Google reviews are quickly becoming the way customers choose which company to do business with. In fact, as many as 91% of customers who are looking for a local business read their reviews online to compare them. Because of this, we are often asked, “How do I boost my Google reviews?”.
If your business doesn’t have any reviews yet, your company may be overlooked by customers who consider it to be a gamble compared to other local businesses who have positive reviews posted. So, how do you get more positive reviews in order to remain competitive? Here are a few ways to boost your reviews to make your company more prominent as well as more successful.
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For A Review
For many customers, the thought of leaving a Google review simply never occurs to them. And for others, they only think to leave a review if their experience was a negative one. To generate more positive reviews, don’t be afraid to simply ask your customers to leave reviews. As a local business you should be creating a lot of local connections and talking to customers. Telling them that leaving a review could help your business is a good way to both get reviews and make contact with more community members. If you aren’t able to do so in person, use your social media accounts or an email newsletter to ask for them.
Make Sure They Can Leave A Review
If customers aren’t able to leave reviews, or they find it very difficult to do so, don’t expect to get any positive Google reviews. You are already asking them to use some of their own time and effort to do something helpful for your business, so it’s important to make it as easy as possible for them. The first step is to make sure your business has its own Google My Business page. Issuing those pages is not automatic – you will have to register your page and fill out your business information. Google can then verify the page, and then it will be publicly open to start receiving customer reviews.
Stay Honest
More and more companies are trying to buy positive reviews to pad out their overall reviews or to start a business with its first few reviews. However, avoid that temptation. Anyone who shops online or does a lot of online research, knows what fake reviews look like. Not only will they be able to spot them, but the software used to detect them has gotten better each year, and they will most likely be removed by Google soon anyway. When that happens, you will be exposed for faking your reviews. This will not help you build your reputation or build trust in your community.
Don’t Be Afraid Of Bad Reviews
As your business begins to grow Google reviews, it’s inevitable that you will begin to receive more negative reviews. Some businesses choose to quarantine bed reviews, diverting anything that isn’t 100 percent positive. However, this is another way to do your business a disservice and shows a lack of credibility. Negative reviews are a part of the process, and you can show how well you respond to complaints by calmly answering each one with an offer to either help with the problem or to put them in touch with the department that can help. Having absolutely no negatives at all looks fake, but responding to negative reviews with a sincere response helps show that you care about each customer’s experience.
Don’t Stop At Customers
It isn’t only your customers who can leave positive reviews! You can also ask companies that you partner with to leave them. Any B2B transaction can get you a positive review if you ask as well as tell that company to expect a good review from you. Think about your suppliers, service people, etc. Their positives can help to establish your reputation just as well as a customer’s can.
Be Worthy Of Positive Reviews
One of the best ways to be sure to boost Google reviews is to deserve them. Make sure each customer knows they are important to you. Go that extra mile to provide better service. Make sure employees are friendly and always willing to help. Then, when you do ask for a Google review, your customers will see that you’ve earned one. In addition to getting Google reviews, be sure to utilize other local pages for reviews posted by other companies. Yelp, Yahoo, Facebook and other sites also have reviews that consumers will check during their research time. By asking for reviews, making it easy and making customers feel that they had a positive experience, you can expect to grow business reviews over time and to build a good reputation.
