By: Dennis Paul | September 28, 2017

How to get Good Reviews on Yelp, Google and Facebook

How to get good reviews on Yelp, Google and Facebook

It’s no secret that positive online reviews are crucial to small business success. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs overlook this simple truth.

Business owners must focus on the three most important review platforms — Yelp, Google, and Facebook — and put a strategy in place for growing their own positive online reviews.

Here’s why. . .

Meet Sally 

Imagine this scenario: Sally owns a coffee shop, serving up the most delicious coffee in her city. People come from far and wide to taste her specialty — roasted espresso.

All is well in Sally’s world. . . until one fateful day.

A man wanders into Sally’s cafe and orders the famed espresso. For whatever reason, the espresso arrives to his table cold and flavorless. These things happen. But the man’s already bad morning takes a sharp turn for the worse, and he takes his anger to the internet.

This happens every single day. People are too quick to share their grievances with the world.

And small business owners, like Sally, pay the heavy price.

The very next day Sally noticed a decline in business. The 1-star review, accompanied by the man’s toxic words was enough to tarnish the image of her cafe. Eventually Sally recovered from the bad review, but it cost her a loss in revenue, countless headaches, and even sleepless nights.

It’s Human Nature to Focus on the Negative

The phenomenon is real. According to Aeon, negative information affects people more strongly than positive information. That is, it will take several positive reviews to make a noticeable difference in a business, while one negative review can spell disaster.

So, now you know the consequences of a single bad review. But, before you start seeking positive online reviews for your business, you have to ask yourself why. Why do you want these reviews? The answer should be simple: you want to learn the strengths and weaknesses of your product or service so that you can improve on your offer and satisfy more customers more frequently.

Help Scout suggests you consider these three things before seeking feedback from customers:

1. What are you looking to improve?
2. What will you do with the feedback?
3. What channel works best for your goals?

Tips and Tactics for Getting Good Online Reviews

All right, we’ve established the importance of good reviews and the severity of bad ones. And we know the mindset we should have when approaching our customers for feedback. Now here’s how to get good online reviews for your business. And keep in mind, these tactics will help no matter what industry you’re in:

• Ask your family and friends to write a positive review
• Add the review link to your email signature
• Add the review link to your website along with simple instructions
• Ask current customers to leave a positive review
• Reach out to your customers who have left a positive review in the past
• Ask satisfied customers for a review when you talk with them on the phone
• Begin an email marketing campaign

(By Local Vox)

Take these tips and tactics for getting good online reviews and incorporate them into your weekly routine. Soon it will become habit and pay dividends for the success of your small business.

And, if you really want to ace the review game, you can sign up with third-party companies that streamline the review process for you, allowing your customers to easily leave positive reviews for your product or service. Plus, with many of these companies, the reviews your customers write will automatically post to all the major outlets such as Yelp, Google and Facebook.

Managing your Reviews

This is not “set it and forget it.” Once you have your plan in place, you must manage both the good and bad reviews by responding to them.

Responding to reviews in a timely manner will show your current and future customers that you care. And a little caring goes a long way in business. Often times, when someone reads a bad review, they’ll let it slide if they see the company was willing to correct the issue. This is why responding to reviews is so important.

In the same way, responding to positive reviews speaks volumes to your customer service. It says that your customer’s happiness is your number one priority.

Pro-tip: If you do come across a dissatisfied customer, try to deal with the issue before they leave a bad review online. Go ahead and give them your contact info and be willing to discuss their issue in person. This tactic might even earn you a loyal customer for life.

Finally, without a doubt the most important thing you can do to ensure good online reviews is to simply offer your customers an experience that is so positive they can’t help but jump online and sing your praises to the world.

All right, you now have everything you need as a business owner or manager to keep your company or brand in the most positive light. If you follow these basic principles and tips on how to get good online reviews and avoid bad reviews, you’ll be on your way to putting more smiles on your customer’s faces and ultimately dominating your industry.