What are customers talking about your business? Is it good or bad? The best way to know this is to have reviews on your Google My Business profile space. It is one of the most trustworthy search engines. It hosts around 73% of the business’s online reviews. So, if you want to improve your business reputation amid new and old customers, you must be on Google Business. 

Getting feedback for your services and products helps you optimize and enhance offerings. You can know better what a customer wants. The reviews help you understand the glitches in the online business processing or store channels. Accordingly, you may review and eliminate the aspects affecting the customer or user experience. 

7 powerful strategies to encourage reviews from your customers

Claiming your business profile on Google My Business Profile is the first step. When you create a basic Google My Business profile, you see something like “Own this business?” You must click this link to complete the process of claiming the business. It is for those businesses that have not claimed to be the owners of the business online. Here are other aspects that may help encourage the customers to provide reviews:

1. Ease up the reviewing process

Nobody wants to review a business by following a lengthy process. Your customers may like the product and may be eager to review it. However, they may quickly lose interest if it takes time to post the review online. Thus, don’t just ask the customers. Instead, guide them on how to do it. The best way you can ease up the process is by providing the review link. 

Test it before providing or launching it for the customers with every campaign or product. The customer will simply click the link and reach the review page. They will leave out genuine reviews about the product or service experience.

2. Link the Google business page with the website

If the customer wants to review the product/ services, they would like to explore the website first. It should be well-engaging, personalized and optimized to your general customers/ target audience. Place CTAs strategically across the website to promote conversions and leads. Likewise, you can encourage customers to click the Google Business review link. 

You can either provide this link on the header of the website introduction or the “Contact Us” page. You can also provide below the testimonials that you mention on your site from Google. Some good reviews may encourage the users to provide theirs, too. 

You can also encourage users to drop a review by launching freebies. It could be a product in demand or something else. Analyze the aspect that may trigger customers to leave a review. If it means investing or loading up your inventory, do so. Identify the amount required and the cash flexibility you share. 

For additional help, check a small business financing loan online. You may get it on the same day as your requirements. It may attract more customers to review your products/ services. These are mostly unsecured and help you qualify quickly. You just need a fair credit history, valid business accounts, and bank statements to qualify. Check your business plan and update it if you must. It is a key aspect of securing instant finance for your business.

3. Understand Google review policies

Following the Google business review guidelines is a must for every business. Not doing so may affect the business’s reputation and online visibility.  If Google finds your reviews to be irrelevant and does not match the standards, you could lose the entire business profile. 

Thus, don’t write fake reviews. Take time to understand and create the best strategies to encourage customer reviews. Moreover, such feedback lasts longer on the page and helps new customers find you easily. Here are some Guidelines from Google regarding representing your business online: 

• Represent your business as consistently represented and recognized in the real world. 
• Make sure to provide an accurate business address
• Only a few categories should describe your business well.
• Make sure to go through prohibited and restricted content policies before setting up the page.

4. Provide a QR code scanner

Sometimes, the link does not work and it may irritate the customer eager to drop a review. If it does not open even after multiple clicks, you may simply lose the review. It could affect your business and the conversion speed.  So, what should you do to avoid this? You can instead provide a QR code scanner that takes the customer to the specific business review page.

 It is also better for businesses with offline stores. You can include the business QR link to your business cards or posters. It will work just like a payment QR code scanner that you might have. What could be better than getting a review along with the payment?  It eases up the deal for the customers. As they simply need to scan the deal to review the product. 

5. Reply instantly and send a thank you mail

You may get a review by following the above aspects. However, just having feedback from the customer would not help. Instead, you must be active while replying to their feedback. Alternatively, they would not review it the next time. 

Generally, you must respond to the review within 24 business hours. It reveals that you care about the customer taking a moment from his life to review your business. Or better, you can personalize this experience by sending a “THANK YOU” mail. It could be like: 

“Thank you for sparing a moment to review our products. Your trust and confidence mean the world to us. We strive to provide the best-ever services for you.”

6. Use review request templates 

How about making the review thing interesting for the customers? Yes, you can do so by sending interactive review templates to customers by mail. For example, you can check Google’s Marketing kit for free stickers and review templates. 

Alternatively, you may find ample free review templates on the Canva site. You can just copy and paste those templates on emails, marketing campaigns, and social media posts. If required, you can do that on your website, too. It helps promote your business and encourage valid feedback all along.

7. Provide excellent customer service and experience 

All this is in vain if you don’t fall onto the customer’s expectations. To get the best reviews, you must provide an enhanced user experience. Identify and review the business aspects that affect the very thing. For example- a delay in delivery may turn off a customer. Thus, this issue can be highlighted and countered by doing a root analysis. 

Try to know the reason behind the delay and provide a streamlined experience. Customers love to help a business grow, which takes care of them. Thus, analyze aspects affecting the customer experience and work on it. Yes, it may take some time to sort the things, but it’s worth it!

Bottom line

The fact is that customers only trust what other customers say. Most active purchasers believe that a review posted by a stranger is as reliable as personal recommendations. Thus, make it a habit to encourage and ask your existing customers for reviews. You must do this with every new launch, initiative, or seasonal sale. Moreover, make it as easy as you can for the customers to post the reviews. It will help you get more feedback on your Google My Business page. 

Description:  If you want to get more business reviews for your products on Google, read ahead. The blog discusses the strategies that might help.