Back in the day, we relied on the recommendations of friends and family before using a service of purchasing a product. Today, we live in a culture that’s run on online reviews. 90% of customers say that online reviews influence their purchasing decision. This means every business needs to focus on maximising the number of 5-star reviews for their business.
Benefits of More 5-Star Reviews
Builds Customer Trust – Positive reviews are a testament from customers that your product or service is good, and receiving 5-star reviews signals to potential customers that your business is trustworthy.
Improves Your Search Ranking – If you want to increase your search ranking organically, getting more 5-star reviews is a great option. Google adds ‘SEO points’ when your business earns 5-star reviews which increase your web listing ranking in Google’s algorithm.
Boosts Your Sales – Customers are likely to spend 31% more on a business with “excellent reviews”. 72% say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more.
How To Get More 5-Star Reviews
Google is the most popular search engine, with over 70% of the search market share. More and more people are now using Google for reviews and businesses with more positive reviews have greater visibility.
Facebook is the biggest social media platform, with around 2.2 billion users across the globe and 15 million in Australia alone. One in three users looks at Facebook reviews
What You Can Do:
1. Offer Excellent Products/Services
An obvious strategy is to address your customer’s need. Go to extraordinary lengths to exceed their expectations. Ensure they come out not just with a resolved problem, but experience so pleasant that they want to share it with the world.
2. Politely Ask Your Customers For Reviews
Reach out to your most loyal customers. Nearly seven out of ten customers will leave a review if asked. Directly ask them to leave a review, for example: “Thank you for using our service. How did it work for you? We’d appreciate it if you could give us a 5-star review in this link…”
3. Respond to Reviews
Significantly improve your online reviews by improving your response rate to feedback. Customers expect a response regardless if they provide positive or negative feedback. Thank any positive feedback and acknowledge and remain respectful to any negative feedback. The way you respond to reviews can be the deciding factor in a customers mind.
4. Don’t Wait Too Long to Ask
A customer is more likely to leave a review immediately after purchasing a product or receiving a service. Send them an email or a text message to let them know that you’d love to hear what they think about your service and if they could give you a 5-star review.
5. Add a Review Link on your Website
You can create custom review link that takes customers directly to the review page on your website.
6. Incentives For Reviews
Create opportunities within your company to incentivise your staff to achieve 5-star reviews. For example, if a team member looks after a client and they leave a 5-star review, offer the team member a bonus voucher. You can also incentivise reviews from customers by providing a discount or deal when they next shop with you in exchange for a review.
7. Have your Google and Facebook page as part of your business email signature.
By placing a link to your business pages, you can drive more traffic and thus get more reviews.
Google Specific Tactics
- Create a Google My Business profile and make sure all information is accurate and complete.
- Verify your business. Google will allow your reviews to pop up in map searches when you verify your business.
Facebook Specific Tactics
- Make sure your Review tab is available and activated.
- Encourage your customers to post photos of your products or store – an excellent feature available in Facebook Reviews.
Online reviews help establish social proof. They are an initial verification that the product or service is trustworthy or that other potential customers should look around for a better option.
Sources:
https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-to-get-more-online-reviews-and-deal-with-bad-ones/
https://adespresso.com/blog/25-proven-ways-to-get-more-customer-reviews-on-social-media/
https://rizereviews.com/can-5-star-reviews-really-help-your-business/
https://embedsocial.com/blog/facebook-recommendations/
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