4 Ways To Increase Online Reviews
Getting your customers to leave their feedback on some of the major search and online directories is a great way to help increase your online exposure for potential customers. Review sites like Yelp, Google+, and Houzz typically show up very high in search results when a consumer is looking for a service company.
There are plenty of techniques and ways service companies receive online reviews from their customers. If you are still struggling with the best approach for your business, below are four ways that can help increase your online reviews.
1 Set Expectations Right Upfront
From the moment you are closing the job, begin to let your new or existing customer know that you want to do a great job and make sure they are 100% pleased. Then let them know that after the project is done you would like your customer to do a review about the experience online. This does not have to sound sales driven or pushy. Just a quick conversation, a heads up! Get them to acknowledge this up front!
2. Give Them a Report Postcard
If you have already prepped a customer up front, you can follow up at the end of a job with a simple report card in the form of a post card. This card should take no more than a minute to fill out. One of the questions should be asking again for an online review. I’d then recommend that you get the customer to commit by checking a box of his/her review site of choice: Google+, Yelp, Houzz, etc. Then the customer either hands this card back to you or mails it back to you.
3 Turn Email & Paper Compliments Into Online Reviews
It is easy to get a customer to write a note or send an email praising the work your team has done. I have found that some customers will forget to write the online review but will send the postcard you give them with their testimonial written on it! Other times they will write a note on a final invoice, send a formal letter or note or just send an email. Yet what do you do with those handwritten or digital praises?
Send a note back to your customer or call and thank them for the kind words. Then ask them something like this, “Would you mind sharing something similar online for us? It helps other homeowners when researching us before they hire us too.”
4. Final Follow Up & Thank you
Now, assuming your customers filled out the report card and agreed to do an online review, do a final check online within 2 weeks. Sometimes it does take awhile for a client to follow through with what they said they would do. Check to see if the review is where they agreed to write it.
If they have not written the review just yet, you could then send them a simple email or call to do a final check in. This check up is not just to find out if they will do a review. No, this will sound a little desperate. The most important thing to find out is if they are still happy with the work. Sometimes, even in such a short amount of time, little things happen. If all is well, you can prompt them about the final review. It might sound something like this, “I did not see the online review you wrote. Can you point out where you wrote the review?” or you simple ask if they needed simple directions on how or where to post.
About David Chism
David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.
