Customers are taking their experiences online and sharing them with the world, and online review sites like Citysearch, Yelp and TripAdvisor are making it much easier for them to do.
Every business wants their page on these sites to be filled with positive reviews, but the only way that this is going to happen is if you do the following.
Claim your business page.
You need to make sure that you’re claiming your business page on online review sites. This not only allows you to respond to the reviews you receive, but it also allows you to create a profile about your business. When your profile is more thoroughly filled out, more customers will be willing to leave a review because they’ll know that this page really does belong to you. If you don’t claim your page and allow your customers to do it for you, it will not look professional, and you may not earn as many reviews. Plus, claiming your page allows you to provide the correct information. This can help keep false negative reviews off your page.
Provide exemplary service.
You’re not going to earn a positive review if you don’t give your customers a great experience. Make sure that your employees are trained on how to provide the best possible service. Go over the top to ensure that your customers are having a brilliant experience and keep your business clean. When your customers have a great experience with your business, they’ll be more willing to share this experience with others through online review sites.
Read past reviews and make adjustments.
If your company has a few negative reviews, make sure to read over them thoroughly and see if you notice any patterns. Then, look into the areas of your business that received the complaints. This way, you can take the right steps to fix the problem. Once this problem is fixed, you won’t have to worry about receiving a negative review about it. Plus, if a person who left a negative review came into your establishment again and saw that the issue was fixed, it may incline them to remove their review or to write a new positive review.
Tell your customers where to go.
It’s a good idea to print up little business cards or flyers that have the URL to your online review page. Some customers may not leave positive reviews for your company because they don’t know where to go. If you have this information typed out and presented nicely, you can hand it to them and they’ll be more inclined to go home and write the review.
You can also place links on your website or social media sites. This way, when customers visit your website, they have an easy way to find out where and how to leave a review for your business. Make sure that the link works and takes them directly to your page. If the review-leaving process is difficult or time consuming, it will deter your customers from leaving one.
Earning a positive online review takes a great deal of effort on your part. You need to make sure that your customers know where to go, and you need to make sure that you’re providing the best service possible to all of your customers. When you “wow” them, they’ll be more willing to jump online and write that positive review.
Caroline Jones is a review management specialist and avid writer. She often shares advice on review tracking tactics and recently wrote about how to get positive reviews.