Online Reviews

You know you need to ask for reviews but are you? I’ve told you before, reviews are important and people trust reviews to help them make the decision to do business with you. They need to see at least 10 reviews that are current (not older than 3 months) or even great reviews will be written off in their minds as “old reviews”. 

Why don’t old reviews carry as much weight as current reviews? Well, businesses may change ownership, management, support staff, locations, procedures and practices, pricing and more. What people think of you NOW is way more important than what someone thought of you three years ago. 

What about bad reviews? You’re going to get them, everyone does. Make sure you respond courteously and professionally to them. How bad it hurts your business depends on what’s happening around that negative review. If you have dozens of positive reviews and a couple of negative reviews, you’ll look way better than if you have 3 reviews and one of them is nasty. This is why continually gathering reviews is important. Positive reviews can massively outweigh negative reviews as long as your negative reviews are handled well. 

Will they leave a review if I ask? Most likely, yes. According to research, nearly 70% of customers will leave a review if asked. So….ask.  Just don’t be weird about it. 

Talk to them in person

If you’ve got someone standing right in front of you and they are clearly thrilled with their experience with your store, your company, or services, ask them if they’d be willing to leave you a review. This will be more natural after you’ve had a chance to chat and get to know them a bit first. Don’t pounce on every customer that you talk to just because they smile and say thanks. Make sure you have a good connection with them, otherwise it’s awkward. You probably already know who you can ask. You see their faces and know their names. You can even mention the platform that you’d like for them to use for the review. “I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed your experience with us! Would you mind leaving us a review on Google? We’d really appreciate it!” Don’t be pushy and don’t stand over them waiting for them to do it right then and there. In fact, it’s better if they don’t. Google doesn’t like it and neither will your customers. 

Email Review Requests

You may choose to send out emails asking for reviews rather than asking in person. It puts less pressure on a customer and allows them to decide without a face-to-face question whether or not they will leave you a review. Make sure they have time to get out of your business before you send the email. Also, don’t send out an email blast asking for reviews. If you get no reviews one day and then 50 reviews the next it looks very suspicious to Google and will end up working against you. Don’t do it. 

Text Message Requests

Text messages are simple, popular, and effective. Almost 100% of text messages are read making them a great way to ask for reviews. Keep in mind that it’s a text message, so keep it short and sweet. 

Something simple: “We hope you loved the service we’ve provided! Please leave us a review on Google to let us know how satisfied you are.”  You can provide a direct link to Google so they can leave a review with just a couple of clicks. Easy. 

Thank You pages

If you have a Thank You page that customers see after a purchase, you can use it to ask for reviews. This is a great way to ask for reviews because the customers have committed to a purchase and, in that moment, feel pretty good about what they’ve done. They can review the ease of use of your website, order page, the product itself, or your customer service. 

Receipts and Comment Cards

More than likely, if you sell goods or services, you will hand your customers a receipt. You can program the printer to include a request for a review on the receipt. You can also hand them a comment card. If you ship items to your customers, you can include a card in the package asking for a review and directing them to your platform of choice. You can even include a URL on the card to make it easy for them. 

Believe it or not, there are still people who don’t access the internet, especially older generations. However, if they love you, they may be willing to write a little line for you on a card. This is one only time it’s okay to ask for them to do it while they’re in front of you. Again, please make sure there is a good relationship there before you ask and then step back to give them space to write the review while they’re obliging you. You can use a comment like “I’ve struggled the last 10 years with back pain and Dr. Jones has helped me get my mobility back!” Anne S. The more of these you gather, the more you can post to your website and social media pages. 

The Social Media goldmine

People are more active than ever on Social Media and they all have something to say. Facebook reviews are powerful because people see what their friends are doing, who they trust with their business, where they spend their money and then they tend to do the same. Facebook, Google, and Yelp are tremendous review and referral sources. You can use a Facebook post or even messenger to ask for a review from your followers. This is expecting, of course, that you are already active on Facebook. If you’re asking for a Google review, you need to keep your GMB up to date. Make sure your business looks alive and healthy on social media. If you only post once every three months or even once a month, your business looks dead or nearly so. Get active on social and start asking for those reviews. 

Great reviews lead to more referrals, it’s that simple. The Salt Net is here for you with Review Reef if you need us.