When customers leave reviews on Google or any other website, it helps boost your search ranking. You can encourage customers to go online and leave reviews, and if they do, it’s important to respond gracefully to both positive and negative comments. This will help improve your reputation with searchers as well.

How can I get more reviews?

One good way, is to make the option easy for potential reviewers.  Put a link on your homepage to the review location in Google.  If you go to your business page (more on this later in the book – under Business Listings), and copy the link to the page – then go to your website and add a link that says something like “Like our service? Want to leave us a Review?” and make it link to that review webpage.

Another option, is to simply ask.  Talk to your customers, and let them know that after the job is complete – if they would leave a review on Google, it would be highly appreciated.  Wait until the service is nearly complete (or fully, in some cases) before asking for a review.  If you are selling a product – as frequently, either place a sign on your front door – or print the request for a review on your receipt.

Bad Reviews

If you have a bad review online, the worst thing you can do – is to either ignore it, or try to get rid of it.  Your best solution for this – is to simply respond.  Collect your patience, and take a deep breath – and type calmly.

Don’t escalate matters by stooping to their level!  Instead, voice your desire to help them – ask them what caused them to be so upset, and work to calm them down.

Don’t act ‘clueless’ – as you could have caused them some sort of hardship – but not everyone on the internet needs to know this.  If you know exactly what caused the bad review, or it is some sort of personal matter – ask them to call you to discuss amending the issue, or some sort of resolution.  Make sure to express how you are sorry, apologize for any hardship your product/service caused – and own the mistake.

If you take 5 minutes and request information – the next time someone sees the review, they will see that you were responsive and helpful – and maybe there’s a chance that someone just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

When to Avoid Reviews

Requesting reviews will NOT work in your favor if you purposefully back-stabbed someone, or sold them a miserable product or service.  If you did, no amount of backpedaling or apologies will keep the bad reviews from coming in.

We’re all human, all capable of mistakes – but people can spot a shady company from a mile away.  If your purpose in life is to profit off shady business practices – you should avoid reviews at all costs.

(This is not an endorsement of crappy services, but a tongue-in-cheek explanation of why we ALL need to focus on good reviews online.)