Tips to Get Better Google Reviews
Six words that you hope you can say about your business would be, “It got great reviews on Google.”
Six words that you don’t want to say would be, “My business got horrible Google reviews.”
Let’s face it – what people are saying about your business on Google matters. So part of a creating a creating a good marketing strategy would be to get a lot of reviews in order to get noticed.
It’s more than just getting as many Google reviews as you can though.
The idea is to get as many good, or even great, Google reviews as you can to help your business shine. And there are a lot of ways you can do this.
1. Consider asking for reviews.
If the customer is happy with your product or service, you’re not going to be pushy and say, “Hey, give us a good review.”
But you could ask them to consider giving you a review and let them know that your company takes their opinion – and satisfaction – seriously. Ensure that any feedback that is left is checked daily.
Don’t waste any time on this. People are most likely to give you feedback right after their pleasant experience.
If you can, get the customer’s email address. Then follow up your initial request a few days later with a reminder containing links of where to go to submit a review.
And don’t ask people specifically for Yelp reviews. This doesn’t work well because even if you get a few positive reviews, your customers need to be active Yelpers. If they’re not, the Yelp SPAM filters will eventually get rid of any reviews from inactive Yelpers.
You’ll end up with a lack of reviews and possibly some angry customers who wonder what you did with the review you assured them matters. Not cool.
2. Make a great first impression.
The only way you’re going to get good reviews is to make your customers happy.
You can ask for all the reviews you want, but if you leave a bad first impression, it’s going to be difficult to recover from that.
Plus, it’s the perfect recipe for a bad review. So try to resolve any issues the customer has with that first interaction.
3. Make it easy to give a review.
It could be something as simple as having your website design include a “give feedback” button that a user finds at the end of the purchase.
Once they hit that button, they could be taken to a page that offers different choices. For example, maybe one asks for feedback, one asks for suggestions and one sends them to a review site.
They’re more likely to write positive reviews this way.
4. Be sure you have online presence.
This one is particularly important if your customer base is under the age of 30.
Rather than encouraging this group to post a review, just lay low and be sure you have at least a Facebook group and Twitter account for your business.
This age bracket is so accustomed to posting online about their every experience, they will more than likely share their thoughts about your product or service without your even asking them to do so.
5. Respond quickly to bad reviews.
Sometimes someone’s having a bad day and decides to take it out on your company. It happens.
Responding to bad Google reviews does NOT mean defending your company, product or employee though. This almost never works.
At this point, it’s crucial to examine the problem and try instead to resolve it.
There are, of course, bad reviews that are warranted. In this case, thank the customer for the review and apologize for the bad experience.
Customers will often go back and update a negative review if the issue has been resolved. Even if they’re having a bad day.
6. Reach out to negative reviewers directly.
Maybe the review is of a sensitive nature, or you don’t feel that responding publicly is the right way to handle it.
Go with your gut.
If this is the case, then contact negative reviewers directly if you can find them, and try to resolve the issue. If they’ve given constructive feedback, you could offer them an extension of a free trial or a free upgrade.
7. Give thanks to your positive reviewers.
With all this talk of dealing with the negative reviewers, you might be compelled to think that only the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Don’t forget to be especially kind to those who’ve given you great reviews. If the review site allows, you can thank each person who gave you such a review.
You could even thank a top reviewer by sending them a discount code or freebie after they’ve posted. It’s a great way to turn a satisfied customer into a loyal one and to keep the good reviews flowing.
8. You can’t buy reviews, but you can offer incentives.
Well, you could buy Google reviews, but that’s illegal. And it’ll catch up with you.
But consider offering up some extra incentive to your happiest customers in exchange for taking the time to write a review. It should be clear here that you’re not offering an incentive for a GOOD review, but rather an honest one.
You could do monthly giveaways where you choose one positive reviewer at random and encourage them to write another review. It makes them feel special and there’s nothing resembling a financial transaction here.
9. Make them a part of the work process.
If you have them, get the customer service and sales teams involved. They need to understand the importance of soliciting reviews.
Then you can develop an incentive program where some sort of bonus is offered to those employees who get the most reviews from the customers with whom they work.
You can choose whatever program or kind of bonus makes the most sense for your company.
Don’t forget that getting Google reviews is a numbers game.
The more reviews you get, the better the chances that you’ll get a few bad ones n there. Even if you’re providing the best product or service you can, there will always be complainers.
So keep your eye on that goal of mostly good Google reviews.
Do you have any advice on how to get better Google reviews? Please share!