Everybody knows that a great review is worth a thousand sales pitches, but some business owners aren’t making the most of the reviews that they’re getting.
Whilst getting a great review takes a great product, exemplary customer service and careful management of a notable review platform, some of us fall a little flat when it comes to getting that review in front of the people who need to see it, potential customers.
Whether you’ve got one great review or a thousand, these tips will help ensure that every single review that your business gets, generates as much new business as possible. So whether you consider yourself a seasoned business person, or a brand new start-up entrepreneur, there’ll be a tip for you to follow here.
Get Professionally Reviewed
As a fledgling business, it can be a little trickier to get good customer reviews, as your customer base isn’t quite established yet. However, established businesses and start-ups alike can both benefit from a glowing expert review.
Some review sites will approach your business and ask to review a flagship product or service, but there’s nothing to stop you from approaching them. The most important thing is to look for a review service that is well-known in your industry, or is well-known in general.
For example, Which? is a service that most people trust to be totally impartial and they review a huge variety of businesses. In order to do this, they employ experts from all different fields, so that their review of a mobile phone can be just as in-depth and relevant as their review of a set of cookware.
The other type of review site is one that is highly specialised, and online casino reviews are a good example. Vegas Slots Online employs experts to test casino sites for a whole host of different features, including safety & security measures, the types of bonuses available to customers, and the variety of games on offer.
This site offers a very specific set of reviews and will therefore be visited by clientele who are looking for casino sites only.
If your business operates in a niche space of the market then it can be a good idea to consider getting review by one of these specialized sites, to ensure that your potential customers know that you excel in your area.
Add Value For Every Customer
A great way to ensure that you are always getting 5-star reviews is to make sure your customers always receive the 5-star treatment. This may seem obvious, but it is surprising the number of businesses that don’t go the extra mile when it is so simple to. For example, if you’re running a retail business where customers often buy gifts, then include gift wrapping as standard.
Although saving money for your business should always be a priority, the cost of a simple piece of wrapping paper and a ribbon is minimal, but the feeling a customer gets when they see the care that has been given to wrapping their purchase is huge. Consider these financial costs and emotional benefits and work out how you can add value.
It could be that you decide that your customer service is where you can add the most value, particularly if you have a service-based business.
Simple touches like always referring to your customer by name in emails, or offering them a gift or voucher on their birthday make your loyal customers feel known and remembered. Little touches like this will go a long way to making your customers feel as though they really ought to leave that glowing review.
Ensure You’re Appearing Where You Need to
Now that you’ve got your glowing reviews, it’s time to make sure that they’re getting seen. Appearing on professional review sites is a great step, but asking your customers to review you on the relevant sites is a great idea too.
Every business should appear on Google Reviews, as it is a simple and free way to make sure your great reviews reach as many potential customers as possible. After setting that up you can move on to the more specialized review sites.
For example, tradespeople could consider joining a site such as Trust A Trader, a site that holds reviews of local tradespeople. There are sites such as this one for all kinds of different industries, Yelp is another popular example. These sorts of pages are frequented by potential customers and good reviews can really boost your business.
It’s also important to note that whilst there are horror stories of bad reviews on Yelp destroying businesses, Yelp does have a very fair policy of weeding out malicious reviews.
So, if you do sign up and feel that your business has been unfairly targeted by someone who did not have a negative experience then you can contact Yelp with evidence and they will remove the negative review.
Keeping your public reviews overwhelmingly positive can seem like hard work, but these are your best advertisements. Make sure to check in on your customers’ wants and needs regularly, keep your communications personal and keep on top of everywhere you appear online.
If you get some particularly great reviews, then you could even make a testimonials page on your own website.
