As a modern business owner, you know how helpful reviews can be to your business and you completely understand why an awesome online reputation is so important in 2018. But, when it comes to actually getting the reviews… you’re a little fuzzy, to say the least. Let us help you with that. At Top Rated Local®, we want your online reputation to be awesome just as badly as you do — yes, really. After all, our entire job is to make sure that good businesses are succeeding and that your potential customers know just how great you are! Here are five of the best things you can do to make sure your reviews are working for you:
1. Offer Rewards and Incentives
Everybody loves to be rewarded for their actions — especially when that reward is a chance to win something cool or get some sort of discount. For businesses, reward and incentive programs are an incredibly useful tool in soliciting online reviews. Many businesses choose to offer things, like free shipping, raffle entries, and promo codes or coupons for discounts ranging from 10 to 50 percent to those who choose to leave reviews. The best part about the reward program tactic is that it really shows your customers that you value their feedback, be it overwhelmingly positive or simply constructive.
2. Participate in the Appropriate Community Events
Participating in events around your local community is great for business. Being active in your community can not only bring in more business but also helps to get your business reviews. The key to success is to participate in the right community events. For example, your funeral home business may not want to advertise or ask for reviews at a high school football game. However, for a printing company, this might be a perfect opportunity to hand out free signs in support of the team with a prompt for reviews on the back. It’s all about finding what fits for you and your business.
3. Don’t Be Clingy
We’ve all been there — you buy something online or even in person, and a week and 10,000 “how did we do?” emails later, you’re hitting the spam button (and in all likelihood, never shopping there again). You wouldn’t accept this kind of behavior from a friend or a partner, so why would you accept it from a business? Don’t be the kind of business that overwhelms their customers just to get reviews. You want to remind your customers that you’re there, without begging for their reviews. We recommend gathering phone numbers and/or email addresses and sending out one review message (either email or SMS) per transaction.
4. Do Accept Feedback
No matter who you are or how well your business is doing, there are sure to be things that can be improved upon. If you’re getting the influx of reviews you want, chances are, not all of them are going to be overwhelmingly positive. Some may have some valuable feedback that you can build upon. In fact, growing in accordance to that feedback can make it so that future reviews are substantially more positive. After all, if one customer notices an issue, in all likelihood, others have too. You don’t want these issues to continue harming your online reputation.
5. Use Your Manners
This one takes it all the way back to preschool, where you learned to say “please” and “thank you”. Sending thank you messages after reviews encourages people you serve to continue updating every time they have a great experience with you. It will also show them how much you really do appreciate the effort they put into showing their appreciation and helping you better your business.
Bonus Tip: Use Top Rated Local®
Made to benefit both businesses and the consumer, Top Rated Local captures experience ratings from a wide range of review sources. This gives you a clear snapshot of your online reputation, as well as a numerical Rating Score™ that provides you with an idea as to how you’re doing overall. A useful tool for any business, Top Rated Local bases its ratings on the five pillars of quality, satisfaction, value, experience, and timelessness. See what this simple, yet useful feedback can do for your business by claiming your profile today.
