Since your business is online and on Google, people are now able to leave reviews about your customer service. Don’t be scared though, this is a good thing if taken care of properly. We’re here to provide you tips on how you can get better reviews on Google.
Let’s first off explain why Google reviews are important:
- “88 percent of consumers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations and 90 percent of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business.”
- Higher reviews can raise your SEO ranking
- A higher SEO ranking increases revenue
- You get customer insight. See what you’re doing bad and how you can improve.
Increase customer trust.
5 Ways to Get Better Google Reviews
1. Ask Directly
Ask your customer directly for a review! If you’re on the phone with them or in person, it’s the easiest way you can get a review. It also ensures that the experience was positive. After all, a great review comes from good customer service. If you see that they don’t write a review within a week or so, you can send them a follow up in an email. Remember to keep it personal. There could be a chance they forgot, don’t know how to leave or review or didn’t take the time to write one. In a local area, people will be more likely to leave a review to support the community.
2. Add a Review link to Your Social Media and Website
Add a review link to your website and/or on your social media so you can send your customers somewhere where they can leave a review.
How to get your Google Review Link:
- Go to: https://developers.google.com/places/place-id#find-id. Enter in your business name or address.
- Copy the “Place ID”. Place at the end of “http://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=YOURPLACEID”
- Copy the full link to your website or social media
If you need any help adding a review link to your website or social media, get in touch with us! We’ll set you up with a Google review link in no time.
Be sure to let your customers know the process of leaving a review. For example, you have to be logged into a Gmail account (or it will force you to log into one). Without a Gmail account, you aren’t able to leave a Google review. When in doubt, you can always ask for a written review that you can add to your website. Even though it won’t get as much attention, it is still valuable to have.
3. Respond to Reviews (Even the Bad Ones)
Responding to reviews shows that you care about your customer’s experience. Even if it’s a bad review, you can reach out to the unsatisfied customer and apologize for the circumstances. An example could be:
“Sorry to hear about your experience, DM us and we’ll get to the bottom of the issue as soon as possible”
It’s not the end of the world if you get a bad review, in most cases, you can learn from them to see what can be done better. Also, responding to a bad review could back up your case if it’s unjustified.
As for a good review, you can thank them for leaving a review! Acknowledging your customer’s feedback (bad or good) is a great way to keep in touch with your customers.
4. Leave a Review Link in your Email Signature
Using the method from before, paste your google review link into your email signature. Now with every mail communication you have, a link to leave a review is easily accessible to your clients.
Click here to read on how to edit your email signature in Gmail.
5. Make Sure to Have Recent Reviews
The most recent reviews are going to be the ones that are going to be noticed. In this case, you should always be looking for ways to gather feedback from your customers. If you receive a bad review, it’s easy enough to drown it with a few positive comments. In most cases, people are going to be looking at reviews as new as 2 weeks. Therefore, with a bad review further down, it won’t be noticed as much.
Find Out More about Google Reviews
You can read more about what Google has to say about reviews here. If you need help managing your reviews on Google, contact us to get some more information.
