Reviews Simplified®: How to Get More Reviews
Getting More Reviews in Australia
Getting more reviews can deliver a lot of bang for your buck. They will give your local SEO a boost, increase trust and confidence in your business, and provide you with actionable insights needed to improve your operations. Unfortunately, despite how much value reviews deliver, many businesses aren’t maximising the potential of their online reputation.
Even if you recognise the value of online reviews, it might seem difficult to get the ball rolling. How do you convince your customers to do you a solid and leave a review? The answer is much easier than you think – especially if you follow the five quick steps to help you get more reviews outlined below.
Step #1: Incentivise Your Employees
It’s human nature for your employees to resist change. This is especially true when that change forces them out of their comfort zone. Asking customers to leave a review might even make some of your employees uncomfortable, so what can you do to grease the wheels and motivate them to send review invitations?
It’s no secret that money is a huge motivator. If you have the budget available, you should set some aside for spiffs or bonuses for employees who buy into the programme. At Podium, we suggest that you base your incentive on some or all of the following activities.
- Review invitations sent
- Recommendations received
- Number of reviews mentioning the employee
- When they will receive the invite
- How they will receive it (text, email, etc.)
- Why it’s important for them to respond
>Step #3: Lay the Proper Foundation With Customers
Businesses that have the most successful online review programs have built the “ask” into multiple steps of the sales process. If necessary, provide your employees with scripts of ways they can ask your customers to leave a review. When asking the customer, your employees should let them know:
For example, when the time is right your employee could say, “Thank you so much for your business. Customer feedback is very important to us. Would it be alright if I sent you a text message right now with a link that makes it easy to leave a review? We would really appreciate it.” Operationalising the ask will make it part of your employees’ daily routine, and over time asking customers for reviews will become second nature.
Step #4: Target the Right Review Sites
Not all review sites are created equal. Sites that are appropriate for an HVAC company might not work for a pest control company. That’s why it’s important to conduct research and find the right review sites for your business. Google and Facebook are a safe bet for most businesses because they are the most popular and a vast majority of your customers will already have accounts there.
You should also seek out industry-specific sites that your customers will find valuable. Having a balanced portfolio across a number of review sites will give your business more credibility with searchers as well as with search engines. For a comprehensive listing of sites, check out this list of the 25 Best Local Business Directory Sites to target the right review platforms for your Australian business.
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