There are a few ways SMBs can acquire reviews from their customers. But, it does help to get the platforms to collect reviews in the first place.
Getting reviews is a great way to show potential customers the great experience you’ve provided for existing customers. It can also help enhance the relationship with those existing customers. Online reviews are shown to improve SEO performance, as there’s additional activity on the brand. And finally, it’s an opportunity to find ways to enhance your products, promotions, pricing, and placements.
Start by verifying and owning your Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook pages. And depending on your industry, there may be others. In the case of contractors, HomeAdvisor, Angi, and Thumbtack are also great options. There’s also the BBB. So, get getting your platforms set up and in order is step one.
As for actually getting new reviews from customers, the best method is to simply ask. It may be awkward or tricky at first, but it gets easier with each request. Saying something like, “If you had a great experience with us, we’d really appreciate a review from you on Google.” Then, it helps to be able to share a direct link with the customer so it’s easy for them to do.
You can take this a step further by implementing a “Reviews” page on your website, with links to each of the platforms you want to collect reviews on. This would also be a good place to share existing reviews.
And this is also true on social media. Sharing graphics with quoted reviews from customers is an easy way to generate content, engage with prospective customers, and remind new customers that reviews are important to you. Tools like Canva and Adobe Spark make creating graphic templates for these posts easy.
Another option is to create a physical flyer or business card you can hand customers as a ‘leave behind,’ that includes those links to the reviews platform, or your website reviews page. This is a nice way to remind them after they’ve left to leave a review.
Lastly, you can try to incentivize customers reviews. Something like a $10 Amazon Gift Card to leave an honest review could help nudge users in the right direction.
And just a final thought. When signing up for reviews platforms, it’s also possible to receive negative reviews. Just keep in mind this is just a part of doing business, and when/if they come in, do your best to handle them professionally with courtesy, as other potential customers will see your response. Everyone expects to see some bad reviews, it’s all in how you handle it!
Looking to get more reviews from your customers using V12 Marketing’s Reputation Management services? Give our team a call and get your FREE project consultation!
