As more and more people realise the importance of having good reviews for their business, it’s something that businesses are trying to encourage their customers to do. Today, people check out the reviews online before they choose a company to go with or a product to buy. It’s part of the buying process and according to the doctrine of Social Proof, people assume the actions of their peers are correct. This means that they not only copy the behaviour of other people, but they also listen to what they say.

Photo, Henry Perks.

People listen to word of mouth recommendations and they believe online reviews even from people they do not know. The more reviews you have, the better as this will give a better overview of your business, but it’s also important to get good quality reviews too as Google has factored this into its local ranking algorithm and will help you to rank higher in search results. So, how can you go about getting some good reviews for your business?

Offer excellent service: To begin with, you’re not going to get reviews unless you give people something to review. By offering excellent and outstanding service, you’ll leave your customers feeling content and happy. They’ll have something to say and something to write, which will result in a useful and good quality review. Make sure you’re delivering an excellent service and an outstanding product. Give people something to shout about for the right reasons.

Make it easy: People don’t want to go out of their way to leave reviews if it’s going to take time and turn into something difficult. Remember, your customers are doing you a favour by providing you with a review (especially if it’s a good one) so make it easy for them. Keep it simple, ask them nicely, and even give your customers multiple-choice questions to answer.

Photo, Christiann Koepke.

Reward your customers: As mentioned, people aren’t going to just go out of their way to leave a review for you, so you need to encourage your customers to do this. It’s all well and good reminding people and asking them nicely to leave reviews but you’ll find that you have a far better uptake if you offer incentives to your customers. You still want to have authentic and honest reviews so the suggestion isn’t to bribe your customers but to offer them something like extra points in your customer loyalty program or an entry to a competition.

Tell customers how to do it: Some of your customers may have never left a review for anyone before and they might not be sure how to do it. If this is the case, they show them. Don’t just assume that everyone knows and don’t assume that everyone feels comfortable writing a review. Let your customers know that they can just leave a star rating without having to write anything or that they only need to write a sentence.