How to harness the halo of the happy customer
These days, asking for recommendations is a key way to find products and services. People trust reviews and seek them out to give them the reassurance to make a purchase. When a customer has a positive experience with your company, you’d be mad to miss the opportunity to harness the halo effect, as this is one of the best ways for small businesses to get reviews and capitalise on ‘digital word of mouth’. Here is our advice for how to get online reviews for your business.
Beyond new leads
Many businesses are focused on ‘new leads, new leads’, and they are failing to recognise that there is much marketing potential from those who have already crossed the sales line. Once someone buys from you they are a potentially valuable marketing asset, both directly and for the network they can speak to.
In addition, seeking reviews and recommendations from existing happy customers is a very cost-effective marketing activity. Through simple good account and people management, you can tap into a great marketing channel with very few resources required from yourself.
This is what we call tertiary marketing – a ripple effect to your marketing, referencing and storytelling from your clients.
How to get online reviews for your business ... you have to ask for them!
There are many locations to collect feedback:
- Directly on your website
- On social media platforms
- On search engines – Facebook and Google reviews for example
- Via third party / industry specific sites – Checkatrade, Which Trusted Trader, etc.
It is also about how you also for a review...
Top tips – where and how to deliver your messages
- Is there an opportunity to give out physical feedback forms or flyers on your premises with signs or reminders drawing attention to them?
- A feedback questionnaire can also be created on a free online tool and sent out via print, email, social media posts or put on your website; though where possible we’d recommend making requests feel personal.
- Tailor specific questions to draw attention to the benefits of your offering.
- Is there an incentive you can add, such as a refer-a-friend scheme?
- Have a system in place to ensure you regularly capture feedback or reviews at the right moment e.g. for lots of companies there is a gap between a point of sale and the delivery of that service such as installation, construction, completion of legal service etc. There is no harm in asking for feedback on both occasions, so long as they are done so timely.
- Aim for a broad selection of different types of customers or different areas of your business to best highlight all that you have to offer.
- Strike when the iron is hot – people are more likely to respond when the experience is fresh.
- Be responsive; say thank you. It’s a great opportunity to stay in touch for future sales or recommendations.
It can take a while to build a resource of endorsements but be patient as it is well worth the effort.
Remember, someone seeking such information is already engaged in the sales process and this ‘social proof’ could be the tipping point into making an enquiry or not.
Get over the fear of a bad review
The fear of a bad review is understandable, and you might think it is a permanent, visible stain on your business. The good news is that you are able to respond to these in a few constructive ways.
If a review is clearly fake or made up to negatively affect your business, it is possible to report this to Google (or other review aggregators) and have them removed.
It is also possible for you to respond to negative reviews and find a solution to your customer’s problems, oftentimes resulting in these reviews being deleted.
We hope you found our advice on how to get online reviews for your business helpful.
Now let us ask you, how much tertiary and review marketing do you currently undertake? If you’d like a complimentary marketing review to see how much more you could make of this and other marketing tactics, book it by clicking the button below now.
