Online reviews can have a great impact on your local business. When your business gets good reviews on sites like Google and Yelp, potential customers see those reviews and are more likely to choose your business. If you can generate good reviews you will stand out from other companies on the search engine results listings and influence potential customers to use your product or services.
Why does my business want good reviews?
The real question is, why wouldn’t you want good reviews? Of course you want your business to get good reviews, and there are three top reasons why getting good online reviews is good business.
- Good reviews influence buying decisions. Surveys show that 90% of respondents declared that good reviews influenced their decision to make purchases, while 86% based buying decisions on negative reviews. Whichever way you look at it, reviews impact buying decisions. Customers feel confidence about making purchases when they see good reviews. On the other hand, customers seeing negative reviews lose confidence. Good reviews of your service or product will give potential customers confidence in your product and possibly influence their decision to give your company a chance.
- Good reviews stand out on the search engines. When the search engine results page shows a list of business that fit the search terms, a high review will make your listing stand out. All businesses look similar on the search engine results page, and your company needs something to make it more noticeable than the rest. A high review can be the thing that sets you apart from the rest.
- Some sites allow viewers to only view companies with high reviews. On many sites, customers can set the search parameters to only search for business that have high reviews. If you don’t have any reviews or only low reviews, then these customers will never see your business on the listings. Good reviews will get your business listed, and allow you the opportunity to obtain more business.
How can my business get good reviews?
Now that we agree you want to get good reviews, the question becomes how to get those good reviews. The following are ways to get those good reviews you want.
- Encourage customers to leave good reviews. Every review site is different. Some encourage you to ask customers for reviews and others discourage it. Make sure to check the site’s terms and conditions before soliciting reviews. Yelp discourages companies from asking for reviews in an attempt to keep bias out of the reviews. Google encourages companies to ask for reviews. There are a few things you can do to remind customers to leave good reviews:
- Make customers happy. The best way to get good reviews is to do great work or provide a great product. Customers that are happy with your service or product will be more likely to leave a good review. This is the place to start.Always make sure to provide top notch services and quality products. Happy customers like to share the products they like with others. Once you’ve made the customer happy, the rest is a lot easier.
- Link to review sites from your website. Create a page on your website that links to reviews on other sites. Encourage your customers to leave a review.
- Link to review sites in emails. Either send out an email specifically asking for reviews or put a link to reviews about yours site at the bottom of an email about something else. Ask customers to check out the reviews about your business or ask them to leave a review.
- Hand out business cards or flyers. Make a business card with links to review sites or make a flyer to hand out to customers explaining how they can leave a review. Keep the information up to date, as sites may change over time.
- Ask your customers. Ask your customers when they are in the store, give them a call or ask them by mail or email. The more customers you ask, the more reviews you’ll get.
What happens if I get bad reviews?
You can only ask for people to leave reviews; you can’t control what they’ll say. The best way to ensure only good reviews, is to make sure to give good service. However, even the best business will get bad reviews sometimes. This isn’t all bad. Negative reviews will balance the other reviews and make them look more natural, because all companies will get good and bad reviews. You may choose to respond to bad reviews. If you choose to respond, keep these tips in mind.
- Keep the response positive and constructive. Make this an opportunity to build up your business by responding positively and constructively to any negative reviews.
- Take time to respond. Don’t reply when you are angry about the negative review. Take time to step back and keep calm. This can make all the difference in ensuring that a response doesn’t do more damage.
- Be polite. This is your chance to promote your business. Politeness is classy and other potential customers that read your response will see this.
- Highlight your strengths. Use this as a chance to promote your strengths. While you may acknowledge that something didn’t go right in that instance, use it as an opportunity to share some things you do well.
- Don’t be defensive. It’s easy to feel defensive when you get a bad review. Unfortunately being defensive won’t defuse the situation.
Good Reviews Bolster Business
Good reviews can help build your business by influencing customers to choose your company over others that provide similar services or products. Customers read reviews and either feel confidence in their choice or decide to go a different way. There are a variety of sites that allow customers to leave reviews. If you need advice and help on how to make your website stand out from others, contact the Barton Organization. We can help you build a website that showcases your business and provide advice on how to increase traffic and conversions. Contact the Barton Organization today to learn more about how good reviews can help your business.
