These days there is little doubt that online reviews are crucial to growing a local business. Not only do reviews help your build trust with potential customers but they also boost your local search ranking so that your business comes up first in Google searches.
Create a Strategy
- Train your team on the importance of reviews for your business so that they go above and beyond to provide an excellent customer experience. This will ensure that customers will be more likely to leave a review!
- Identify the staff member(s) that interact with customers in the most memorable way and add verbally asking for a review to their daily routine.
- Set up a competition! Many businesses have found success by financially incentivizing their teams for the reviews they get. You can take advantage of Associating Team Members with Reviews in Broadly to help you keep track.
Include a Verbal Prompt
Customers are 7 to 8 times more likely to write a review if they are given a “verbal prompt” to leave one. You will get maximum results if a verbal prompt is given in person upon completion of service. Ideally, it would be just before the customer receives the Broadly review request. Here are some ways to approach including a strong verbal prompt:
- Emphasize how a review helps support your business. For Example: “You’ll be receiving a review request from us, I’d really appreciate it if you could take a minute to respond. Your review helps spread the word about our local business."
- Request that they leave you feedback to help you improve their experience next time around. For Example: “We’ll be sending you a message where you’ll be able to share your experience with us. It’s a quick process and will help us ensure we continue to provide you with an excellent experience. I’d really appreciate your feedback.”
Please Note: Incentivizing reviews with discounts, gift cards, company swag etc. is against the policies of most major review websites including Google. Doing so could result in the removal of reviews or the suspension of your listing.