Review Generation for Small Businesses

Probably not. If you’re like most consumers, then you’ll search the name of that business and check out what other customers are saying about them. You’ll read their online reviews.

As consumers, we’ve learned to be wary about what we read online. A business will make all kinds of claims about the quality of their products or services—but what are their customers saying? That’s what we really want to know. 

Reviews are important for businesses in all industries, from restaurants to tattoo shops. We’re going to dive into why reviews are so impactful for your small business (and what you can do to get more of them):

It’s the process of reaching out to customers, collecting their feedback, and encouraging them to post it on various review platforms. 

An online review provides social proof that your business delivers on its promises. It’s a valuable and authentic recommendation from a customer who’s tried your products or services. 4 or 5-star reviews are direct evidence that someone had a positive experience with your business.

A few popular review sites include:

These days, customers have caught on to most marketing tactics. They know that every business will sing their own praises on their website. After all, they’re incentivized to do so; it helps boost sales. 

But you can’t say the same of positive reviews left by actual clients. We know that their customer experience is authentic because they don’t stand to gain anything by leaving feedback—they have no stake in the business.

One of the most effective marketing tactics has always been word of mouth. After someone has a positive experience at your business, they go on to tell their friends and family about it. An online review is the modern-day equivalent of that. 

As consumers, we work hard for our money, and we don’t want to waste it. If a potential customer searches the name of your business and finds that you have no online reviews, what might they think?

They’ll probably feel a bit wary about trusting your products or services and look for a well-known competitor instead. 

Did you know that almost 9/10 of customers check online reviews before making a purchase? 

Customer reviews help people trust your business and learn more about what to expect from their experience. Don’t lose out on potential customers due to a lack of reviews.

You do your best to provide your customers with excellent products and services. But without their feedback, it’s hard to know what they think of your business. Did it meet their expectations? Were they satisfied? How could their experience be improved?

Reviews give you an insight into what your customers are really thinking. With their feedback, you can refine your products and services to better meet their needs. Even though it’s tough to take criticism, it can help you build a better business. 

Establish credibility and trustworthiness with reviews from real customers. With more positive reviews, customers can verify that you deliver on your promises. Show new customers what your business is all about.

When a customer is on the fence about making a purchase, a positive review can be enough to sway their decision. Once you start generating reviews, you’ll notice a dramatic increase in sales. Convert more customers with new reviews.

Did you know that reviews affect your website’s position in local search results? It’s true: SEO experts overwhelmingly agree that online reviews are an important ranking factor. When it comes to ranking higher in search results, positive reviews play a big role. 

Running a small business means you wear many hats. With all the responsibilities on your plate, you hardly have the time (or energy) to invest in advertising. 

Let positive reviews do the heavy-lifting of marketing for you. Once you’ve set up your campaign on Rep.co, you can get back to focusing on your business and let your review generation software do the rest.

When you’re getting your small business off the ground, you want to set yourself apart from your competitors. What can you do to show customers that your business offers the best of the best?

Each online review acts as a vote of confidence for your business. The more reviews you amass, the more influential they become. When you have dozens of reviews and your competitor only has a handful, customers will be more inclined to trust your business. 

As we mentioned earlier, online reviews benefit your business in many ways, but there is little reward for the customers who take the time to write them. They’re the ones taking time out of their day to leave your business a review. 

To help them out, you can make the process as convenient as possible. When you’re sending review requests, be sure to include links to your preferred platform. This makes it so that all your customers need to do is write their feedback, click the link, and post it. 

Do you check your phone every day? What about your text messages? Some of your customers may prefer to be contacted via email, while others spend more time responding to texts. Improve response rates by sending review requests on multiple platforms.

A generic review template doesn’t exactly motivate your customers to leave glowing feedback. When you customize the messages you send to your customers, they’ll notice the extra effort you put into the review process. That alone might be enough to persuade them to leave a 5-star review.

Given how important reviews are, you might wonder why businesses don’t request more of them. The answer is simple: They don’t have time.

Can you imagine the time it would take to request reviews from every individual customer? Even for a small business, the process takes far too long. You know you need more business reviews, but it can’t come at the cost of your time. 

If you send a review request weeks or months after a customer visits your business, they may have already forgotten about their experience. At that point, they’re less likely to leave you any feedback.

It’s best to send review requests shortly after a customer visits your business. This ensures that their experience stays fresh in their mind. 

We’re only human; harsh criticism can be unpleasant to hear. But if you want to improve customer experience, it’s important to hear negative feedback, too. 

By responding to a negative review, you have a chance to rectify the situation. And who knows? Once you respond to and correspond with that customer, they might be inclined to change their initial review.

On top of that, customers are less inclined to trust your reviews when each one is 5 stars. A few 4 or 3-star reviews show them that the feedback is authentic. 

We recommend that you send review requests to all your customers. With Rep.co, you can review this feedback internally to refine your products and services.

If your small business is just getting started, you might find it tough to generate customers, let alone online reviews. Still, it’s never worth it to buy fake reviews—the consequences aren’t worth it.

It’s never been easier to get more reviews. Save time and energy by using Rep.co to send review requests. All you need to do is set up your account, customize your campaign, and upload your contacts; our software will take care of the rest. With automated review requests, it’s simple to populate the biggest platforms with new reviews.

Our software also makes it easier for your customers to leave reviews. They’ll receive text or email messages encouraging them to leave feedback. It’s as simple as clicking the link to share their customer experience. Next, they can click a button to copy the body of their feedback and follow a link to your chosen review site.  

Imagine sending dozens of review requests without having to write a single email yourself. That’s the power of automating the review process.

You know that a majority of your customers read your reviews. Did you know that they read your responses to them, too? Responding to negative and positive reviews shows that you value customer feedback. 

The sooner you respond to a negative review, the better. Your response influences how others perceive your business. Rep.co notifies you each time you receive reviews from your customers, allowing you to manage your brand reputation with ease.

You know that Google is the world’s most popular search engine (after all, not many business names become verbs). Even so, Google isn’t the only place your customers search for online reviews. 

What if you want to generate reviews on industry-specific sites (like Avvo for lawyers or Vitals for doctors)? With Rep.co, you can generate reviews for all the top review sites in your industry, including Facebook, eBay, Yelp, and Zomato. Each account includes two review profiles; if you’d like to add more, get in touch with our support team.

While you understand the importance of more reviews, you don’t necessarily want to populate the local search results with negative reviews. Using our review threshold feature, customers that leave 4 or 5-star reviews will be encouraged to post their feedback on review sites. 

With a negative review (a star rating that’s below the threshold), they’ll receive a message that informs them their feedback will be reviewed internally. You can still choose to direct them to leave a review if you’d like.

Does your business have several locations? No problem. Use Rep.co to manage campaigns for each location. You can personalize your review requests based on each location you have.

With an intuitive dashboard, straightforward settings, and nearly endless customization, Rep.co can review generation strategy to the next level.

Ready to see the difference that review generation software can make for your business? At Rep.co, we offer a simple and affordable way to generate more reviews. Sign up for your account today!