Getting positive reviews is a bit like freshwater fishing. It takes time, patience and effort. There will be times where no matter how hard you try; you just won’t get a bite. But when you do land a 5-star review it makes the work worth it.
First tactic
Ask. Simply ask for a review. It may feel awkward but nine times out of 10, if you ask someone for a review after doing a good job, they will say yes.
However, there is still one other hurdle. Even after saying yes, not all will deliver, so it is imperative you make it simple for them to leave the review.
Second step
There are multiple places for someone to leave a review. Choose one as customers are not likely to leave multiple reviews. My recommendation is to focus on Google Reviews. These tend to weigh the most, as when a customer is looking for a plumber, they are most likely to use Google.
The good thing is that Google has spent a lot of time and money to own the review space, and to do that, they have made it easy for someone to leave a review. You can get a link from Google that goes directly to a page that allows someone to leave a review for your business. If you Google “google
review link” there are several guides.
Third step
Get that link out there! If your excellent work is the bait, the review link is the cast, and you just need to reel it in. You want to cast as many times as you can. Make sure to include it in your emails to customers that are happy, on your invoices and, if you want to be creative, you can use a free QR code generator to make a QR code to put on calling cards or business cards.
Fourth step
As I said in the last edition, answer your reviews. If you get that glowing 5-star review, thank them. Show that you appreciate their support. It will
encourage others to leave reviews. What not to do It is really tempting to ask friends or employees to leave reviews, or worse, pay for some. Don’t!
You might score a handful of reviews, but it is not worth the risk of people seeing through them and not trusting the genuine reviews on your page, or even worse, being fined by the ACCC and Google deleting your profile for violating its Terms of Service.
See the article “News from around the nation” in the magazine for news on the South Australian plumbing company who was caught and fined.
