January 28, 2021
Google provides physical stores and offices to have their locations listed on Maps, to help customers locate them using driving directions on Google Maps. This location listing feature is a part of the ‘Google My Business’ service offering from the search giant. Customers looking for a product or service use Google search on their laptop or mobile devices and in particular also look for the reviews posted by other customers for that particular business.
In today’s always connected world, people would seek a third-party opinion before they decide on a product, vendor or service they need. They turn to online reviews to research and decide based on the number of comments and ratings a product or business has received before making up their mind to proceed with the purchase decision. You already know that reviews are important for business – now let’s understand how and what you can do to get more reviews on Google for your business. We’ll cover:
In your computer you can browse to Google Maps and search for the name of the business, select from the list and click on the ‘search’ icon. Your business location with the address and contact information and the reviews if any will be displayed. If your business location is not listed in Google Maps, you can claim your business location using the guide here.
Google reviews are important for a business in multiple aspects. From brand exposure to qualified sales, google reviews have become the most important factor for any customer to make a decision on purchasing any service or product from any company. Google Reviews not only benefit your local SEO rankings, but they also help in increasing your online reputation, brand presence in your local area.
If you’re having an established Google Business Listing, check out the article:
How-to-Optimize Google My Business Listing? (BONUS) Free Checklist for Download
Here’s the top 3 benefits of Google Reviews for your business:
1. Improve your local business rankings
Google reviews Increase Online Exposure & Local SEO / Local rankings on Maps and also on search results. Google considers the no. of relevant reviews on your business listing is one of the important factors to rank your business on Google. A better local presence can create a better relationship between you and your customers.
The more is written about your business online, the more important Google considers you to be in the search results.
2. Increase your customer base and sales
According to few surveys, nearly 88% of consumers have read the google reviews to determine the quality of a local business. Nowadays people are much likely to make a purchase either at the store or book for the service online only when others have strongly recommended it on online reviews. Most of the people believe these Google reviews have enough information and then they might decide whether to buy the services or not.
3. Serve your customers better
Google Reviews provide you with the issues your customers have with your service. Every review you collect can serve as a customer survey response. Though you’re getting negative reviews, it becomes easier for you to understand what improvements your services need. Once you resolve the issues, it creates a better and positive experience for all the customers and helps your business grow.
Let customers market your services…
Getting Positive Google Reviews itself is a Free marketing resource for your business. The satisfied customers always give a positive image of your services to the potential customers.
Now you have understood why Google Reviews are important for your business, next question is, but how to actually get customers to review your business?
Here are some tips to get started with, that will drive your customers/clients to review your business.
1. Guide your customers
Though you have many visitors to your store, many of your customers may not review your business, because they don’t have complete information about your business. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to give all the information about your products and services offered at the store. Treat customers well and ask them to try your different products or services.
If you’re planning to rebrand your business, then this article will help you
Rebranding Your Business On Google My Business – Download Bonus Rebranding Checklist
Then you ask for a review. Tell your customers how easy it is to post a Google review. You can ask them diplomatically to ‘Drop A Review’. You should sound like it is a work of just a few seconds. And hence there is a higher chance that they will submit a review.
Addition to that, sometimes you can even instruct them on how to do it. But always remember not to insist the customers to submit a review. That might harm your business rather than helping it.
2. Be Responsive to your customers….always
Whether it is a positive or negative review, responding to the reviews will make your customers feel acknowledged. This way you can encourage them to give better and quality reviews to your other stores in other locations or even other businesses. This responsiveness also creates a positive impression on your new customers. They feel that the company cares and gives value to the customers’ feedback.
For positive reviews, be thankful and ask them to visit again. If you got any negative reviews, respond politely and understand the customer’s real concern.
3. Use print media to get more reviews
You have multiple resources offline to get more reviews. What are they?
First, you’ll need to know how to create a short google business profile link for your business location. If you don’t know, then checkout how to create a short profile link for your google business listing.
This short link is easy to remember and will be very easy to type. That link will redirect the customers directly to your business page, making the process easier for them.
Follow these steps to generate the direct link.
1. Go to Google Place ID Tool
2. Enter the name of your business. Make sure to enter the name of your Google My Business Name that is exactly listed on GMB Account.
3. After entering your business name, you can see the business name and copy your Place ID of your business which is nothing but a string of letters and numbers, listed under your business name.
4. Then go the below link and paste your place ID into the following link:
https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=PASTE PLACE ID HERE
Once you’ve created the direct link, you need to now create a Website URL QR Code.
To create a QR Code, you’ll need an online QR Code generator.
There are many free and paid tools to generate a QR Code for your link. We recommend you to use a QR Code generator which has SCAN TRACKER. Here are some top QR Code generators that you can consider.
Follow these steps to create a QR Code:
1. Visit https://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/
Click on Create QR Code
2. Select Website URL category from amongst other QR Code categories.
3. Enter the link and click Create QR Code
4. Next, you’ll see the QR Code design. You can save it or even print it.
The other QR Code generator websites can give you many customization options like colors, logo in the QR Code, Your Business Name and details, Unique designs etc., You can choose from many options.
Negative online reviews can have a great impact on your business. Especially if you’re in the Restaurant or Hotel business, you’ll understand the importance of reviews. If your business is growing, then there’s increased popularity on social media sites and review websites. So you need to be more aware than ever of what customers are saying about your business on these sites.
1 – Respond promptly
If they face any issue, most of the customers expect the issue to be resolved quickly. It is important to deal with negative reviews promptly before they escalate and more potential customers read the review. Address it and resolve the issue immediately.
2 – Be polite and professional in your responses
Never ever personally react to a negative review. Respond in a polite, professional manner. Don’t blame other people or your store employees for the problem. Never take excuses in addressing even small issues.
3 – Take the issue offline
After acknowledging the problem, think of settling the issue off-line, and out of public view. Provide the customer support email or phone contact details, so you can discuss with the customer and resolve the matter.
Once the issue is resolved, you can greet the customer or post online that issue is resolved, you can then post a public comment on the review website outlining that the customer got the desired outcome.
4 – Encourage your customers to write a review
You can encourage customers who are happy with your product or service to write a review. Be careful not to influence them by asking that they leave only positive reviews.
Better manage online customer reviews by:
5 – Request that fake or misleading reviews be removed
If you know that reviews are fake or misleading they must be removed from any website or review sites. These platforms that do not remove reviews they know to be fake risk breaching the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
This is not the same as asking for negative reviews to be removed (or removing them from your own website or Facebook page). Social media is about developing relationships, even though they may not always be positive. Be attentive on both social media sites and review platforms before your business gets into a bigger trouble.
The first most important thing to remember is to see and respond to your business’s Google Reviews, your business needs to be verified. If you’ve not verified your business or not sure how to verify your business, then visit “How to verify your google business account?”. Once your business is verified, it’s time to start checking out your customer reviews and respond to them.
1. Sign in to your browser
2. Open Google Maps, and search for your business
3. Once you find your business and click on it, under that you can see the overall ratings.
4. Find the review that you feel is a FAKE Review and you want to flag.
5. Click the three dots to the right of the review.
6. You can see the option to “Flag as inappropriate” or “Report Review”, click it to flag the review.
Once you report it to Google, their internal teams may take about a week and confirm back on your email with their decision.
Remember, Google doesn’t guarantee or always remove the reviews you flag every time. The Google team may check or cross verify the user profile before they remove the customer review.
Google Maps and the Business listing feature of Google My Business is perhaps one of the most popular free marketing tools available for small businesses to be able to drive more footfalls and inbound sales leads to physical storefronts worldwide. If you want to leverage the advantages of your Google My Business Account and get more footfalls to your business, this is the good time and ask for a FREE LOCAL BUSINESS OPTIMIZATION CONSULTATION from Immersive Radical Digimedia. We have been helping many clients across the globe to manage their Google Business Listing hustle free.
Talk to our Digital Marketing Expert to get started today. Contact Us.