How to get more reviews on your Google My Business Profile

Once a potential customer has found your business on Google My Business, the next step is to convince them to get in contact.

One of the biggest influencers of this is how your business has been reviewed by you previous customers. Having a profile which has many positive reviews will build trust which is important when you are working with people's pride and joy!

The other benefit of receiving reviews is that it can improve the profiles rankings when people make relevant searches.

Below is an example of how the reviews are displayed within Google

Below are do’s and don’ts of how to get more reviews onto your profile

Do’s:

• Link to your reviews from your website.
• Ask customers directly to submit a review on completion of service.
• Create simple to follow handout listing places customers can review you. You can leave this in the customer's car at the time of service. This website will help you create a leaflet https://whitespark.ca/review-handout-generator/
• After completion of service, follow up with an email linking to places a customer can review your business.
• Let your customers review your business at their review site of choice. Review diversity is good for both customers and search engines.
• If the website has the functionality, thank customers for submitting a review.

Don'ts:

• Ask people to submit reviews on your device or in your place of business. The websites will be able to tell the reviews are being submitted from the same place and will consider it spam.
• Write fake reviews or ask third parties to write fake reviews for your business.
• Pay a third party to post any review on behalf of anyone else. Customers must leave their own reviews using their own accounts.
• Get too many reviews at once as this might be picked up on and may cause the reviews to be deleted.

How to handle negative reviews

At times people may submit a negative review. Whether the customer who submitted it is right or wrong the review needs to be addressed effectively.

Here are a couple do’s and don'ts

Do’s

• Use a negative review as an opportunity to show that you care and will do what you can to make the customer happier. This will build trust with that customer and others.
• Do what you can to make the situation right to show you care.
• If the website has the functionality respond to the review. This is not the time or place to vent your frustration. Say that you're sorry that they feel disappointed (or whatever other term they used) with the service. Stick to facts to explain what happened. The key is to provide context for others reading the review to give them a clear understanding of what happened.

Don’ts

• Don’t enter a public quarrel, this isn’t going to do you any favours. Remember, the customer might not always be right but the customer is always the customer. Showing people you understand that will again build trust.