You’ve recently started a business and are ready to begin collecting business reviews. Don’t worry, it isn’t necessarily a tricky thing to achieve.
But it does take time. And, it does take hard work.
Thing is, it's not all about the review. It’s also about the service or product provided—the quality of the experience that is offered to the customer.
If you’re mastering the experience you provide, your business will do more than capture many reviews. It will grow along with them.
Because increased Google reviews lead to better SEO, which improves your local search ranking on the Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). For local businesses, your search engine results page ranking is a difference maker.
It’s the main way (especially on mobile) for new customers to find you.
Getting the first 100 Google reviews for your service business is an important milestone. Reviews not only provide social proof that can help potential customers make their decision, but they also improve your business's online presence on Google.
Claim Your Google My Business Listing
Of course, if you haven’t already, the first step is to claim your Google business profile.
This is your business hub on the Google platform. It’s how you control what’s seen on Google Maps and Google Search. But it mainly functions as a glance for your customers—and potential customers—to know the basics about your business.
We’ve put together a guide for claiming a Google business listing. By following this guide you’ll clearly understand the process of building a business page and the Google business profile platform.
If you haven't done this yet, you can start the process on Google's business profile page.
Provide Excellent Service
And this goes without saying—the key to getting positive reviews is to provide an exceptional service that exceeds customer expectations.
Look, we’re not here to tell you how to run your business.
But, we are in the business of review acquisition, and know first-hand that excellent service leads to positive reviews.
After all, if you’re in business and you care about your clients, you’ll make sure your service is as good as it can be, and you’ll continuously seek to improve it.
Ask for Reviews
This is an important thing to remember to do: review requests.
Ask for Google reviews.
Many customers—if not most—won't leave a review unless prompted to do so. If you’re a small business, you should always be asking for a review.
After you provide an exceptional service as only you can, always ask your customers to leave a review. You can do this in person with Taptik, via email, or even through a message on your receipt or invoice.
As a business owner, you and your team should be engaging with your customers and asking for their feedback.
By asking for Google reviews you’ll start to grow your community. You’ll then have a transparent line of contact with your customers and their feedback.
The reviews you capture on Google will then influence your search rankings and result in more customers. In fact, according to Podium.com, over 60% of customers are likely to leave a review if prompted and provided with a link.
When you combine asking for Google reviews and Taptik, you 10x your reviews.
Make it Easy to Review
Simplify the process for your customers.
Using Taptik does that in person. But there are still customers who may choose to not leave a review. You can capture them using email follow-ups, through social media, or on your invoices.
The bottom line is that you make it accessible, and you make it easy.
With Taptik, you can capture Google reviews in a tap, making it the easiest way to capture reviews from customers, on the spot.
Get the low-down on your customer experience and start capturing reviews.
Respond to Customer Reviews
Positive or negative: you need to respond.
According to Womply.com, people spend up to 49% more money at businesses that reply to reviews. They go on to say that 75% of businesses don’t respond to their reviews at all.
The 25% of businesses that do respond to reviews earn 35% more revenue than average.
And, you need to respond in a professional way. Sometimes reading a negative review can elicit an angry response, but it’s important to approach reviews calmly and genuinely.
Respond to the good reviews and to the bad reviews.
This shows customers that you value their feedback, and it boosts your local SEO.
When you approach negative reviews, apologize, address their concerns, and offer a solution. This might even prompt them to update their review or rating.
If it’s a really bad customer experience, try offering them a way to make it up. Invite them back to the restaurant for an improved experience.
Keep in mind: you can report and request that bad reviews are removed. Especially the ones that are spammy, over-reactionary, plain old lies, and fake reviews.
In a nutshell, be active with your Google reviews. Engage with the customers that genuinely engage with you. And provide potential solutions to those who may have had a poor experience.
You’ll reap the rewards as you’re labelled a business that cares.
Incentivize Reviews
Who doesn’t enjoy a reward for completing a task?
It’s almost like a real-life quest.
If you’re up for it, you can offer small incentives to your customers to leave a review. Like, save 5% on your next meal if you leave us a Google review.
Take note—the incentive should be for writing a review, not for writing a positive review, which is against Google's policy.
Add a little extra pizazz to your online review acquisition.
Promote Your Google Reviews
That valuable customer feedback you get from Google reviews serves multiple purposes. It also functions as social proof for potential customers.
Social proof is the proof in the pudding that your business provides satisfaction.
Share your positive reviews on your social media platforms, in key spots on your website, and on other marketing channels.
Give potential customers a taste of what to expect from you with social proof.
Implement The Feedback
Don’t just think of reviews as people’s opinions. Think of them as valuable customer feedback.
Your customers are your lifeblood.
If they are making recommendations. Or asking for adjustments. Maybe they’re just complimenting the service by confirming that you’re doing a good job. Or maybe it’s just negative feedback.
Whatever they say, read it, consider it and implement it if it makes sense for your business.
Make sure you are always using their feedback to continually improve your service.
Getting your first 100 Google reviews can take time and effort, but it's a worthwhile investment that can significantly boost your online reputation and visibility.
Remember to be patient and persistent, and always prioritize providing exceptional service. Happy customers lead to more customers.
Get more Google reviews with Taptik
Make getting Google reviews a part of your marketing strategy. Add Taptik to your everyday operations and get more Google reviews.
Thanks to Taptik’s quick and easy customer interaction you can get even more Google reviews than you dreamed.