At the end of the day, the most powerful form of marketing for your brand is what consumers have to say about your products and services.
A customer’s honest review is pure marketing gold. Google Business reviews serve as a virtual word-of-mouth, appearing whenever someone looks for your business online.
But how to get Google reviews? To leverage the power of Google Business reviews effectively, you need a strategy in place. And you are not just aiming for reviews, you want them to be good. Now, that’s a different ball game.
That’s what this blog is all about! Get ready to unpack the secrets to boosting your Google reviews and attracting more customers.
Why Google Reviews Matter?
The customer reviews you see right on the Google search page are like virtual thumbs up or down that can totally sway potential buyers.
Google Business Reviews are an amazing way for businesses to reach a wider audience. Since Google has become a reliable source of information, consumers look at it for social proof before making a decision. Let us look at some of its benefits.
1. Gets Business Critical Feedback
You design your offerings with the customer in mind. Hence, it makes total sense to listen to their feedback to understand what’s working and what’s not.
It’s not just the positive Google reviews that are valuable. Negative feedback can point out the gaps in meeting expectations, giving you a chance to work on them.
Also, keep in mind the evolving consumer needs. This feedback is a clue for you to identify what a modern-day consumer is looking for.
2. Builds Brand Trust
Reviews are modern-day word-of-mouth for building real trust in brands. 93% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. Yes, that’s a massive number!
Consumers believe in other users’ honest reviews more than your brand’s claims. Hearing from firsthand users builds an unbeatable sense of social trust for your brand.
The reviews also help potential customers gather more information about the quality and nature of your customer service, the kinds of problems the business addresses, and more.
3. Enhances Online Visibility and Local Search
60% of customers find and contact businesses directly from local search results. But how do you enhance your local business ranking? Well, Google reviews can help you.
Imagine you are a small town furniture shop. As a best practice, you encourage customers to leave reviews after making a purchase.
This influx of reviews gives your business listing an honest voice in local searches, enhancing the possibility of ranking higher when someone searches “furniture stores near me,” driving more traffic.
4. Attracts More Good Leads
A Google Business profile with good reviews can bring potential customers a step closer to buying from your business.
When people see reviews from satisfied customers, a sense of trust and quality is established, which motivates potential buyers and compels them to choose your offerings over others.
Consumers read around 10 reviews before contacting your business. Therefore, the more positive Google reviews you have, the better your chance of enticing potential leads.
More positive reviews = More leads!
5. Ranks Higher on Maps
Customers searching for a product or a service on maps are likelier to have high purchase intent. That is why ranking well on Maps is important for local search, as it would influence purchase-ready customers to choose your brand.
The key to ranking high on Google Maps depends on many factors, including Google reviews. It would be right to say that Google Maps favors listings with positive reviews.
Good reviews help get your business into the Local Pack. The Local Pack is a SERP feature that appears on the first page with local intent. As visible in the example below, a Local Pack always features a map of the business’s location and three businesses relevant to the search query.
The more reviews and engagement that your business receives, the more Google sees your business as valuable. This can help you rank better on Google Maps and attract more customers.
How to Get Google Reviews: 10 Simple Tips
So now that you believe in Google Reviews’ power and worth, let’s get to the main part.
But before answering how to get more Google Reviews, let us discuss the pre-requisites for obtaining reviews:
- Learn Google Policies: Check out Google’s Terms of Use. To use Google Business Profile Services, a business needs to accept Google’s Terms of Service and Google Business Profile Additional Terms of Service. These documents together are known as “Terms”. Please read the Terms carefully.
- Complete Your Profile: Set up your profile and ensure your listing is complete with the necessary business details such as hours, services, pictures, and the ability for customers to leave reviews.
- Get a ‘Place’ on Google Maps: This will ensure potential buyers can locate you easily. This also provides you with a business profile where customers can leave a review.
- Verify and Claim your Google Business Profile: Creating a listing on Google Maps does not give you control over it. The visibility of your business may still not be optimum on Google Maps until you claim your Google Business Profile listing. An unclaimed listing means the business information is present on Google Maps but still needs to be verified or managed by the business.
Alright, now that you know the benefits of Google reviews and the preconditions for obtaining them, let’s answer your main question – how to get Google reviews for my business? Follow these 10 easy best practices to win positive customer reviews.
1. Win the Customers With Kindness
Reviews are an outcome of consumer’s emotions during their interaction with your business.
Good reviews can trigger a positive emotional response, while a poor experience can evoke negative feelings, leading to negative reviews.
Hence, the right way to get positive Google Reviews is for you and your staff to bring kindness to the experience from the very beginning and give the consumers an outstanding experience.
Make kindness the core of your consumer interaction across all the touchpoints. From the first point of contact to after sales follow-ups, make sure your brand is able to reflect genuine care and empathy.
This will spark positive emotions in the customer, making them think positively about your business. This emotional connection can make them write glowing reviews for you. Such feedback not only boosts reputation but also nurtures new customers.
2. Make it Easy to Access your Review Page
If you want your customers to leave you reviews, make the process simple and convenient for them.
If the review process is too complicated, customers might push it off for later or just skip it altogether.
Many businesses are adopting creative tactics to fetch customer reviews, such as putting QR codes on business cards, product packets, invoices, or thank-you emails.
You can generate a QR Code through any free tool, such as Bitly QR Code Generator, Canva QR Code Generator, Clout, and more.
You can also train your staff to politely request the customers to review the product or service verbally after it has been delivered. Something simple like “If you were satisfied with us today, we’d appreciate you leaving a review!” can help you get good reviews.
3. Asking for Reviews One-on-One
Remember the last time you called customer support for help with a product or service issue? At the end of the call, did the support representative ask for your feedback? You will have to do exactly the same.
Strike up conversations with customers and try to build a good relationship with them. When you think the time is right, simply ask the client for a review of their experience upon checkout.
Here are some examples of how you can ask customers to leave a review
- “We hope that you were able to find what you were looking for. Please leave us feedback in Google Review so that more people can know about your experience with us.“
- “We are happy that we could assist you today. Please share your feedback on Google Review. That would help us a lot.”
- “Thank you for trusting us today. Would you kindly share your review on Google Reviews about your experience?”
You can also send a request for review on customers’ email or SMS, providing easy clickable links for a seamless and quick review process.
For instance, in the image below, you can see pet care centers sending a well-crafted polite request to the customers for reviews. It also has a direct link to the review page for easy and quick access.
4. Incentivize for a Little Motivation
Next tip on How to get Google reviews? Motivate customers with smart incentives.
Aside from creating a frictionless and seamless review process, incentivizing the customers can work like a charm. But beware, Google does not appreciate any financial rewards or incentives.
Google says, “Business owners shouldn’t offer incentives to customers to leave reviews”
So, how do you motivate customers now? Use emotional incentives. For instance, make an emotional appeal such as “We put our heart and soul into the product/service. You can help us by leaving a review.”
You can not reward customers, but there is no problem in incentivizing employees to get customer reviews. Offer extra incentives if the customers mention support representatives’ names in the review.
Getting incentives motivates your staff to provide good service further, which is worthy of an exceptional review. Also, they will make requesting feedback a routine to earn the incentives.
As you can see in the image below, the good experience motivated the customer to leave a positive review while also mentioning the name of the sales representative.
Such reviews highlight the personalized and exceptional service the customer received, boosting the dealership’s reputation and attracting more potential buyers.
But make sure to keep the reviews authentic. Unauthentic Google Reviews can have a negative impact on the business and its reputation.
5. Train and Include Your Customer Service Team
Your customer support team can play a huge role in raking up Google reviews. Since they interact with the customers daily, they are like the face of the company.
Give them a script. It’s necessary to use the appropriate phrase to remove the off-putting vibe and enhance your review request.
Simply saying, “Please review us on Google,” is very direct and kind of off-putting.
Instead, train them in phrases such as “ We hope you had a great experience. Would you kindly take a few minutes to share your thoughts online? A Google Review would be very helpful. It will not only motivate us but help us improve our service. Just a few sentences will go a long way!”
As mentioned already, you can use the incentive system. You can incentivize your employees on the number of Google reviews they help secure. Offer them rewards if a customer is delighted by their service and mentions their name specifically.
6. Add a Google Review Link on the App and Website
It’s about making the process of leaving reviews easy and frictionless for the customer. To encourage customers to leave Google Reviews, add a link to the website and mobile application.
Strategically placing the link on pages such as the homepage, checkout page, contact us page, and others increases the chances of customers leaving a review. To make it more prominent and appealing, you can add a CTA button with a message such as “Share your Review” at the end of the transaction.
If you want to make it even simpler, add a Google review widget. Although Google does not offer this functionality, some plugins can help.
While the link will take the customer to the review page where they can post their comment, the widgets will display the existing reviews on your webpage and mobile app and motivate the satisfied customers to give their reviews.
7. Embrace Positive and Negative Reviews
Businesses do make mistakes. For instance, misplaced orders, bad food taste, delays in delivery, and damage to articles. In such situations, a customer may leave negative feedback about your brand, and many potential customers may take these into consideration while making a decision.
What should you do if you get a negative Google review?
Embrace it. The next time you get a bad review, use it as an opportunity to identify the gaps in your customer service. Listen patiently to your customer issues and apologize for the poor experience. Provide a solution to the customer and keep them updated about the progress of the actions you are taking.
Make it a learning experience. When you get a genuine negative review, ensure you do not give another customer a similar kind of poor experience. Learn from your mistakes and adopt best practices to avoid such errors.
If you are able to solve customer issues promptly, they might even be delighted to write another review—this time a positive one.
If you receive positive feedback, be very specific and thankful for the customer’s trust in you. For the mediocre reviews that are neutral, thank the customer for the good parts and deal promptly with any issue mentioned.
In the end, it’s all about owning up to both the positive and the negative reviews.
8. Harness the Power of Social Media for Google Reviews
Are you wondering if you can use social media to get more Google reviews for your business? You are on the right track because social media is a potent tool for encouraging customers to leave reviews.
Share positive reviews of satisfied customers on your social media channels and provide a link to your Google review page. When people see feedback from other consumers, they are motivated to leave their feedback as well.
For instance, in the above image, WPX.net is elated after receiving positive feedback from a satisfied customer. They shared the feedback on social media, highlighting their consumer-centric nature in the caption.
You can also engage with your audience by responding to their comments and appreciating them for taking the time to write a review. This will give the impression that you are involved in your brand and care about your customers’ suggestions and feedback.
9. “Leave Us a Review” Email
Whether it’s an online or offline purchase, emails are a great way to request feedback while the experience is still fresh in customers’ minds. Send an email with a personal approach, thanking the customer for the purchase and letting them know the value of their review.
Write emails that are clear, concise, and contextual in nature. You can send personalized emails to each customer expressing gratitude for choosing you over the competitor and highlighting the value of their feedback. This personal touch enhances engagement and chances of receiving positive reviews.
To make it more appealing, you can attach a custom review link shortcut in the mail to get them to review your business.
You can use the above reference of the AirBnB for your own business. In the end, use an appropriate Call to Action (CTA) button that guides customers to your review page.
10. Create a “Leave Us a Review“ Page on Your Website
Another effective approach for getting a Google review is to dedicate an entire web page to this purpose. On this Review Us page, you must add a clear CTA button or a link that drives your customers straight to your listings to drop a review.
This will make their access to the review page and the entire process easier, hence improving the likelihood of leaving a positive review and boosting the online reputation of your business.
For instance, perfectgift.com features a review page that prominently displays a ‘Review Us’ button, drawing customers’ immediate attention. Additionally, it has a review widget displaying reviews from other customers, giving social proof, and encouraging other customers to give their feedback.
A small business pro tip. Consider prioritizing text-based reviews over screenshots when displaying them. Text reviews naturally contain keywords that can help search engine crawlers interpret pages easily.
The crawler will analyze the text-based reviews for keywords and entities, which will aid in better understanding and indexing the review page. This will consequently improve the website’s visibility in the SERP.
Conclusion
Accumulating a stash of honest Google reviews is really important nowadays. Google reviews have gained significant importance in enhancing a business’s presence and attracting more customers.
The process starts with setting up a Google My Business listing and then entails several strategies to motivate customers to give their valuable feedback.
In this blog, we have included your top best practices for getting more Google Reviews for your business. But, while you exercise those simple techniques, keep in mind the following –
- Timing is key: Allow customers some time to try the product and experience it. Asking for a review at the right time increases the chances of getting a review.
- Make it Simple for the Customer: Include easy and direct ways for customers to leave a review. Add a direct link or a review QR code to the packaging, email, or invoice.
- Seek Specific Details: Encourage customers to write about specific aspects of their experience, such as quality, capability of staff, in-store experience and more.
These tips are really easy to follow. Following them can increase your chance of getting favorable Google Reviews.
