In today’s world, online reviews matter more than ever before. 86% of buyers read reviews prior to making a purchasing decision. These reviews help customers to determine if it is the right company that they would like to build a relationship with. Being proactive and asking customers to give positive feedback about your business is the key to building Google reviews.

How Search Works

Aside from searching for a specific business, like a “restaurant”, customers can use other terms, like specific services. For example, you want to change the oil in your car, by searching “oil change” in Google, will reveal nearby auto shops.

Positive reviews for those businesses will influence consumers decision of where to go to have oil change done.

If your company wants to increase its local market share, the best approach would be to get more reviews from your current customers. Positive reviews help to increase your business’ visibility and improve the probability of potential customers to do business with you.

Also, the more reviews you have, the higher your business will rank on Google Maps. The credibility of these reviews is very high, so your business would need to gather a decent amount of reviews to improve its visibility and build trust from potential customers.

Understanding Google Reviews

Google Reviews are a feature offered within Google My Business Listing. Reviews are publicly posted by customers using a 1-5-star scale, which defines their experience with your company. This is a quick process, wherein a customer just clicks on your business listing and leaves a review under “Write a Review” option. The more detailed and positive reviews you get, the higher your business will rank on the Google search.

Ways to Get More Reviews

There are many ways to get more Google reviews. Start by creating a plan to manage online reviews. Decide what staff member is responsible for managing reviews and how to respond to positive or negative feedback. By implementing a review monitoring system, you will be aware when someone leaves a review for your business. It is important to always look for new reviews from your customers and follow Google’s rules. Below are seven proven ways to generate more reviews.

Ask Customers For Reviews

The study shows that 68 % of people will leave a review when asked. There are several ways you can get reviews from customers.

1. Send out an email blast to your past customers and ask for feedback on your business. If you are worried about negative reviews, within your email, have two options for past customers to choose from: first, if they had a “positive experience” send them to “leave a review” and second if they had a “negative experience” send them to a “Feedback form”.  That way, you can funnel reviews.
2. Train your staff to ask customers for reviews. Once the job is completed, ask the customers if they had a positive experience. If the answer is yes, ask them for a review.
3. Every time you interact with a customer in-person, over the phone or through email, be sure to ask for feedback. When you interact face-to-face have an iPad ready for your customers to leave a review right away. Your customers will be inclined to leave you a positive review when they are right in front of you.

Automate Reviews

1. Include a link in email signature to your Google My Business Listing. Also, have the same link on the website. It will help to gather more reviews for your business.
2. When sending out invoices, newsletters, or thank you notes to customers, add a note saying that you appreciate their business and ask for feedback with CTA (call to action) button with a link for them to provide a review.

Incentify Reviews

Your business can offer a discount or low-cost product, that your customers can enjoy. When customers get something for free, they are more willing to leave a positive review.

Ask Feedback From Vendors

Asking feedback from your vendors will help you grow your business reputation. Your relationship with them is already established and they will gladly provide reviews. In turn, you also provide reviews for them. Treat your vendors as you treat your customers. Following this practice will also help to increase your network.

Rely to All Reviews

Be sure to reply to every single review, positive or negative. It shows customers that you value their feedback, which improves your online reputation. If you receive a negative review, stay professional, just state the facts and offer a solution. When you apply good customer service practices on a negative feedback, it’s a perfect way to fix any disappointments.

Make sure to verify your Google My Business listing so that your business will appear on Maps, Search, and other Google platforms. Keep in mind that only verified businesses have the ability to answer to reviews.

Avoid asking for reviews too persistently. If a customer doesn’t provide any feedback, just move on to the next one.

Make it Easy  to Leave a Review

Create a simple process for customers to leave a review. Like, setting up a link to Google review pop-up. If you have a simple process in place, you will get more feedback.

Benefits of Google Reviews

Generating good Google reviews provides a great number of benefits:

Improved local SEO Ranking – Customer trust is one of the important factors for website ranking on Google. The more reviews you have, the higher your website will rank in search results. If your business has lots of positive reviews, it means that your business is doing well and trustworthy. On the other hand, Google will not rank high business website if it has lots of negative reviews.

Higher Click-Through Rate– On the star rating scale, it is better when your business has a great number of five-star reviews. Users will click on your listing to read the reviews and get more information about your business. The higher click-through rate, the better. Reviews enhance your online reputation which allows you to attract more customers.

How Google Reviews Impact SEO Performance

From the 200+ ranking factors in Google, thirteen percent (13%) is coming from online reviews. Therefore, if you have a 5-star rating on Facebook, but only 3.5 stars on Google, it will affect your performance in terms of search engine optimization. The reason for that, Google only takes into account reviews given on its own platform. Your position on Google Maps is influenced by the proximity of the customer to your business location, your business star rating, number of reviews and the frequency of reviews.

How to Deal with Negative Reviews 

If you have a negative review, follow these simple steps to address them:
Don’t panic – It is just a normal course of business to receive a bad review from time to time. All businesses have gotten one. The studies say that bad reviews actually increase sales. It makes your business to look more real. It is better to have a bad review than none.

Evaluate the situation – First thing to do, when you get negative reviews is to check if the review is real. Be sure to check if the person giving a bad review is indeed your customer. If the customer has bought something from your site, check the other details like the time frame of service or listen to the customer service calls. When you get a fake review, flag it for removal –  so you can remove them from Google.

Respond quickly – Make sure to always respond to bad reviews. This is a time you can show how you treat a customer dissatisfaction. By responding quickly on the bad reviews will show how you are committed to customer service. When you respond to bad reviews, you not only show that you care, but it also allows you to avoid the same issue from happening again.

Rectify the Situation – Fix the problem that caused the bad review right away. If the problem stays, the chances are you will get a negative review again.

Stay on top of things – Staying on top of things may change your bad review into a good review. When customers leave a bad review, they just want problems to be fixed. With the right techniques, the 1-star review may be changed to a 5-star rating.

Conclusion

Remember that the best way to get more positive reviews is to provide great services to your customers and as a result, they will give you positive feedback. Always have a proactive approach and set the best foot forward in all customer service best practices.
On the other hand, poor performance leads to negative reviews. One thing to remember is if a customer had a poor experience with your company, they are more likely to post a bad review, than a customer who had a good experience. Google and Yelp are the first places where dissatisfied customers are going to leave a negative review. Staying professional when responding to negative reviews will attract more customers to your business.
Getting good Google reviews is one of the ways to get new customers. Use multiple methods to get reviews. Having positive reviews is the key to online success. Make sure that you provide the best customer experience, when there is good customer service, even the negative reviews could turn into positive ones. 

Either you use active or automated ways to gather good customer reviews on Google, is the sure way for your business to stand out. The more prominent your business, the better is your ability to attract new customers.

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