Reviews for your business on the internet are more important today than they ever have been in the history of the world.
Seriously! They can make or break you!
It used to be that something would happen to a customer (positive or negative), and word could get around, but it would have to spread slowly through their family and friends, who may, in turn, share that with their family and friends, who could share it with their family and friends, etc. etc.
Today, a customer has an experience with your company (again, positive or negative), and within ten minutes they’ll have written a review where it will be visible to anyone and everyone who looks up your company online, and it can be shared via social media where it can spread like wildfire in an instant.
The importance of word of mouth has taken on a whole new meaning!
Why Do Google Reviews Matter?
Google reviews can impact your business in many ways. They can improve your chances of being seen by potential customers (when looking through a list of companies to consider, those with more reviews – especially if those reviews are positive – will be higher up on the list), improve your click-through rate (again, when someone sees that 4,000 people have left a review for your company, it is encouraging to them, and it will be more likely that they’ll click on a link to your website), and help you rank higher in search results (the more reviews that you have, the more legitimately Google views your website, thus lending to a higher SEO ranking).
Google reviews can also help build trust and credibility with potential customers. I think that we all know this already, but it is important to note to really stress the importance of having reviews. This is the way that people are able to gauge what their experience with your company is going to be like.
With that in mind, I’ll be sharing a few tips that you can put into practice for Google reviews. I’ll talk a little bit about how to get more reviews in general, how to make sure those reviews are positive, and how to respond to reviews in a way that can help your company.
How to Get More Reviews on Google
1. Simplify the Process
First tip for how to get more reviews – make it EASY!
People like things to be quick and they like them to be easy. It is highly unlikely that someone is going to leave you a solid review if they have to spend 15 – 20 minutes on your site or on a review site just trying to figure out how they can even leave the review!
Make it easy for them! When a purchase is made, provide a link in a follow up email or on a follow up page that takes them straight to your reviews page. Then, make sure that the review is easy to complete. Keep it short and simple. Don’t require someone to spend 45 minutes reviewing you. Nobody wants to do that. Two to five minutes? Almost anyone would be willing to do that!
2. Incentivize Your Customers
Another great way to encourage people to leave you a review is to offer some kind of incentive like a discount or a coupon code. If you clarify that they will only have to spend two minutes of their time, and that for giving you those two minutes, you’ll give them $10 off their next purchase with you, it’s going to be pretty difficult for them to say no! For the value that this can bring to your company, $10 is certainly worth it!
3. Follow Up
You should also be following up with people to make sure that they leave that precious review for you. This can be as simple as just sending a few, spaced-out emails until that review has been delivered. You don’t need to be overly persistent or needy, but a few gentle reminders can be well worth the time!
4. Respond to Reviews
You should also make sure that you are responding to every single review that comes through. You want to respond to the positive ones and the negative ones with the same frequency and excitement! Let all of your customers know how much you appreciate them while also letting all potential customers reading those reviews know how much you care and how much you might appreciate them if they became a customer of yours. If it’s a negative review, you’ll want to address the issue and figure out to help that customer feel taken care of. If it’s a positive review, celebrate with your customer! Thank them! Get excited!!
This might seem like an overwhelming task to take on with an overwhelming amount of work to keep up on.
It certainly could be!
However, the best way to put these little tips into practice is through the use of a review funnel.
This will totally change your life!!
5. Funnel Vision
To get the most out of Google reviews, it’s important to have a review funnel in place. A review funnel is a system that encourages customers to leave positive reviews on Google. If you don’t have a review funnel in place, you run the risk of customers leaving negative reviews on Google without you having the opportunity to address their issues first. You could also easily miss when a new review comes in, and you might not respond to it in a timely manner. The review funnel can help!
The funnel that we prefer is called Grade.Us. We use this funnel for a number of reasons, but the best reason is because it’s just simply amazing and makes this whole review process an absolute breeze.
Everything that I’ve just suggested that you should implement for your review – Grade.Us will basically do it for you.
First off, it helps with your review generation by making it super easy for your customers to leave you a review. First, you’ll create a web page where people will be directed to when they click on a “leave us a review” link from you. You can then link multiple review sites to your Grade.Us account, so the customer can select which platform they’d like to review you on.
Once you have that set up, you can have Grade.Us take care of emailing your customers a link to review you after making a purchase. They can also send out text messages with review links. All of these can be aided with a drip campaign that will send out those friendly little reminders if a review hasn’t been completed yet by that customer. This can really help you in getting those reviews!
Ok, so now you’ve received a review, right? Well, here’s the coolest part. If the customer was highly satisfied, that review will post straight to Google for all the world to see how well you took care of your customer! If the customer was not satisfied with your service or product or is angry or upset about something, they’ll instead be directed to fill out a form that will gather information about their situation. Then, you can address this situation head on with the customer before their negative review ever goes to Google. This gives you a chance to rectify anything that went wrong to leave your customer with a better impression of your company. You have a much better chance of not receiving that negative review at the end of the day, and there is even a chance that you could completely turn that situation around, and you might even get a positive review out of it!
So cool!
Ok, finally, how do you respond to every single review that comes through? How can you even keep track of all that?
Well, Grade.Us integrates with review platforms, so that you have access to a review dashboard where you can see all of the reviews that have come in for your company. Awesome, right? Well, they take it even further! You can even respond to those reviews right from that dashboard, and your responses will post to the appropriate review platform. You can rest easy knowing that you haven’t missed any reviews that have come in, and you can make sure that you respond to every single one of them.
Get Your Business Success Recognized with Google Reviews
Getting reviews on Google helps your business get recognized by potential customers for its excellent products and services. A high star count on Google can make the difference between your business and a competitor for people searching for your services.
There are a lot of ways that you can help your business through reviews; however, we’ve found that this is a process best managed through a review funnel platform like Grade.Us. There are also tons of features on that platform that I haven’t even mentioned here.
Make sure that you are on top of the reviews coming in for your company and give Grade.Us a look when you want to really step up your game on reviews. For any other digital marketing needs that you might have, please reach out to a member of our team. We’d love to help you keep growing and growing!