With nearly half of consumers looking for businesses with a four-star or better rating, reviews should be one of the cornerstones of your marketing strategy. Reviews build confidence and trust with customers, increase visibility to your company, and are a free source of advertising.

Unfortunately, outside of the food and hospitality industries, most people will only leave a review when something goes wrong. So how do you get more positive reviews for your water damage or disaster mitigation business? The surprisingly simple answer is ASK!

68% of Customers Will Leave A Review If Asked

As simple as it may seem, asking is the most effective way of getting more positive reviews. Asking for reviews should become a part of your routine. Finish the job, finalize payment, thank them for their business, and ask them for a review. Always ask after the service is complete and the customer is satisfied.

BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2017

The Best Way to Getting More Reviews For Your Business

Getting more positive reviews isn’t always easy, but a few simple steps will greatly improve the odds of you getting one. Ask in person and following up with an email or text message. If you have to ask by phone or message, do so quickly. Tell customers where to review you and thank them for their business and review.

1. Ask the Customer for a Review In Person

By asking in person, you capitalize on the trust you have already built with the customer. Look them in the eye, tell them how much your business means to you, and ask them for their honest feedback about your service.

“We appreciate your business and value your opinion. Would you be willing to review ur service on Google or Facebook?.”

BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2017

Trust is a key factor in reviews, so it’s important that the employee asking for the review has a good relationship with the customer. To make it as easy as possible for your customer to follow through, so we recommend that you focus on asking for reviews on your Google My Business and Facebook pages.

2. Follow Up to Remind Them to Leave a Review

After you’ve asked in person, follow up with an email, text message, or a phone call. Thank them again for reviewing your business and included links to where you would like them to write reviews. Following up quickly ensures your customer will remember more details of your service and write a more detailed positive review.

“I’m following up to see if you’ve had the chance to review our company on Google or Facebook yet. We use reviews to grow our business and value your honest opinion of our service.”

BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2017

3. Publicly Respond to Their Review

Once your customer leaves a review, make sure you respond to it publically. Thank customers for reviews and address any concerns or issues they mention. If you need to follow up with them, set an expectation of when you’ll do so.

“Thank you. I appreciate your business and am glad we were able to assist. We’re here for you if you ever need us again.”

Technically, this isn’t a step to getting more reviews. Actually, it’ll help you get more leads. By responding, you show potential customers that you are engaged and care about your customer’s experience with your business.

How to Get Employees to Ask for Reviews

Some employees are resistant to change and getting them to ask for a review can be a challenge. Incentives are a very common suggestion for getting employees to ask for reviews. While this can be effective, we find these results are often temporary. They will ask more often when the incentive is at top of mind, but eventually they will forget about it.

Regardless of whether you choose to offer an incentive, the best way to ensure employees ask for reviews is to train them to make it part of their routine. Work with them regularly on asking for reviews and showcase how the reviews they got turned into new business. This makes the review acquisition process valuable, showcasing how it makes the company more stable and their job more secure.

Never Pay for Fake Reviews

You may see services promising to generate dozens of reviews for your business for a fee. While this may seem like a great way to increase visibility to your company, paying for reviews is a huge waste of money.

Review platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp have sophisticated tools that can detect fake reviews. If you pay for fake reviews, we guarantee that they will get taken down eventually. In most cases, they will disappear within days.

Depending on the service, paying for fake reviews can negatively impact your business. Getting caught with fraudulent reviews may result in your business appearing lower in organic search results or having your account temporarily suspended.

Dealing With Negative Reviews

Every business will occasionally get negative reviews. While you may think negative reviews are terrible, a few negative reviews make all of your positive reviews believable.

Instead of getting worked up over a negative, focus on resolving the customer’s issue. Publically respond to their review and let them know you’ll follow up with them directly. The goal is to move the conversation out of the public view as quickly as possible.

Once you’ve resolved their issue, ask them to revise their review. You can also respond to their review again, mentioning that you’ve addressed their issue. Review our dealing with negative reviews guide for more details on responding to customers.

Get More Positive Reviews with Acquirly

Our Acquirly review acquisition app makes asking for and getting more positive reviews easy. Acquirly automates the review process and follows up with customers for you. Plus, it alerts you once customers leave a review so you can respond immediately. This ensures you never miss a review, especially a negative review. Learn more about Acquirly now. We’re so sure it’ll help get you more positive reviews that we’ll let you try it free for 30 days.