular and
In case you need a list of important review sites, here are a few:

Though we’ll only be walking you through generating more reviews within Google My Business / Google Maps, the same techniques can be applied across any of the major third-party networks.

Ensure you have registered or claimed the main websites where reviews might appear. The main ones include Google My Business (GMB), Yelp and Facebook, but there’s often a small hand full of others you should monitor and manage too. Determine which matter for your business by searching to see what makes sense for your business.

How to guarantee positive reviews

The No. 1 way to bring in positive reviews is to offer great customer service. Make sure your office staff, employees and yourself are all well-versed in how to treat customers right, because if you don't, you can be sure that someone will post about it.

The only problem with happy customers is that they don't generally think to leave a review for good service. People are typically more vocal when they are upset.It's good to give those happy customers a little push in the right direction. 

Train Your Staff to Ask

Your front office staff should be trained to identify potential customers/patients who could leave positive reviews and ask them in a tactful manner to leave a review for your practice. Sometimes all you have to do is add a bit of a human element to your interaction with your patients and by asking the right question.

In the end, it means you’ll get a better, more authentic review from whoever obliges your request.

Ask the Right Way

Want to lose your credibility as a business with a single word?

Send an email asking for “good” reviews. Or “positive” ones. Or any other adjective that suggests that you might be trying to tell your customers what to write, even if it isn’t true.

While you absolutely should be asking for reviews, you should NEVER ask for a good review. Instead, ask for an honest review.

Ask at the right time, with the right tone.

How many times have you gotten emails asking for reviews that come days or weeks after you’ve last had any interaction with the business?

What's critical to this process is asking customers at the right time.

If your customers come to your place of business, such as a restaurant, retail shop, clinic or similar, you can put a request near your point of sale or checkout area reminding them that if they were happy with your product or service,you would appreciate a review. If you’re able to acquire their email or phone number for things like coupons or newsletters, it also makes it much easier to send those much-needed reminders as well.

You can take it even further when it comes to offline visibility. Place signage and badges for customers to see at your business, from stickers on the door to printing and mounting reviews on the wall. Also, try printing review requests on receipts and invoices

Now, another thing I've seen work for online product sales is to send a nice little email as soon as customers get their order, or services completed. It has a thumbs up and a thumbs down with the question, "Did everything go alright with your order/service/treatment? ”. If they put thumbs up, we send a second email saying, “Can you take a second to leave a review for our service and the products that you bought?" And then include a link to the preferred place you want them to eave a review.

The best time to ask for a review is when the value that you’ve delivered to the customer is at the top of their mind, making it easy for them to recall what happened and write an honest review.
That could mean:

  • Be careful, don't wait too long to email shoppers! A Gartner study has revealed that feedback collected immediately after an event is on average 40% more accurate than feedback collected 24 hours later.
  • When they hit a usage milestone (measured by value that they’ve gotten or time they’ve spent)
  • When you send your invoice and reinforce the value of doing business with you
  • When they’ve contacted you with positive feedback (or had a positive interaction with your team)

Remind your customers to review you in an email blast.

One of the most effective tactics our reputation management team employs for getting more reviews is using email follow-ups. If you have a decent list of customer emails and few reviews, this is a fast way to get review content.


Meet customers where they are.
Don't email your customers/patients to ask them to leave you a positive review on Yelp.

Instead, make sure your requests match up with the avenue where you want your customer to write a review. If you're sending out an email asking for a customer review, make sure the email links to exactly where they can leave their feedback. If you want reviews on your Facebook Page, send the request via Messenger. And if you have to ask for a customer review cross-platform, make the request as integrated as possible -- for example, by linking to your Yelp page in your email signature, or asking customers to review their purchase or service in a follow-up email.

Sending SMS invitations

Another way is asking for feedback is via SMS (Text Message)may be is your only option if they don’t provide an email. Now I recommend getting a virtual and assign number, like GoogleVoice or hushed.com and simply send a short message “Thank you for your business, how was your experience today? LINK

Now for the Link make sure you use a short link, So copy the full URL of your Google place, yelp or Facebook and go to https://bitly.com/ to make a short link. Then copy and implement the link on your emails, followup, and SMS.

It’s important to remind them how much their opinion matters to your business, how much you care, and why you’re asking for feedback. It’s about making them happy and improving your business, so all customers can have a better experience.

Follow Up / Send reminders

Following up is an important business strategy, and it can help you get more reviews. You have to be gentle with this; don’t be pushy. But especially with customers you have close relationships with, you can say, “hey, did you ever get a chance to write a review for us?” If you have a close personal relationship with the customer, you can do what my kickboxing instructor does: “If you remember this time, I won’t make you run.” Incentives + favors + follow-ups all in one.

How to Turn a Bad Review Into a Good One

At some point, no matter what you do, you’re going to get a bad review. That’s okay! What really matters is how you handle it.

Should you get mad and retaliate? No!

Instead, follow these simple steps:

  1. Thank the person for their feedback, preferably by replying to their review, so everyone can see how you respond to customer complaints.
  2. Tell them you’ll do everything you can to fix or improve the situation.
  3. . Actually do everything you can to fix or improve the situation.
  4. Follow up with that person when an update or solution is available (by replying to their review and reaching out privately).
  5. Compensate the person for their troubles (e.g. replace a defunct product with an upgraded one, give them a discount, etc.).
  6. Privately ask the person if they’d consider updating their review, perhaps from “I have this problem,” to “I had this problem, and here’s what they did to fix it.” This will better represent the situation, and will likely make everyone look better.

Share Your Positive Reviews & Testimonials Everywhere

Positive reviews should be shared on your social channels. As you post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and elsewhere, you’ll see your follower count go up too, because more people will begin to trust your business. Followers can quickly turn into customers. In addition to social media, you can highlight reviews and testimonials on your website.

As you share more positive reviews, others will see that you’re sharing them and want to chime in with their own thoughts.

Reviews work a lot like UGC; this makes sense since they’re a form of user generated content. If you promote and feature their views you’ve already gotten, more users will be more likely to leave some, too.

Surprise your reviewers

It’s a fact, people love contests, and they love free stuff. They are even willing to do things in order to save a few dollars. This includes giving you a review. Great, right?

Sure. However, you should NEVER pay for a positive review. This is against every review website's policy, including Google’s. Also, you can’t make the incentive contingent on a positive review, as this is illegal.

Pro-tip: If you choose to incentive, be cognizant of how you word to ask. Be clear that the gift card (or whatever incentive you choose) is simply a thank you for feedback; it’s Not payment for a positive review.

Conclusion

There are many different ways to get more high-quality customer reviews. But at the end of the day, it comes down to one thing: ask!

Sometimes it takes a few reminders before you get a new review. Combining in-person review requests with automated email reminders is often the most effective way of boosting your reviews and increasing your review counts.