WHEN YOU'RE NOT GETTING ENOUGH REVIEWS

Unlike many other parts of your marketing campaign, the number of reviews that come in for your business can vary greatly from month-to-month, and—since your customers are the ones deciding whether to leave the reviews—we often have little control over the volume. 

However, there are a few things that you can do to encourage your customers to leave reviews about their service. Let's review.

HOW TO ENCOURAGE REVIEWS

Encourage your employees to ask customers to leave a review if they enjoyed working with your company. Consider adding a link to leave reviews in digital or print company correspondence to your customers. 

Some tips:

  • Make it as easy as possible for customers to leave reviews for your business.
  • Ask customers to leave a review right after they've concluded business with you.
  • If you have their email address, follow up several days later.
  • Encourage your employees to ask customers for reviews.

BE HONEST

Your customers will appreciate your honesty if you tell them:

  • "I'd really appreciate it if you left us a review on Google. It helps other customers find us."
  • "Your feedback can help us improve our services and products. Can you leave us a review if you have a chance?"

WHAT NOT TO DO

  • Don't try to bribe your customers: Giving your customer some form of incentive in exchange for an online review can have long-lasting negative effects. That customer might wonder if they can trust the reviews for your business; how many of them have been "bought" with such incentives, and which ones are sincere? This may dampen their enthusiasm about your business and sharing word-of-mouth advertising. It might even keep them from coming back.
  • Don't ask your family members to leave reviews: You'd be surprised how good your prospective customers are at sniffing out which reviews feel authentic and which ones feel overly positive, forced, or not from a real customer. Here's a telltale sign: the review doesn't mention anything about the actual service or product they received.
  • Don't fall for companies that promise hundreds of reviews: First, Google and other review sites are aware that there are companies that can create spammy reviews, and they have ways of telling when this is happening and punishing listings that engage in that behavior. As with the reviews in the example above, these are probably bad reviews that are low on the authenticity scale.

TALK TO US

If you're concerned about the reviews you've been receiving (or not receiving, in this case), talk to your 5 Fold sales representative. We'd be happy to brainstorm ways for your business to get authentic reviews from real customers that help drive your campaign forward.