4 Reasons You Should be Asking Customers for Reviews

You May Be Losing Business if You Don’t Ask for Reviews

I recently had a neighbor, who is in the process of starting her own bakery, gift me with a plate of yummy cookies. First of all, what a great neighbor! I texted her to tell her how great her cookies were and she did the perfect thing: she asked me to review her on Facebook. One piece of advice I always give my customers is: ask your customers to review you online. Whenever a customer expresses to you that they are happy with your products or services, that’s a great time to ask for a review!

So, you may be wondering, why should I go through the time and effort to ask for reviews? What good will it do my business? Well, there are at least 4 reasons why asking for reviews on a regular basis can really help your business grow.

1. Ratings from Reviews Show Up on Google

Some people don’t realize this, but reviews actually do show up on Google in the form of ratings. For example, when I do a search for one of my customers, TLC Dry Cleaners, the box pictured here shows up on the right-hand side in the Google search results, showing how many reviews on Google they have and the score.  The Google rating shows at the top and is in a gold color, so it really stands out.

In addition, any business that also has a Facebook, Yelp, or even BBB account will show up in search results.

And those shows their ratings there as well. See the image below. 

 

2. Ratings Can Improve Search Positioning

Many customers with physical store locations want to show up high on the map in a Google search. This is very smart, as people use Google Maps frequently to find a business location close to them. Well, one way to improve your position on Google Maps is to get a better rating from reviews!

Yelp also uses ratings, at least in part, to determine position on a search. So, if someone searches for your type of business on Yelp, they are more likely to see your business if you have more positive reviews.

Facebook uses ratings, in part, to determine how likely posts from your Page are to appear in the newsfeed. Star ratings are part of what determines a business page’s “EdgeRank”. According to Social Media Examiner, “EdgeRank is calculated with “affinity,” “weight” and “time decay.” Affinity measures the interaction between a Facebook user and a brand, while weight is the importance of that action. Star ratings factor into both. Put simply: overall organic reach and brand visibility are directly impacted by EdgeRank, which is influenced in part by star ratings.”

3. Customers Are More Likely to Choose You

In a sea of competition, a great rating on a variety of social media sites can really help your business stand out – and get the clicks! Think about the last time you searched for a place to eat online. I bet you picked the place closest to you with the best rating. Justified or not, we all assume that if you have a 2 or 3 star rating, you probably aren’t very good. “Social proof”, as it is called, helps shows people who don’t know feel more comfortable doing business with you.

You can also add these reviews to your website or landing page, providing “social proof”.

4. Positive Reviews Help Push Down Negative Reviews

Any business is likely to eventually encounter a negative review. Many times, this might be from an impossible-to-please customer or someone with a personal grudge. And often times, there’s not really a way for a business to have such a review removed. However, one way to deal with it is to bury it under an avalanche of positive reviews. There are 2 reasons to do this.

1. With only a small percentage of negative reviews, your prospects are less likely to assume the negative review has any credibility. If you have one glowing review and one negative one, a prospect doesn’t know which to believe. But if you have ten glowing reviews and one negative one, they are more likely to assume the negative one was unfairly given.
2. With more positive reviews, a negative review will affect your total star rating less. If you have one 5 star and one 1 star review, your total rating will be 2.5-3 stars (depending on how the particular service calculates it). Not great. But if you have ten 5 star and one 1 star review, your rating will be closer to 5 stars (probably about 4.5). Much better!

How to Ask for Reviews

Reviews can be hard to get, even if you are consistent about asking your customers (which you should be). Fortunately, we have made it easy to gain more positive reviews with our new review building services. Here’s how it works:

1. We set up a personalized landing page like this one where customers go to leave their reviews, customized with your logo, any personal message you’d like displayed, and the specific sites you’d like to offer to customers where they can leave reviews (Yelp, Facebook, Google MyBusiness, BBB, and more!)
2. You send us your email list and we can clean it up and import it into our review building tool.
3. We will send out emails to a predetermined selection of customers every two weeks, updating the list with any new emails you may receive monthly.
4. Customers start responding to emails with positive reviews! We get notified with every review left, and if given access, can manage the replies for you.
5. Receive a monthly report summarizing your reviews, overall score, and find out what platform the majority of your customers leave their reviews on.

If you are interested in our review building service, or just want more helpful tips on growing your business, contact Webster Digital Marketing today!