Generating More Positive Reviews for Your Small Business

by | Jan 18, 2017 | Blog, Local Search, Reputation Managment, SEO, Small Business, Social Media

Positive Online Reviews. Reputation Management | Mixed Media Ventures | 888.980.8170

One of the strongest ways of attracting more customers today is through positive online reviews on Yelp, Google, Home Advisor, etc. depending on your business type. Whether you believe it or not, reviews can dramatically influence the customer decision making process whether to pick up the phone and call you or not. 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a referral from a friend (BrightLocal – 2016).  Poor reviews may be inevitable over time, however, how and how quickly you respond to them may make the difference between deflecting a new prospective customer and gaining a new customer because of your actions to fix an issue that may have occurred.

While you may not be able to prevent poor reviews from occurring, this can still be an excellent indicator of what you need to do to fix issues you may have inside your business. This will determine its impacts on your business. A very effective method for reducing the impact of negative reviews on your small business is by increasing a number of positive reviews.

Convincing your customers to write reviews may be a lot to ask. Doing it wrong can make your business appear in a less than positive light, indirectly. In this article, we will be taking a look at how to generate more positive reviews for your small business

Focus on good customer experiences: I assume it goes without saying, keeping your customers happy is a good way of growing your business. On the average, happy customers only tell about three other people about their experience with your product or service. In other words, concentrating on good customer experience is not only a good idea, it is absolutely essential. This is a good way to build the required foundation for ensuring that you get your customers speak well about your business online.  To draw a comparison, and conversely to the three customers your happy clients may say something to, a dissatisfied customer will tell 11 people how dissatisfied they are with your business, so bad word of mouth is very important to stop quickly.

Ask the Right Customers: Even if your customers love your product and services and are excited to be transacting with you, it is also important to understand that you may not be at the center of their world. Customers do not spend their free time thinking about ways of helping your business. If you need their help, nothing stops you from asking for it, or exchanging the review for a discount on a future purchase, etc.

Ask at the Right Time: There is always a right time to ask for a review. The most appropriate time you can ask for a review is the moment in which the value you delivered to them still remains at the top of their mind. This will make it easy for them to be able to recall their experience with your product or service and come up with an honest review.

Make it an easy task: No matter the awesome experience customers get after making use of your product and services, only a few of them are ready to go out of their way and find out how to submit a review or how to rate your business. Here is where you have to help out. Make it as easy as you can to get your customers to share their experience after using your product and services. You can send direct links to your profile page on key review sites to them. You can send them a survey with a link to review your company.  You can also create a review app. This is a way of encouraging them to rate your company, product or services.

Participate in positive social media interaction: I think it goes without saying that your social media strategy needs to include reputation management & monitoring and social media monitoring so that you can engage your customers. Companies that keep up a positive presence on social media may be more likely to get more reviews and customer feedback when compared to those who don’t. This shows that you are really willing to interact and communicate with your customers. This is another essential component of great customer service for you.

From going the extra mile with customer service to branding the follow-up process, there are lots of ways for increasing the chances of encouraging your customers to post a positive review about your business, product or service online. Make use of the above tips in helping more customers to share positive reviews about your business activity after every visit.

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