Seek Out Those Positive Reviews

Consumer reviews are an important component to your business. Not only do they allow consumers to review your products or services, but they generally weigh heavily on consumer purchasing decisions. It just takes one teeny tiny review to make up a buyer’s mind to go with one business over another. Reviews are now popping up in the search results. In Google, they often appear for a business just below their company website. This allows consumers to read reviews right off the bat before any other information about the business is given. This is a powerful tool! 

Reviews can mean sweet success for businesses - the online word of mouth is a great way to build credibility and trust among your customers. Without them, it may be a touch trickier to be found among the local search results. However, it isn’t always easy to generate reviews, especially positive ones. It seems that while many consumers are influenced by the reviews they read, only a small percentage actually take the time to write them. There has also been trouble in recent past regarding fake reviews. While sorting through the fake reviews, often genuine ones can get lost in site filters. 

A business can appear high in the search results, but lose visibility and prospective interest of a customer because there are bad reviews floating around or no reviews at all. Even with the challenges, businesses can still reap the rewards of online reviews and gain local search visibility. There are a few steps you can take to generate reviews for your business.

Take a look at current review and online reputation

You should first review your online visibility across major reviews sites and directories such as Google+, Yelp, Angie’s List, etc. If you don’t have a listing on these sites, go ahead and create or update your business profile. This will benefit your SEO as well. Once your profile is up and running, you will receive notifications when new reviews come in. It’s important to monitor your customer feedback to see if there is anything you can improve upon.

Respond to all feedback

When a negative review comes in, the natural instinct is to respond, but when a positive review comes in, more than likely, you might give yourself a pat on the back and consider it a job well done. However, it’s important to respond to all feedback as it makes an impact on all future prospects reading reviews. Being proactive no matter positive or negative feedback shows your customers that you are vested in your business, take what they have to say seriously, and want to work on building those relationships. Negative reviews have the nasty habit of staying around for awhile, so it is especially important to address the issue right away and provide resolution to the customer.

Build up your review

It’s okay to ask customers for reviews and be sure to make it easy for them to do so. You can offer customers a printed card with instructions on how to leave a review, follow up with an email, or simply make a verbal request. Customers reviews are some of the most compelling marketing content available to businesses and greatly influence potential new customers.

Highlight good reviews

Every time a business gets a good review, it’s beneficial to use those reviews to their advantage by posting them on their website and/or social media pages. Go ahead and circulate these testimonials as far as you can because it demonstrates your authority online and your quality or leadership within your business industry.