Strategies for Securing Ratings and Reviews – Honestly

… because fake reviews are not only immoral — but also illegal

It’s never been easy to earn customer’s favor, especially in terms of explicit public appraisal like an online review. As responsible business owners we all strive (or at least we should) to encourage our clientele to share their experience with our service and product. Unfortunately, waiting for a natural regular inflow of customer reviews is a “plan” that will often bring rather disappointing results.

The thing is You Need a Strategy. A strategy that is better than the one already adopted by your strong competitors. A strategy that will turn your customers into your private brand advocates. It will not take overnight to plan it and execute it but it will make a difference in the long run.

Having your own Review Gathering Strategy is important. So, if you are clueless of how your business could benefit from it, you’ve finally found out the reason why you suck at securing customer reviews, now you only need to work your way around it.

Why Customer Reviews Are Important

Of course, here we are referring to public online customer reviews. A compliment shared in a conversation between your restaurant chef and a satisfied customer, will boost your staff morale, but otherwise it is a valuable opportunity gone wasted. The positive feedback will soon be forgotten and will never have the long-term impact of a published online review.

Above anything else online customer reviews bring your business:

• Prestige – positive online reviews assert that you are an authority in your niche. This will earn you the trust and fondness of potential customers;
  
• A competitive advantage – customer reviews are equally important for a niche where all your competitors have a massive list of reviews (positive that is) and for a niche where your rivals have 2-5 reviews only. In the former case you cannot risk it to lag behind the industry trend and in the latter – you should not miss an opportunity not yet seized by your rivals;
  
• An increased CTR (click-through rate) – in Google search results your business (your official website or Google Local page) is usually associated with your customer reviews and ratings. The higher the number and the more positive the sentiment of those reviews, the greater the chance the online user will get tempted to click on your business listing;
  
• SEO boost – save from the increased CTR, Google review count and score is a valid ranking factor for local businesses;
  
• Reputation management insights – online reviews are a good source of information about the general public predisposition about your company and brand. They reveal how your customers see you and will influence the broader audience’s attitude towards your business. If you convince your satisfied customers to share their experience with your brand, you often won’t need to invest in other high-end PR activities to attract potential customer attention;
  
• Closer to your customers
  
  
  
  • Make your customers feel that you’re involved and that you care about them. Being appreciated and looked after is a compliment that will bring you golden dividends if incorporated in your customer service plan;
    
  • On the other hand, knowing your customers well will allow you to further improve your service/product. Constant innovation and product development should always be on your marketing plan.
  
  
• New opportunities – at the end you must strive to seize every opportunity that could give a special edge to your online visibility, so … what are you waiting for: plan ahead your review gathering process!

Review Magnets

You know the basics of attracting good customer reviews, right? Having a high quality product is the foundation you will have to build upon, you are right! But what else do you need to use as a motivational boost? What are the key review magnets that you need to focus on:

Education

Leaving an online review nowadays is not considered rocket science, nevertheless you should not risk customer’s ignorance to stand on your way to higher online visibility:

• Let you customers know you are welcoming their reviews. You, as business owner, know pretty well that satisfied customers rarely brag about their sound investments. It is more often the disappointment and frustration that are the ardent motivators of online reviewers. Keeping this in mind, try to always request feedback from you positive customers: ask them in person, via a follow-up email, in an exit-survey, with a “thank you” card, with a highlighted print on the receipt, or with a “review us on … ” sign at the exit of your office/amenities;
  
  
  
  

  “Honest feedback means a lot” card – image credits: ReviewBuzz

  
  
• Where – explicitly mention to your customers where they could review your business. This will not only save them time, but will make it easier for them to complete the reviewing process. On the other hand, when you tell them: “Would you, please, review us on Yelp” you will make sure that you’d receive a customer review on a site/directory/platform that really makes sense for your business from a marketing perspective. Such platform could be Google (for the special ranking boost that we’ve mentioned above) or any other reviewing site, which is considered a top authority for your niche and where your audience is mostly active.
  
  
  
  

  “People Love Us on Yelp” boor sign – image credits: WordStream

  
  
• How – it would be rather inappropriate to directly tell your customers what you want them to write about your business, but that does not mean that you cannot indirectly suggest a preferable approach. How? Well select the top reviews you’ve received: descriptive and relevant to your service, staff, amenities, location served; and make them visible to your customers. Post them on your site, hang them on your office/venue walls, get creative!
  
  
  
  

  Wall with customer comments, London Underground – image credits: Glass Page

Inspiration

Give them a reason to leave a review without paying or bribing them to do so:

• Offer added value – surprise them and give your customers more than they expect. The opportunities are endless:
  
  
  
  • a compliment from the house (free snacks or a free round);
    
  • chic environment (custom graffiti art on the walls, special glowing glassware);
    
  • revamp the product itself (offer it in a nontraditional way).
    
    
    
    

    Graffiti wall decoration – image credits: Interiorzine

  
  
• Ensure exceptional customer service in terms of:
  
  
  
  • Special attitude – here I am not referring to the basic qualities a customer staff should have like professionalism, politeness, friendliness, calmness and in-depth knowledge of your product/service. Think outside the box – consider hiring staff members with good singing skills at your Live Night Club for instance;
    
    
    

    Singing Staff – image credits: AliveNetwork

    
    
  • Distinct dress code – if your establishment has a special theme like Bedrock Pub & Grill, you could easily come up with fancy prehistoric attire for your servers. But even a mainstream pub house could impress with its staff dress code. What about printing out custom T-shirts with famous beer quotes for your bartenders?
    
  • Delivery perks – imagine how popular your beer shop will get in the summer if you offer special beer delivery to a beach towel for your customers. Stand out of the crowd, shock your audience, if you must, and the excited customers will follow!
    
  • Curious extras – go wild on the innovation, could you also add to the crazy delivery offer a daily cooler bag rental for your beer drinking clients?
  
  
• Organize special events – if you know your customers’ taste you’ll easily figure out what king of event would they enjoy visiting, like a concert, a picnic, a reading session, a stand up night, a charity event, etc. Just decide on where it will be hosted:
  
  
  
  • in-house, or
    
  • you’d rather sponsor an event that you already know your customers will attend.

Let Them Know You Care

• Reply to your customer reviews both bad and good ones. Don’t be too chat-obsessive and comment on each review, but let your presence be felt;
  
• Show that you’ve made product/service improvements thanks to customers’ feedback;
  
• Ask your customers for their feedback apart from the official online reviews:
  
  
  
  • Conduct random customer surveys;
    
  • Instruct your staff to ask your customers for general customer feedback during their stay;
    
  • Organize a special game to involve your customers in your business everyday life: schedule a logo or a slogan suggestion contest and ask your customers for their opinion and ideas.

Staff member replies to a negative customer review – image credits: GoogleBlog

It’s Not About The Tools

THE NATURAL REVIEW GATHERING process is not about using tools: tools can only help you quickly and timely monitor your reviews on different online platforms. The trick is actually to get the reviews and that, dear business owners, is only possible if you actually:

• Care about your product/service quality, usefulness and innovation;
  
• Care about your customers’ satisfaction, well-being and comfort;
  
• Care about planning your marketing efforts and setting aside a reasonable budget and time for them to render the desired results.

Hand-Picked Related Articles:

• Even 1 Star Reviews Result In Twice The Conversions
  
• How to Encourage User Reviews: Tips for Small Business
  
• The Growing Importance of Online Reviews

* Adapted lead image: