Online reviews can make or break your business.
Statistics show that 33% of customers in the US check out reviews before they make a purchase, while 63% show that they have a higher chance of purchasing from a platform with a better online reputation or reviews.
Online reviews can contain positive, negative, and sometimes false claims about a company and its services. Positive reviews influence customers to make a purchase and trust your brand.
However, negative reviews will do the exact opposite. Ideally, you’ll want a mix of both, focusing on positive reviews since they help project a genuine face for your company.
But what happens when you don’t get any customer feedback or you have more negative reviews than positive ones? Well, our guide will show you everything you need to know.
Here, we will cover 12 tips to help you improve your online reviews and how to easily incorporate them.
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1. Teach Customers the Importance of Online Reviews
Most customers who enjoy your service wouldn’t mind leaving Google reviews if they knew its importance to your business. However, some clients may not leave a review because they do not know how to do so.
To address this, ask your team to politely request customer feedback.
For instance, after your account manager closes a sale, he can ask the client to leave an anonymous review. Ensure you request detailed, honest feedback from satisfied customers alone. The goal is to get positive feedback and not negative ones.
You can also post a short note on your website or physical office explaining the importance of leaving a review and how to do so. Once your clients understand that you value their reviews, they’ll be more inclined to leave one.
2. Follow Up with Customers Who Don’t Leave a Review
Sometimes a client may get a review request and still fail to leave a Google review. This might not always be because they don’t want to, but simply forgot. Therefore, it is important to follow-up without being persistent.
Doing this politely will help you regain the confidence of your satisfied customers, who will be happy to leave a review.
3. Respond To Negative Customer Feedback
No business owner or company likes a negative review, but the reality is that you can’t satisfy everyone. Regardless of what you do, there’ll still be an unsatisfied customer somewhere in your mix who’ll gladly leave a negative review.
This could be due to a minor problem that your business could easily fix or a difficult customer who just loves to complain.
Notwithstanding what the reason is, you’ll need to address negative feedback and get the valuable insights they offer.
If you decide to ignore a negative review, your potential customers might decide not to do business with you based on this. It’s even worse when they don’t get your side of the story and will automatically believe it’s true.
Therefore, make sure you respond to reviews politely. Don’t blame the customer even if they are at fault, and try to resolve the issue in an amicable manner. Apologize for their negative experience and offer solutions to deal with it.
Finally, give them an offline contact to reach you so you can address the issue privately – away from the public eye.
4. Don’t Ignore Positive Reviews
It is easy to focus on negative reviews while ignoring the positive ones. However, this is a mistake since the positive reviews are just as important.
Focusing on responding to negative online reviews alone may give clients a sign that you are only interested in protecting your image.
While this is great, there needs to be a balance. You must show your happy clients that you care about their experiences too. Responding to positive feedback will show you care about how your customers feel and will also increase their loyalty to your business.
You don’t have to write a long note to achieve this either. A simple “Thank You” or “We look forward to serving you again” can do the trick.
5. Personalize Responses to Clients
Many companies use an automated response system to respond to every type of review. While this is a time saver, it could have a negative effect on your business.
Making responses personalized to customers helps them feel valued – and shows that your company sees them as more than just another client.
Let’s face it, it can be annoying to get an automated response, when you invested time to leave an online review.
Instead of leaving a robotic response to everyone, ensure you personalize your response based on the review. If the reviewer leaves a name, you can respond by starting with his/her name before the response.
Aside from making your business seem more credible, it helps enhance customer engagement. It also helps your business search engine optimization since search engines love interactive businesses.
6. Make The Process Simple
Even your most loyal customers will find it frustrating if they must jump different hoops before they can leave a review. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure your customers find it very easy to share their positive experiences.
You can list links to popular review sites on your website or business page so clients can leave reviews without issues. Another great alternative is to provide your direct Facebook or Twitter account so anyone can visit these pages and leave you reviews.
Lastly, ensure your website is fully mobile functional, especially if you’ll be requesting reviews via email. Most clients will respond through their mobile devices, so you’ll want your links to work seamlessly on a mobile device.
7. Have a Presence on All Review Platforms
There are many review sites out there and it is important for your company to have a presence on all of them. This will increase your credibility and let customers know that you are particular about the success of your company.
Ideally, you’ll want to focus on the most renowned options, such as Google, Yelp, and Facebook. We also recommend opening a Google Business profile and adding your company address to Google Maps for more exposure.
8. Add a Review Page & Showcase Your Google Reviews
Adding a “Testimonial” or “Review” tab on your website where they can see all the Google reviews you have is another great way to improve online reviews.
It shows clients that you are genuine and are not trying to hide feedback. This can also help prove that you are open to feedback and will make changes when needed.
In addition, if you have a review page attached to your website, it will be one of the first things clients see when they search for your reviews on Google.
Focusing on showcasing more positive reviews on this page can subtly encourage customers to do business with you.
9. Encourage Clients with Incentives To Write Reviews
Paying clients to give you Google reviews is not allowed, but offering an incentive is fine. However, when offering incentives, make sure it is not specifically for positive Google reviews – but to encourage clients to leave any type of feedback.
For instance, you can offer a voucher, coupon, or discount when they make their subsequent purchase. Regardless of the option you choose, make sure you note the rules of the website like we discussed above.
10. Leverage Your Social Media Pages
Boosting your social media presence is another excellent way to draw customer reviews to your page. Research the platforms where your customers tend to spend time and make your presence known there.
We recommend focusing on major platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
A great strategy is to provide quality and informative content while showcasing positive customer reviews. This will ensure your prospective clients get value while showing them that your business is reliable.
If you are lucky, you could get free word-of-mouth which could translate to more business for your company. Lastly, be as consistent as possible with your posts so you remain relevant in the eyes of clients.
11. Get Reviews from Partners and Vendors
While vendors and partners are not paying clients, they are a great source for great Google play reviews. They work with you frequently and know how reliable you are when it comes to business.
They may also be willing to leave a review on your Google Business profile which will further improve your credibility.
12. Obey The Rules
Having a presence on every review site is great, but you need to know that all websites have their rules. Learn these rules so you don’t get blindsided down the line.
For instance, requesting your customers to leave you Google reviews is fine, but doing it on Yelp is unacceptable. Sometimes, they may flag reviews on your page and in worse cases, you lose the entire page.
Also, buying fake reviews is not supported on any platform. While you may get away with it and get more reviews, your business will feel the negative effect in the long run.
Genuine reviews will help you get more consistent customers than falsified ones.
Final Words
Online reviews are a great way for prospective clients to measure the reliability of your company and its overall success.
If you have been having issues with getting the right volume of Google reviews as a business owner, you can start to increase them today. Simply use one or more of the tips we have provided in this guide, and you’ll start to see the changes you expect.
Remember that a negative review does not mean the end of your business, and ignoring it never works.
Make sure you listen to what your clients want and find a way to resolve their complaints. This will improve customer engagement, your Google reviews, and your sales!