Anyone who has been in business for a long time knows this fact: Your satisfied clients rarely (without prompting) write positive reviews about your business, but that one nasty client who you probably shouldn’t have sold in the first place, he’ll slam you all over every review site he can, starting with leaving a good ole’ Google Review about you, which is one of the most viewed on the internet for local businesses.
We’re not really talking about the subject of Marketing when we talk about Google Reviews, we’re talking more about the subject of Public Relations – How people perceive your company, your public image.
Let’s also confront the fact that we all use these reviews personally, even though we all sort of know that out of all of the reviewers, that one scathing review was probably one of those guys who is never happy with anything. We all view them and “average out” the number of stars or reviews on Google, Yelp, Merchant Circle, etc. So this is a subject that needs to be understood and controlled by us. If you leave this one to chance, you’ll look bad.
I was working with a Cosmetics Dentist once, a good one at that, who never spent any time on his internet marketing or presence at all. He had 1 positive Google review and then one psychotic client of his just lambasted him on Google Reviews. So he looked 50/50, one good, one bad. Now, in that there is only 2 reviews, this will give people pause when future potential clients are checking him out (97% of all people will check out the reputation of a service they are going to use online PRIOR to even calling or using them). This would not have occurred if he had 38 4-5 star reviews and one 1 star review.
So, we have to put this under our control. Luckily this is simple.
There are several ways we can do this:
First, let’s email them. If you’re not collecting your clients email addresses, you should be, so this assumes that you are.
1. Go onto your company’s Google Map listings page.
2. Go to the About Tab, you’ll see your reviews to the right.
3. Copy the full Address in the address bar of your browser into an email.
4. Send this link, with very, very short and clear directions on selecting “write a review”, asking them politely to do so.
So easy. Do not make it complicated, it must be able to be done by your clients in 5 minutes or less, otherwise they will not do it, and not because they do not like you, but because they are busy people. Do not underestimate the shortness of people’s attention span these days. Always politely appeal to their satisfaction with your company in asking them to take 5 minutes to write a positive review.
Now, if you have an office, such as a Dentist or Chiropractor you would:
1. At reception, set up a computer.
2. When a client is finished with their service, after they have paid and set their next appt. with reception, reception will ask them, at this computer, to please log into their Google account and leave a positive review.
3. Once again, it has to be fast or else it will not get done. So, make sure there is a browser already open, a fast one like Chrome. Then make sure that Google is open so they can quickly log into their account.
You can come up with many ideas on how to get this done, it is not complicated, it is more that people just don’t do it. You could also do this for Yelp, Merchant Circle or any other major Reviews Site.
It may seem like a simple, maybe unnecessary thing to do for your “PR”, but ask your clients how often they read these reviews on Amazon before buying, ask your husband or wife how often they read these kinds of reviews before going to a restaurant. The answers to those questions should re-adjust your view on the importance of spending some time getting some good reviews.
Sincerely,
Dan York, Founder