When I moved to Tucson, one of the most important things I needed to do was find a doctor. I was nervous. I was only 18, I had only ever had one doctor, and I had no clue what kind of doctor to look for. Since I was new in town, I did not know anyone to ask, so I started with the vast knowledge of the Internet. I wanted a doctor that people were happy with, a doctor who knew what they were doing. I started looking at reviews. Reviews about the wait time and the ease of scheduling appointments. I did not want to feel uncomfortable, even in the waiting room. The staff needed to be friendly. The first doctors crossed off of my list were those with no or very low reviews. If they didn’t have reviews, then they were nothing special. If they had reviews, and they were bad then I really did not want to even look at them. Then with the remainder, I choose to only read the reviews of the higher rated doctors, by easily sorting the reviews.
I understand that not every person is like me, and looks at the reviews to decide which doctor to pick. However, I do believe that reviews are there for a reason. People wanted to share their own experiences. These reviews, in turn, help shape the image of those doctors and their companies. Similar reviews, will also prove to help or hurt your business, as with any business.
Below are some tips and tricks to help you get more reviews, in turn, helping your business stand out.
Offer a Promotion: Patients and customers alike will be more inclined to leave a review and a good one, if something is in it for them. Take GameStop® for example. If you are not familiar with GameStop®, they are a very popular store for many gamers, as they sell gaming consoles and electronic games for all ages. During every visit, when they are handing you the receipt, they will ask you to fill out a survey letting them know how they did. Now, if they just said that, many people would probably just throw out the receipt and not do it, but they don’t stop there. Your representative will also highlight how and why this would be good for you to do–you get entered to win $100 to GameStop®!
You could offer something similar, whether it be cash or a discount off services to get people to review you or your business. Offering something in return, also gets people coming back to you for more opportunities to win things.
Send Survey Email/text: Sending an email or text to a customer to follow-up about a recent visit is a great way to gauge how your business or practice is doing. While many of these may be ignored, those people that do fill them out will be honest. Also, any information you get can be used for more business improvements. For example, if you get a bad review and it was only because no one was at the front desk when the patient came in, you can investigate and find the cause for this, so that in the future, the desk always has a smiling face to greet each new visitor. Not to mention, if you apologize to that person that posted a bad review, and work hard to make it right, that person will become an advocate of your business, like no other.
Make it easy: Make sure your review page is easy to access and has an easy link, or several simple to remember links. Put those links on your website and email correspondence. I suggest you put social media links in a side bar on every webpage or on the bottom “site map” area so that no matter what page of your website anyone is on, it is always right there. Remind clients when you see them, or in a regular newsletter, making sure to let them know those links.
Keep it going: If you get a bunch of reviews at one time, it may be obvious that there was a promotion or something going on to elicit those reviews. Try to always get reviews, not clumps here and there. By keeping your reviews, steady and current, you will show that you are consistently doing an awesome job and that your business is constantly getting gold stars. So, continue to ask and send those emails even if you do not have some promotion.
Follow up: Finally, don’t forget to acknowledge those that are tweeting your name or talking about you. Connect with them, thank them, and don’t forget to give them whatever they may have won. And if you get a bad review, respond to it. There is nothing worse than a business that lets a bad review just float on in the ether!
Chances are the more current and good reviews you have, the more people will look at you and think, “They are someone I can trust.”
GameStop is a registered trademark of GameStop, Inc
