- Do you want more product reviews?
We have eight ways to make that happen
today on The Journey.
- If you wanna get people interested in your products
and attract more customers,
there's something you gotta learn to do
and that's generate reviews.
And the reason why, in today's world
91% of people go online and they read reviews
about businesses like yours
before they make a buying decision.
- Alright.
So, number one.
Highlighting current product reviews.
If you appreciate your customers leaving you some reviews,
make sure you just take a little snippet of what they said,
highlight it on some of yours social channels
or on your website and give that person credit.
That let's other people know
that hey you really do care
about what these people are doing
and taking the time out to tell you
what they think about your product.
- Yeah, I love that one.
I'm just like scrolling on Facebook or Instaagram
and I see a business posting about a review
they received on Yelp form a happy customer.
Also on the website.
That's a great place.
A lot of time, websites they just act as a billboard
to say exactly what the business wants you to think
whereas if you are throwing testimonials
on their reviews from Yelp and Google
now your website transforms into a word-of-mouth.
- Unbiased opinions.
Alright, so number two.
You wanna make it easy for your customers to leave reviews.
Now this can depend on your business.
Sometimes Google is easier than Yelp
but it's all about what your consumers enjoy.
For instance.
Say you had a good interaction with one of your clients
and you were a massage therapist.
Well you can, after they're nice and relaxed
and you know they enjoy what you just did for them,
you say, "Hey, we appreciate you being a loyal customer.
"We would love your feedback
"because it's through loyal customers like you
"that allows us to continue to serve the community
"because everyone knows how important these reviews are."
- Which leads in nicely to number three.
Asking your customers to leave reviews.
And I get asked about this all the time in my seminars
because I know business owners are a little,
I guess nervous, right?
Cause they're like, "I don't want to solicit them."
Which you don't, that's unethical.
Or maybe they're just a little insecure about
what are my customers gonna say.
I'm nervous to ask.
But have confidence and some great ways to do it
that are super effective
is get your team on board with this for sure.
I know I went zip-lining last year in Costa Rica.
Was super rad.
And right afterwards I'm like,
just totally high off the experience of zip-lining
and they asked how it went and I'm just glowing
and they're like, "You know,
"we really get a lot of our business from Yelp.
"So we'd love your feedback there."
Other ways that have been pretty effective are email.
So email follow-up
maybe with the receipt that you send them
and that encourages them to leave their review.
I've also seen businesses send postcards to do it as well.
Oh, and then even just on the door
of your business or the window.
- Perfect. - Yeah.
You know like, you've seen it you go in to grab a,
like the coffee when we grabbed one this morning
at that little local spot in Seattle,
it was like right there like,
"Our customers love us on Yelp."
- And it's really important as the business owner,
just like Emma was saying when she was zip-lining
and she enjoyed the services.
At the end of that service, that is the perfect time
to ask your customer for that feedback.
- And number four, which really leads
into this perfectly great segway is
follow up with your customers, right?
Cause you know how it is
after you go somewhere and get your hair done
or get a massage
even if someone does ask about your experience
and it was awesome,
when you leave that business
you got a million other things you're doing.
It's pretty easy to forget like,
"Oh, I should go and leave a review somewhere."
Right?
So it's okay for you as the business
to go ahead and just follow up.
A little gentle nudge
and I would strongly encourage when you follow up
to include a link to the platform you want them to go to.
- Oh, that's definitely good.
- Yeah, make it easy.
One click away.
They're already online if they're checking their email
or scrolling through your Facebook posts
so one click away, boom.
They're on your review site.
Just making it that much easier for them to just share
how happy and stoked they are about your business.
- So number five.
You can offer incentives and rewards
for customers who leave reviews.
- And be careful about that though.
And I would definitely make sure as a business,
that you are up-to-date on the guidelines
of whatever platform you're trying to get more reviews on.
So-- - Yeah, those platforms
they change those guidelines from time to time.
So it's very important to make sure you consult those.
- Yeah.
Weather that's Yelp or Google
but some ways that I've seen businesses leverage this,
the idea of how can we incentivize our customers
without being unethical,
you're not paying for reviews,
but do some creative things like,
"If you leave a review you get to enter into a contest
"or maybe you'll receive a discount."
Right?
So these are some ways.
They're creative, they're fun
and again you're not buying that review
from that customer.
Alright that leads us to number six.
Responding to bad reviews.
Earlier, we mentioned the importance
of responding to reviews and responding publicly.
But I wanna hone in here
specifically on that negative review
which at some point every business gets a bad review.
- We're human, fallible.
- Yeah, and especially if you're out there
trying to generate more reviews
even more likely that you're gonna get a bad one in the mix
but do not ignore the review.
Please, it'll actually hurt you more to ignore it
because remember the majority of people are reading reviews.
So what you wanna do is neutralize that.
And oftentimes it's just really a great opportunity
for you to show how great your customer service is, right?
- I like that. - Yeah.
- I remember a former coworker he was saying,
"You know, I like when we have problems."
That you would think, "Why don't we wanna have problems.
"It's a service base business."
But when you have a problem that's the opportunity
to really show your customer how well your service
and the value that your service brings.
- Totally.
Which is again why you'd wanna respond publicly.
- And if you wanna know more about this,
we did do a video on this.
Just click over here.
And number seven.
(Emma laughs)
Engage with good reviews.
Now, a lot of business owners think, "Oh, it's a five-star.
"It's good.
"I don't need to say anything.
"It says it for itself." - Pat yourself on the back.
- Right? Yes.
But remember as we said earlier.
You responding to reviews, no matter good or bad,
is another extension of your customer service.
Remember, it's all about the time, right?
I heard a saying.
"I'm free with my love but not with my time."
Because once you spend your time it's gone forever.
Love, I can always get more of that.
You have to think about that.
People take their time out of their busy schedule
to leave you some kind of feedback
whether good or bad.
So for you as the business owner
to take the time to leave a conscious, you know, thought
of what you think about what they said,
it shows that you do care.
You respect their time.
- Alright, that leads us to the final one, number eight.
Works with bloggers to review your products,
kind of like a brand ambassador, right?
And it will help give them that incentive
to potentially leave you more feedback.
I know I got sent some cool socks
from a brand that's like a skate brand
in Southern California
and it was actually really fun
because they had cool patterns and stuff.
And I got like a gentle nudge like,
"Hey, maybe take a picture
"with all these free socks we set you."
But it was in a cool way.
And I went out with my skateboard
and like did a couple of shoots
with my friend who's a photographer,
and then I simply posted on my Instagram and tagged them
and sure enough like we started a conversation.
Next thing you know, I'm reviewing their product.
I'm giving them a testimonial.
So I like that.
The bloggers, the brand ambassadors.
There's a ton of fun ways to do that
and again by sending them your product
or maybe even before your product is on the market.
Like this one time Z-Flex Skateboard,
they were getting ready to launch this new cruiser board.
So we're in Venice.
They brought a few boards out.
They had a skate for the day
and just like document us skating.
So they got some good footage and then we got to try it out
and really give them our feedback firsthand like,
"Yeah, you know the board's alright."
or "The board's awesome."
And then it helped to lead that pathway to a review
and incentive cause we got to keep the board.
- Nice. (Emma laughs)
- And it was before the product was out.
So it was like good timing with it too.
So get people stoked and think about
who can help you to spread more word-of-mouth
like the blogger.
- And just be careful there are some FTC guidelines
that you do have to follow.
So just make sure that you are up to speed on those.
So you just learned eight ways
of getting more product reviews.
Be sure to like and comment and subscribe.
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This is The Journey.