Get SMART About Reviews

Rule #1- Always ask for reviews, and not just from your loyal customers. The request for a review should be similar to giving out your business card: a spontaneous act of impulse. Doing this here and there is not effective; you should have an ongoing, steady stream of customers with never too many or too few at any given time. Otherwise, Google and similar services may “ghost” many of your reviews, and the entire act of obtaining solid reviews will just turn into another annoying thing on your to-do list to be completed when you “have time”

-Communicate to your customers that you’d like their honest feedback whenever possible. Having solid ratings is great but can occasionally look suspicious to prospective customers. You can use reviews as a way of looking flawless when you are not, or they can be used as a learning tool to help you improve – it’s up to you.

-Don’t push reviewers to leave you with certain ratings like “Good”, “Great”, “Excellent”, “4-stars”, “5-stars”, etc. I understand why this is tempting, but you’ll find that most are giving souls whom you don’t have to beg to illicit a positive rating from. If they’re not exceptionally pleased, odds are that they are going to tell you exactly why, which is an excellent opportunity for learning and growth. 

-Don’t ask too many customers to post reviews all at once. Ideally, it should be as near to real-time as can get, like, for lack of a better descriptive term, right “after purchase.”

-You should anticipate a few fair to poor reviews; they are going to be there no matter what. Even if this were not the case, receiving a few not-so-nice reviews is a minimal cost for getting your best fans to speak their minds.

-Don’t dictate to your customer exactly what they should say in a review. Simply explain to them that while more information is ideal, shorter reviews are also acceptable. Also, do not mandate that they mention particular keywords, as this could cause a backlash and get your reviews filtered.

-Get a basic idea of how many reviews your competitors have, where they are located, and their method of obtaining them. This will give you an idea of what the standard is in your particular niche and the level at which reviews are a contrasting figure between you and the competition. Companies in some sectors simply don’t get reviewed, for various reasons. Don’t go crazy trying to get 3 reviews per week if the competition is only getting reviewed 3 times annually.

-Do not give the responsibility of reviews to someone outside your company. It’s typically not a problem if one of your employees does this, but it’s best for the guy in charge to be the one to make the requests.

-Comment on all reviews, not just the negative ones. You don’t want to create the impression that the only way you respond is when you are attacked.

-You should request several different review mediums: not email, not just verbal, not just handouts. Experiment to find the ones that work well, and use those.

-Need top repeat Rule #! Here- Don’t ever stop requesting reviews – keep plugging away.

-You will not get it right 100 percent of the time. Not every request for a review will be honored. Even the ones who do comment occasionally have their reviews filtered. Some may write reviews that you aren’t particularly fond of. But who cares? You’ve built a company. That is a much greater feat than the gathering of reviews. True, it’s not easy but so is everything else that’s worth putting time into. You can do this.

-Some maybe even most people will need to be asked multiple times before they provide a review. It’s OK to ask more than once, just urge them on in a cordial, non-threatening manner. Even this is not always effective, but occasionally, you’ll be happily surprised.

-Save your reviews using two methods: 1. Copy and paste the text from your reviews into a place you’ll be able to easily access at a later date. 2. Take screenshots of reviews that were left on your site, as you do not, and won’t ever, own Google reviews. If you do it this way, you can at least use them as testimonials on your site if the reviews get deleted and you’re 100% positive they’re not coming back.

-Getting reviews can act as a measuring tool/ test of your entire company and practices. For example, if every single one of your customers states that they’d be pleased to leave you a review, but not one of them acts on that, it might be an indication that they don’t have the working relationship with you that you thought they had. Or, if you’re constantly getting 4-star ratings, and nobody hates your service but no one particularly loves it that might be an indication of something else worth taking a second look at. Your reviews aren’t just for the purpose of informing others about your company – they tell you about your company.

If you are in need of assistance in obtaining positive reviews for you company, check out Opt-in Smart Reviews. Smart Reviews offers technology that assists clients in obtaining and maintaining positive reviews for their business.