What is a Review or Recommendation?
Now this might sound like a stupid question! Reviews, recommendations, in my mind are where you as a customer or client express your feelings and thoughts for a service or a product you’ve paid for. Normally you are able to provide a star rating which acts as a graphical representation of your thoughts.
Some people like to say whether or not they would recommend a service in a simple sentence. Others may like to write about the service they have received and also say whether or not they would recommend that particular company and their service. This is huge for small business.
Do you encourage reviews?
As a business, how do you feel about asking your customers or clients to write you a review? Does this make you feel awkward and cheeky?
Encouraging your customers to spend a few minutes of their time to write a couple of sentences about how they feel about the service you’ve provided is not cheeky or rude. In fact, some people will thank you for reminding them. I would of course only encourage you to do this if you are confident your clients are going to write nice things about your service and give you a 5* rating! This might sound forced or contrived but think about it, if you don’t ask and they have forgotten, how do you feel? Do you feel cheated 🙁
A simple way to encourage reviews would be through your website, showing all your visitors the reviews your business has received and what others think of your service. Put a button on your website linking your clients to your review site whether it be Google Reviews, Trust Pilot, Facebook or somewhere else. Make it easy for people to leave reviews.
Another way is to present them with a nicely created postcard with a QR code, this is both modern, creative and again, easy for your clients to leave reviews and recommendations for your business.
What is the Importance of Reviews?
This subject is huge but I’ll cut to the chase! It’s all about three little letters SEO, Search Engine Optimisation! The more your customers engage with your business, clicking on your links and writing reviews and recommendations the more your business will be seen by search engines. There are obviously a few more important factors involved than that but essentially reviews matter, a lot!
So I put this to you, when you are looking for a service, you probably go to Google and type in a question. Google politely responds with a list of searches its found listed against your criteria. You find a business offering the service you’re looking for and what do you do next? You read their reviews. Unless of course they’ve been recommended to you but even then, you will probably read their reviews.
If the reviews are good you move to the next stage and get in touch, if the reviews aren’t that great you move onto the next business appearing in your search. Simple.
So you see how important reviews are to a business. They are essentially a voice from previous customers saying how the business service has performed.
In Conclusion
- Reviews are huge, massive!
- They help search engine ranking
- They help your potential customers decide if you are the right business or service fit for them
- They are the voice of previous customers
- They keep your business current by showing recent reviews
As a business owner, I encourage all small businesses to be brave and ask for reviews, be bold and feel proud of your service. Celebrate your success and let the world see how professional and excellent your business service is. Don’t hide, shout your success from the rooftops!
