How to Get More Google Reviews?

The best form of marketing is word-of-mouth, when satisfied customers  rave about your products or services. When people hear of an app or product that they really like, especially from a company with a strong website that encourages sharing blogs, social media posts, and other content, they like bringing other people on board with them to enjoy it, too. But it’s hard to get a bunch of your friends or colleagues to try the same product to find out whether or not it’s worth the cost or investment. That’s why consumers rely on customer reviews. In fact, 88% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations. Before making a purchase, 90% of consumers read reviews on the company and product that they’re interested in. 

The key, then, is to get consumers to want to leave good google reviews. Having a substantial amount of glowing google reviews leads to improving your ranking on Google search results pages, which generates more traffic to your website, increases sales or leads, and overall leads to a boost in revenue. If you have been wondering how to get Google reviews, then take the time now to see how valuable getting more Google reviews is for your business.

Get More Google Reviews: Asking Directly Before They Go

The most direct way to get more google my business reviews is to, well, just ask! After your visitors have made a transaction, read to the end of a blog post, or have had a conversation with one of your customer service representatives, this is an ideal time to ask them to take a survey or leave feedback on their experience. If you just helped a customer and made their day, then they are the perfect person to ask to leave a review. 

Utilize Email To Ask For Feedback

Another great way to get more google business reviews is by using well-designed branded emails. They’re great for showing appreciation for their patronage, product recommendations based on previous purchases, or to serve as a reminder for things left in their online cart. It shows how much customer satisfaction means to you, and is a continuation of the customer service experience they had when making their transaction or receiving a service.

It’s also a great way to ask your customers for their feedback. Let your customers know that you do read all feedback, and care greatly to hear from them. Explain briefly how important their feedback is to your business, and conclude with a link to leave a Google review. 

Create A Custom Google Review Link For Your Website

When you add a review link to your website or create a custom Google review link, you increase your chances of getting more Google reviews because of how easy you made it for your customers to give their thoughts. When you create a custom link, a simple box pops up for the user, which means that they don’t have to go log in anywhere, click through a series of questions or any other obstacles. It’s also easy to make a custom Google review link, too:

• Begin by locating your business on this page: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/place-id
• Next, copy your Google place ID, which is a textual identifier that distinguishes one place from any others
• Paste that onto the end of this URL: http://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=<YOUR ID GOES HERE>

Don’t Get Sucked Into Negativity

There are two key things you must avoid doing:

• “Review-gating” 
• Responding poorly to a customer complaint

Review-gating is a practice frowned upon by Google as an unethical technique and must be avoided. Otherwise, you risk Google My Business removing all of your reviews that you have ever received. That’s because review-gating is a deceptive practice where opinions are solicited from customers via email or online forms, but all of the feedback is then vetted so that only the positive responses are posted online. While you may be thinking “what’s wrong with hiding my negative reviews? Isn’t that better for my business?” On the contrary, responding to negative customer reviews boosts your company’s image by showing your matchless customer service and whatever-it-takes attitude. Publicly handling a complaint in a positive way can improve your reputation. If you want to get Google reviews, then you have to accept all of them.

And while it seems obvious that getting into a confrontation with a customer online is a bad idea, in the heat of the moment you might justify letting someone know how you feel about their criticizing what you’ve worked hard on building – your business, product or service. Maybe the customer actually doesn’t know what they’re talking about and are being indignant. Never write a response right away. Consult with other team members, if needed. Craft a response that you’ll be proud to say was one of your finest moments in improving customer service.

Respond To Google My Business Reviewers Quickly

Another important point to keep in mind when you are looking to get more Google my business reviews is to respond to reviewers quickly. This goes along with what was mentioned earlier about not reacting to online attacks with more attacks. Responding promptly to a customer’s negative review builds confidence in your business even though they’re upset with their experience or product. You can save customers from going to other competitors just by dedicating yourself to promptly responding to what they write. When responding to negative reviews you want to be sure to apologize for the issue, take responsibility for it and then resolve it privately with the customer. 

Provide Exemplary Customer Service

If you are going to want to get more google my business reviews well then you better be providing exemplary customer service. There are a number of things that you can do to improve customer service:

• Reduce wait or hold times between a customer reaching out to your business and receiving a response from one of your representatives
• Value the attention to detail so that everyone on your customer service team prioritizes that over sloppiness
• Keep all communications professional but warm so that customers feel like they are being helped by a real human being who cares about them
• Educate your customer service representatives so consumers’ issues are resolved by knowledgeable individuals who have the power to effectively fix the problem

Leave Something Behind 

A leave-behind is a type of marketing or promotional product, such as a business card or a pen or a cup, that includes your company’s logo, phone number, and even tips on how to get the most out of the product you’ve purchased. These are especially popular among local contractors.

You can get creative with these. Valuable objects in the home, such as magnets and bottle openers, may be used more frequently, and thus stay on the forefront of your customers’ minds so that you are able to get more google my business reviews. 

Request a Google Review More Than Once

While it is not recommended to constantly call and email multiple times a day to get more google business reviews – in fact, it might even lead to a bad review – you don’t want to ask too few times, either. There is a balance between asking more than once to give customers an opportunity to leave a review whenever is convenient for them and pestering them. Sending a reminder the day after a transaction followed by weekly reminders is sufficient to remind customers without triggering a sigh or grunt of frustration when they see another email from you. More than 3 requests, however, and you’re more likely to irritate them or simply have your request ignored. Focusing on optimizing your email engagement metrics over time will be a great way to determine the appropriate rate of requests, and when “enough is enough” and you can disengage with the customer before they unsubscribe. 

Use Google Review Generation Tools

Another way to get more google business reviews is to use a review generation platform such as Nearby Now, Broadly, NiceJob and BirdEye automate the process of asking your customers for more google reviews. The reason why you should consider using one of these platforms is that otherwise, you have to manually or individually ask each customer for their feedback. If they made a late-night transaction or never interacted with customer service at your business, then they can be completely missed in the follow-up process of asking for a review unless they happened to see a prompt for it on their order confirmation page.

Whether you own a large business with multiple locations, offer specific services or operate a small business, automating your reviews takes a lot of the work out of your hands so you can get more google my business reviews and ultimately focus on your company. You can also customize alert settings for many of these generators, which enables you to be informed quickly of negative reviews that have been received. 

Make It Easy To Leave Feedback

The last thing any customer wants to do is jump through hoops to do something voluntarily. Keep your feedback process simple, and make sure it is optimized to be completed by mobile users. Maybe you’ve been asked to fill out a survey that required you to complete page after page of questions about your experience, many of which had black-and-white answers that may not have fit your experience. And certainly having to log in and snoop around for a place to leave feedback is annoying enough to make someone abandon the endeavor completely. Your customers are busy people, and are ultimately doing you a favor – so keep it simple. That is how you can get more reviews on Google while making it easy for your customers to give their thoughts.