Local businesses rely on reviews to generate new business, in fact, 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business and 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Keys To Success
- Claim your business on the top platforms (Google, Yelp, and Facebook.) If you are a hotel or restaurant you could also consider Trip Advisor or other sites like it that generate a lot of traffic relating to your industry.
- Provide excellent service! You cant offer mediocre service and expect people to run out and leave excellent reviews.
- Ask for reviews. Some platforms will ask that you DO NOT ask for reviews but we believe this is counterproductive. If you let your clients know where you can be found and that you appreciate feedback on their experience it will benefit everyone.
The key to becoming successful in reviews is making it easy for your customers to find you online. The first thing you should do is make sure you claim your business on the top 3 review sites, I have created a simple guide with links to help get you started.
Google
The first thing you should do is make sure you claim your Google Business Listing at www.google.com/business. You will be required to sign in with a Gmail account or simply create a new one, It’s free! From this point, you can search for your business name and if it’s not showing up simply add it by following the steps on their site. When completed you will be sent a postcard which takes about 5 business days that has a code you need to enter to verify your business.
While you are waiting, be sure to complete your Google Business Listing profile by uploading pictures of your business, products, or services you provide. Fill out your business hours, website address, and add a description of what your business does. Having a complete profile allows potential customers to find you more easily. If you have a service business and work out of your home that’s OK! Just check the box that you provide services remotely and check the box to hide your address.
Yelp
Over 100 million people visit yelp monthly! Even if you just use it sparingly to look up a local restaurant don’t ignore this one. Yelp is built into Apple’s Siri voice assistant, if an iPhone user asks Siri to find a plumber in the area, Siri will use Yelp to display local plumbers. To claim your Yelp profile visit http://biz.yelp.com and create an account, its free! After you create your account you can claim your business the same way you did it with Google.
Make sure you go through and fill out as many parts of your profile as possible. A few days after completing your Yelp profile you will receive a call from a representative at Yelp who will try and sell you advertising, keep in mind that their advertising will promote your business in their listings only so if someone is looking for a plumber you could be moved to the top of the list of plumbers but you will be grouped with other plumbers also paying for advertising. I strongly recommend to politely decline any advertising with Yelp as it can be costly and may not be the best option for your business yet.
Let’s face it, you may not like Facebook personally but this one is critical! In order to claim your business on Facebook, you will need to create a personal profile if you don’t have one already. After doing so you can go to https://www.facebook.com/business and “Create a Page”. You will be able to choose the type of Page such as an organization, local shop, etc.. and complete a business profile like you did for Google and Yelp. Be sure to complete as much of your profile as possible, create albums, add photos, and invite your friends and family to like your business page.
The top 3 platforms being used for reviews that most businesses rely on are Google, Facebook, and Yelp. These platforms are considered 3rd Party Reviews. When someone goes to Google and does a search for a business or service, Google will show these sites at the top and display the review ratings to help provide the best search result possible to the person that is performing the search.
1st Party Reviews
A 1st Party Review is a review that is generated on your website, Google is now indexing and displaying 1st Party Reviews in the search results. To set up a review system on your website would require a specific plugin if you are using a system such as WordPress or assistance from a Web Designer / Web Developer. One of the benefits of a 1st party reviews is the fact that the customer leaving the review typically won’t need to login to an account in order to leave a review on your site like they would for Google, Facebook, or Yelp. The review would go to you for your approval before being published which would allow you to respond to any negative review directly.
Primary Objective
The primary goal is to get your business on the top platforms and make sure you provide a great service to your customers, let them know how they can find you online and make sure you log in regularly to these platforms to check for reviews and stay active on social media. We recommend you reply quickly to all reviews, both positive and negative. If somehow you manage to get a negative review make sure you reply in a positive manner and continue working toward getting more positive reviews that will eventually drive the bad review down to the bottom.
After completing these steps you will now be listed on at least the top 3 platforms for your visitors to find you more easily. The most important thing to remember is to provide excellent service and dont forget to ask for feedback.
Review Generation by 45 Design
45 Design has created a process to help businesses get reviews by creating a plugin that adds the top 3 platforms and creates a 1st Party Review system for your website. We have created a backend that allows you, the business owner, to simply type the name and email address of a recent customer and hit “send”. This will generate an email with everything your customer needs to be able to leave you a review. We will assist in claiming your business online with all the top platforms, setting up your profiles on these review platforms, and train one of your team members on how to access the new platform. Contact us for a free quote.