There are many reasons why businesses need online reviews. The main reason being that your testimonials page is the first place the customer will go to before choosing to book services with you.
A testimonials page filled with great reviews demonstrates to your customers that your business is not only legitimate, but that other customers are happy with the service they received. Sharing your customers’ experiences with others is a great marketing tactic that you can use without coming across as pushy to new customers.
Reviews are also prioritized by Google and other search engines since user-generated content is extremely important in validating your website. So how do you go about collecting more customer reviews?
1. Ask For Reviews
Obtaining customer reviews can be as easy as simply asking; Asking your clients for reviews lets them know you value their opinion and that their experiences in fact, matter.
Many businesses don’t ask out of fear of hassling clients, but providing you ask during their visit (or once the service is over), chances are they will fulfill this need. The longer you wait to ask for a review, the higher the chance you become a distant memory.
An easy fix is using an online scheduling tool, where you can offer appointment bookings online 24/7. After you finalize an appointment, all you need to do is go to your online calendar and mark the appointment as “done”. This will prompt an automatic email to your client’s mailbox to review your services right away.
2. Make It Easy For Your Customers To Give A Review
To encourage customers to write reviews on your site, you need to make the process of leaving a review as simple as possible. Eliminate any unnecessary details or steps to keep customers interested and deter them from leaving your site.
A great way to encourage customers to leave reviews is by featuring a clickable link on the homepage of your website, in your weekly newsletter, or in the signature field of your emails. Alternatively, you can include calls-to-action at the end of posts for customers to leave reviews.
Put yourself in the shoes of the customer when deciding how your reviews process will work, for example, by only sending them a link to review you on Google if they have a Gmail address and by not asking them to log in or verify their identity before leaving a review.
3. Share Reviews On Social Media
When customers add reviews on your site, allow them to share their comments with their friends via social media. This will give your business more exposure and allows it to grow through word of mouth.
Ensure there is a link on your site which allows them to share through their account on social media. If customers aren’t sharing reviews, you can ask for permission and share through your business’s social media pages.
If you are set up as a local business on Facebook, your page should have a ‘reviews’ tab, which you should make visible to customers when they ‘like’ your page. LinkedIn is also a great platform for reviews, where you can ask customers for recommendations that then show up on your business page.