We already know that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations and a whopping 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, so your digital reputation deserves quite a bit of focus if you want to be successful.
Whether you are a small business, restaurant, or winery in Baja California, reputation management needs to be taken seriously, and it’s not just asking for someone to leave you a review but responding to reviews, both good and bad, and show that you take your business and their opinion of your business seriously.
We’ve laid out 9 ways you can get more reviews from customers who patronize your business.
(1) Ask!
That’s right if you see a customer has a positive experience at your place of business, first thank them for visiting you, but then ask if they would be willing to write a review of their experience. Teach every member of your staff to do this and make it easy for the customer to do it or else they won’t.
(2) Incentivize
Be careful how you do this as some review sites heavily discourage it, but consider offering an incentive if your customer will leave you a review. If you are a restaurant, you might offer a free drink on their next visit if they leave a review, thereby not only guaranteeing they will leave a review but also come back again. If you are a small business, it might be a discount on a service. A winery might offer a discount or free wine tasting on their next visit.
(3) Counter-Top Displays
If you are a Baja restaurant, consider table-top displays on the table asking for a review and make it easy for them to do so from their mobile phone. A shortened URL easily does the trick. A small business might put it on their countertop, and a winery might add it to their receipt as well. Consider making it fun and put a sticker on their package they take away from your business asking for a review.
(4) Email
This is a little harder to do if you are a restaurant, but small businesses and wineries can easily collect emails from customers and send a thank you email thanking them for visiting your business and ask for a review of their experience.
(5) Social Media
Ask fans of your Facebook page and other social media platforms to leave you a review. If it is someone commenting on your page that is not a fan or mentions you someplace else online, respond thanking them and ask for a review of their experience.
(6) Customer Service Wins
Almost every business has to deal with customer service issues. If you or your staff successfully please a customer, ask them to leave a review of their experience online. Make this part of your everyday process when dealing with customer service issues that come up.
(7) Utilize Text Messaging
So many people prefer text messages to email and phone calls these days, offer some kind of incentive to grow an SMS message list that you can use not only to ask for reviews but blast out special offers at a later date. There are several services out there that offer this and Baja Digital can help you too. Over 90% of text messages are read within 15 minutes of sending so it has a great open rate.
(8) Online Review Software
There are many software programs on the market to help you solicit, monitor, and mitigate reviews and they pull all reviews from several platforms to just one easy to use dashboard. Baja Digital has its own reputation management platform we can get you set up on to manage your reviews or we can do it on your behalf.
(9) Dumb it Down
If you really want to make getting reviews a priority, make it easy for customers to leave one for you. If you ask when they leave your business, chances are they will forget to do it. Try a tablet in your business they can use on the spot or if you have their email or cell phone, message them there the next day asking for a review. The easier you make it on your customers, the more likely they are to do it for you.