11/30/2023
No, Reviews do not fall from the sky...
This is my 3rd post for service providers. If you want to look up the first two, just scroll down on my profile. I want to talk about reviews today.
Reviews are crucial for your success in two ways:
1) Google will use them as a significant ranking factor which means, if someone has more reviews and more recent reviews than you, he will have a direct advantage and show up higher on maps.
2) Customers will almost always use reviews as a way to decide which business to call. If you have good recent reviews, they will call you.
How do you get reviews?
Itโs simple, ask your customers! If done properly, you can get 50% or more of your customers to leave reviews. Whats the best way to do that? First of all, tell them in person when you complete the job that reviews are important to you and that youโll send them a link later to post one. You can also use a special RFID card or just send them a link on the spot to post a review.
Then wait a day and send them a text message the next morning personally asking them to leave a review. If you can customize this message, that's even better and you will get even more reviews but a highly optimized general request will also work.
If you want the exact templates we use for your specific industry, comment your industry below.
Itโs also very important to follow up, if they do leave a review on Google, reply to that review publicly. If they donโt leave a review, wait a couple of days and send them another text reminding them.
Itโs possible to buy reviews, we try not to recommend it and you have to be very careful with it. This is a gray area and I would always recommend getting reviews from actual customers before you consider it.
You can also ask your friends, many of which you probably helped in the past to write a review for you.
How many reviews do I need?
3-4 reviews will get you started ranking and your profile will be in business but you want to aim for having at least 20-30 reviews to rank high and appear professional.
What if I get bad reviews?
Bad reviews are part of business and if they are very few bad ones in a sea of good ones you should be ok. There are many ways to remove bad reviews and these have to be considered on a case by cases basis. Happy to give some free advice on the subject if you give me some background information.
It all sounds very basic but the majority of service providers donโt give their review section much attention and they are losing big time. Reviews are the easiest, least time-consuming and most efficient way to boost your rankings.