7 Strategies to Generate Genuine Reviews

Welcome to The Growth Report!

It’s Ben Wright here, founder of Risely.

For this month’s newsletter, I want to focus on 7 genuine review generation tips.

Last month we talked about the importance of your online presence. A major part of your online presence is your customer and client reviews.

Local businesses especially can benefit from having several positive reviews on their website or Google Business site. All it takes is a few good reviews for you to gain a local reputation as the authoritative or reliable (or both) business in your niche.

So, here are 7 strategies for generating genuine reviews:

1. Provide Excellence

Of course, the first step in generating good reviews is doing what you do well.

Every point of your customer interaction should be an amazing experience for them. When you’re doing something well, people will talk about it.

Everything suggested below assumes you’re already striving for excellence in your entire operation.

2. Current Review Audit

In light of this article, now is a great time to do an audit of your reviews. Check to make sure your reviews are all above board and comply with regulations.

If you paid for review generation in the past, be sure those reviews are still acceptable.

This is also a great time to make sure any negative reviews that got lost in the mix are addressed, which ties into strategy 5 below.

3. Simplify Your Review Process

Test to make sure the process for a customer or client to leave a review is seamless, simple, and fast.

Conforming the process to these three principles will help customers feel like they can leave a review without committing to a long and complicated process.

We’ve all started to leave a review or fill out a survey only to abandon it because the page took too long to load or a form didn’t work correctly. Don’t let that happen to your review submissions.

Resolve any technical issues you discover ASAP.

To simplify your process even further, just ask

Integrate a request for a review into the end of your customer interactions.

Whether you use email, social media, or an in-person request, people who might have thought of leaving a review but forgot will likely leave one later when reminded.

This is effective if you have a simple and easy review process.

4. Report 1-Star Reviews

The reality of 1-star reviews, far and away, is they get the most attention of anything. This has become increasingly evident the more reviews I do with clients.

We have been having success reporting 1-star reviews that aren't relevant.

Also, if the review seems suspicious or you suspect it’s fake, you can report it to the platform. Gather evidence like customer records or screenshots that can support your claim and hope to get it removed.

5. Engage with Your Existing Reviews

Another helpful way to generate reviews is to engage with the reviews you’re currently receiving.

Whether the review you’re responding to is positive or negative, it speaks well of your company in the eyes of potential customers if you respond to your reviewers.

A responsive business owner or manager sends the message that you care about customer satisfaction and want to ensure your business provides a great service or product.

This leads right into the next strategy…

6. Resolve Dissatisfaction When Possible

Building on that last point, if you exhibit a willingness to correct any mistakes or failures on the part of your business, that will build significant trust with customers.

They’ll be more likely to both use your business and leave you a good review if they believe they can trust you.

So many people feel like they can’t trust the businesses they work with. When someone comes along they can trust, they want to tell the world.

7. Engage on Social Media

Similar to engaging with existing reviews, engaging with customers on social media can make a big difference in how someone perceives your brand.

If you encourage people to share their experiences with your business on social media and then engage with their posts, that will not only make them feel seen and appreciated, it will boost your online presence.

This strategy is really just the tried and true “tell your friends” tactic but adapted for the modern internet culture.

Building Trust and Serving The Community

Generating reviews for your business is a great way to show that people in the community trust you.

As I mentioned above, this is especially true for local businesses. Newcomers to your area can be driven to choose or forego using a certain business based solely on its online reviews because that’s the only reference they have access to.

So implement these 7 strategies and watch as you begin to become the go-to business for your product or service.

Keep an eye out for next month’s newsletter for more marketing tips and success stories from Risely!

Top Digital Marketing Articles This Month:

• Fake reviews and followers banned as the FTC issues a new rule to take effect in October.

• The importance of local SEO can’t be overstated.

• Check out Google’s recent core update related to algorithm changes in this article from the Search Engine Journal.

Thanks for reading this month’s edition of The Growth Report!

Ben Wright
Founder & CEO of Risely

P.S.

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• To learn more about Risely and the services we offer, visit our website here.