The ultimate guide to Google reviews for your local business
Monday, 16 December 2024
You can't go anywhere these days without being asked to leave a review. "Here's your cup of Quantum Mocha-Tachino I spent 60 seconds making, can I have a review?"
But why are we constantly badgered for reviews? I blame Google. You see, if you search for something like web design newcastle, then Google will have a bash at showing you the best matches in a map, right at the top of the search listings, and your reviews have a huge impact on this.
So in this ultimate guide, we'll explore the importance of Google reviews, why we need them, how to get them and what to do about negative reviews.
1. Why do we need Google reviews?
If you're looking for a local service like plumber or a product such as new pair of headphones, then the first place you tend to look is the internet. But expect to get an absolute ton of information and choice thrown at you. So how can you pick out the good from the bad? The best way is to listen to past customers and their experience.
93% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business
28% more clicks for businesses with 4.0+ star ratings
5-9% increase in revenue for each additional star
1.1 Trust and credibility
One of the main things a customer review does is provide trust and credibility of either a company, service or product. If you want some advice before a purchase then you would naturally turn to family or friends to see if they have used this before, known as word of mouth marketing.
But if you can't find anyone to help, they you can turn to the internet and ask the online community or look at what reviews have been left.
I did a quick search of plumbers near me and looked at two contrasting companies. Both their websites looked good and professional and they offered the same services. So how can I choose? Let's have a look at their Google reviews.
Would you be picking up the phone to get these guys around? Their reviews are over a year old, have low ratings and the comments are pretty scathing.
What about this plumbing company?
Yeah this company sounds good and their customers seemed pretty pleased with their work, so I would consider giving them a call. Notice how leaving a photo in the review also draws attention to it and also helps showcase the quality of your work. Getting a 5 star review with a photo is like gold dust and I would be chasing them down the street and throwing rose petals in front of their path.
It's easy to see how Google reviews can quickly make or break a company.
1.2 Helps you rank higher in the search engines
Everyone wants to rank at the top of Google as we know people on t'internet are lazy and don't like to scroll too far. I love this quote as it's so accurate.
If you want to hide a dead body, then bury it on page 2 of Google! No one will look there!
Google now loves showing you local stuff, so if you google a plumber or a web design company, then it's going to try and show you businesses that are nearby to you. And even better, it puts a map of local companies right at the very top of the search list.
So you can see how important it is to get into this top 3 otherwise people won't even get to see your amazing reviews and how fabulous you are. Getting into this top 3 map pack is massive and one of the things that Google does to put you there are your reviews.
How many you have, how often they are added, how many are positive, negative, do they contain photos, and keywords, are there responses from the company? Google does seem to want to promote companies who have lots of positive reviews. There are other factors in play here, but reviews are a big one!
1.3 Provides useful feedback and insights
Although a negative review is like a stab in the heart, it can also be eye opening, allowing you to get an understanding of issues your customers have experienced.
Let's have another look at these two negative reviews.
Straight away we might wonder, "is there a problem with my answering machine, or is anyone actually checking the messages?"
If you work business to business, then adding VAT to your invoices is just part of the process and no one bats an eyelid. But adding an unexpected 20% to a cost after the work has been done is a bit of a killer blow to the consumer. A £500 job suddenly becomes a £600 invoice. This review, although negative, is a great bit of feedback that VAT should be included on all quotes to the general public.
Although I bet you would prefer they picked up the phone and told you direct rather than permanently plastering it all over the internet. There are ways you can respond to negative Google reviews if you continue reading.
2. How to get Google reviews
Now we have established the importance of Google reviews, let's show you how you can go about getting them.
As the saying goes "shy bairns get nowt", so just be up front and ask your customer if they wouldn't mind leaving you a review. The best time to ask is just after you have done the work (ideally in person if you can) or they have just received your product and they are still buzzing. Explain that it is really important to get feedback
If you work remotely or don't meet your customers in person after the job, make sure you send a follow up email with a "how did we do" message and then sneakily drop a link to your reviews page. You might have to send a second or 9 follow up emails until you get that glorious review!
If you sell products or provide services at scale, then it can be difficult to keep on nudging your customers for reviews. An alternate way is to politely ask your customers on your social media channels and drop a few examples on there too of your top reviews to give people an idea on what to write.
Every customer will get an invoice or receipt of some description, so what better place to prompt them for a review than here. Ok paying the bill is probably their least favourite part of the process, so use it in combination with other ways to get them to leave you feedback. A belts and braces approach!
This is a bit of a cheeky one, but can be very effective. As you are saying your goodbyes to the customer, ask them to scan a QR code with their phone which then links to leaving a review for you. Once you have left and they turn to their phone to go TikTok surfing, the review page will be there waiting and hopefully they will be inspired to get it out of the way now.
If you have a reception area or public space in your company, then show some Google reviews and a QR code prompting them to leave their own. If they are waiting around for 5 mins, then it's a good time to leave that review you have been badgering them for.
If you don't have a QR code or are too shy to put your customer on the spot for a review, then you can just let them know you have a link on your website for reviews and would love some feedback. They can then easily find your link rather than traipsing through Google.
Google doesn't like you getting reviews using monetary rewards, but sometimes you might need to incentivise your customers to leave you a review. So you could put all the names of people who have left reviews in a hat, then draw a winner each month for a small prize.
If you have lots of customers, but haven't been proactive in getting reviews, then why not run a quick email campaign. Create a mailer to target all your current customers asking for feedback in the form of a Google review. Again adding a little reward or incentive can go down well.
In short, beg, borrow and steal to try and get Google reviews. It can be out of your comfort zone asking customers, but it can be done simply and sincerely. Ask as soon as possible so your product or the service you have provided is fresh in their memory. If you can entice them to leave a photo in the review then even better.
We truly appreciate your business today. If you were happy with our service, would you mind taking a moment to share your experience on Google? Your feedback helps us improve and also helps other customers find us.
3. Managing your Google reviews
Now that you have a regular influx of Google reviews, is your job done? Nope!
Each time you get a review (and Google should tell you) you want to be doing 3 things. Respond, be authentic and maybe a little keyword spammy.
3.1 Respond to the review
It's a pretty big deal for someone to leave you a review as it's something that they have done that will benefit you with nothing in return. Look at this cracking review we had at wayfresh.
We recommend responding to every review you receive. Not only is it a thank you to the kind customer who left it, but also helps show the relationship we had with the client and how we work. A great thing for potential customers to see too. A guideline of 24-48 hours to respond is good practice.
Also don't reply with a single word answer like "Cheers!" Make sure you write a sentence or two and if they mention something in their post like "collaboration", then mention it in your response.
3.2 Be authentic and personal
Being authentic and personal is a good way to be in life and follow this through into your Google reviews too. We love that Phil adores his new website and we wanted to also give praise to his contribution too.
Respond with the reviewers name to make it personal and in this case their fabulous photography helped the web design, so we were certain to let them know. Don't just copy and paste a set response to each review.
3.3 Get some keywords in
Google loves keywords, so try and squeeze in some that are relevant to your product or service, BUT don't over do it. Make it look natural. In this example we were buzzing as the client mentioned web design and development all on their own, amidst their lovely review.
If the client doesn't mention it, then you can easily reply and drop in your keywords, but don't go bonkers. If you know the client well, you could always cheekily ask them to add a keyword or two in. And if you really want to try your arm, ask them for a photo too.
4. What to do if you get a negative review
We're all hoping that we have done the best job to earn a 4 or 5 star review, but when you get the dreaded 1 or 2 stars, your heart sinks.
It's difficult to get people to leave a good review, but when they get a poor service, boy will they find the time to leave you a bad review. And you can bet they will write an epic too.
Check out this review. Is there any coming back from this one?
Here is how I would advise one of our own customers to handle receiving this negative review. Remember every response is a public conversation that potential customers will also read.
4.1. Is this a real customer?
First thing to check is if this is a legitimate customer. Some unscrupulous competitors may leave a negative review to bump your rating score down and hopefully discourage people from using you. If this is not a customer you recognise simply respond with something like:
Sorry we don't have a record of you being a customer with us and may have us mixed up with another supplier. Please ring the office if you require further information.
Then you can report the review through Google My Business, but I wouldn't hold your breath for Google doing something about it.
4.2. Stay calm and professional
Emotions can run a little high when you get a negative review so you might want to be a keyboard warrior and bash out a response quickly. But take time to reflect and check if what they are saying is absolutely true. It's tempting to stoop down to their level, but keep your tone polite and professional. Don't argue or accuse the reviewer of being wrong. Maintain a positive tone, even if the review seems unfair.
4.3. Respond quickly
Ok I know we said don't respond immediately, but try and aim for getting back to them within 24 hours. The more time you leave, the more time potential customers will see their review without your response.
4.4. Personalise the response
Don't just quickly paste some response you found on the internet (or this blog post!), but call the reviewer by their name and reference specific details that they brought up in their review. This shows that you have thoroughly read their review and are taking it seriously.
4.5. Acknowledge and apologise (if necessary)
If this was a legitimate issue then do apologise and confirm there was an issue. If this was a simple problem like you put 2 sugars in their frappuccino instead of 1, then a quick response like this is all that is necessary.
We're sorry to hear about your experience. It's not the standard we strive for and we appreciate your feedback.
4.6. Provide a solution
The best thing you can do is offer a fix, whether this is a refund, a replacement, or you doing additional work to solve the problem. Remember this response you are writing is most beneficial for perspective customers to see how you handle yourself when things go wrong. Don't write a mega long response detailing everything, but keep it to the point.
When I look at reviews, I skip past the 5 and 4 star reviews where everyone is gushing about the service and head straight to the nitty gritty 2 and 3 stars. That is where the real action is at. I always believe you can tell the true nature of a company when something goes wrong, so their response to these reviews can give you a bit of insight into who you might be working with. I find 1 star reviews to usually be quite petty and pedantic, so take those with a pinch of salt.
4.7. Take it offline
Having responded to the review in a polite and professional manner and offered a fix to the problem, the next step is to take it offline. As part of your response ask then to get in touch with you so it can be resolved properly without airing your laundry in public. Once the issue has been rectified and the customer is happy again, kindly ask them to edit the rating of the post (hopefully to 5 stars).
4.8. Learn from it
If this was an issue on your behalf where you haven't got your process spot on, or a member of staff needs a bit of training, then reviews can flag these up. So learn from this and put something in place.
So going back to this review, here is how I would advise you to respond to it. (Please bear in mind that I don't know what actually happened).
Hi Bob, sorry to hear you had an issue with the patch repair we did. Although we mentioned this type of work does not come with an official guarantee, it should last a lot longer than a few months. Please call the office and we will arrange for one of the team to come out ASAP and fix the problem.
Kept it personal, addresses the issue, apology in there too, offering a solution and taking it offline. As a potential customer reading this I would be happy to know that should there be an issue, then the company would come and fix it straightaway.
Most reviews are legitimate, but you can't please everyone and some people just like to moan. Take this absolute gem for example.
Had a chuckle at this one. Obviously they have called a commercial roofing company who probably politely told them they don't do domestic work and rather than accepting it and finding someone who does, they have found the time to write a review on that.
It's a bit like going into Greggs and asking if they would cater your wedding, being told no and being outraged enough to leave a negative review.
You can't please everyone! In this case, just respond quickly and briefly, then try and get more reviews to push this one down.
5. Conclusion
We hope we have demonstrated that getting Google reviews are not only beneficial to showing trust and credibility with new customers, but are super important to nudging you up on Google maps too.
Try to allocate 5 minutes every day to having a quick check of your reviews while the kettle is boiling, to make sure you have responded to all new reviews, but take your time with the negative reviews to make sure you put your company in the best light.