The reason you're not getting more 5 star reviews is pretty simple...
You don't ask for them. Or you ask once, as you or the customer is walking away.
The customer usually agrees to give a review, but then they leave and get in their car and drive off to their next task, and the thought vanishes.
Also, depending on the nature of your product or service, that client may not even know yet if they're happy with the product/service. There has been no time to digest that thought.
And you never follow up or ask for that review again.
I don't blame you, you're busy, you have to deal with satisfying the next customer. And the thought of reaching out again might make you feel awkward, uneasy, or desperate. This will constantly move the follow up call to the bottom of your to-do list. A.K.A it's never gonna happen.
And if it never happens, then, you're probably not going to get many reviews. And depending on how saturated and competitive your business niche is, this could cost you loads of website traffic lost to better ranking businesses.
Data collected from Powerreviews (Source) shows that 68% of customers respond to the first follow up ask, an additional 28% responded to the second follow-up, and another 4% on the third (four asks total).
So Why Should You Care?
Marketing experts for years have been crafting their messages to leverage the 7 principles of influence.
One of Psychology Ph.D Robert Cialdini's 7 principles of influence in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is Social Proof.
When discussing influence and the psychology of persuasion, Cialdini defined social proof as people doing what they observe other people doing. It’s safety in numbers.
If people observe hundreds of 5-star Google reviews, there's an instant feeling of comfort there versus selecting from a business with only a handful of reviews.
And this concept is even more amplified if the prospect is unsure of themselves. So, if your business offers a niche, complicated service (like a kitchen renovation company or plumber) where your typical client has no experience or know-how to perform the service themselves, then your social proof score is even more critical.
In Brightlocals 2024 consumer survey (Source) they found that 33% "always", 42% "regularly" and 22% "occasionally" read online reviews when browsing for local business. Leaving a measly 3% of consumers who "never" refer to online reviews when browsing for local businesses.
The same survey found that a whopping 81% of consumers are using Google to find reviews, followed by Facebook at 45% and Yelp at 44%.
In the same survey, Brightlocal found conumers were most likely (88%) to choose a business that responds to all of their reviews, not just good or bad ones.
Surprisingly, Brightlocal did a blind test to see if consumers prefer a response written by the business owner or A.I. Consumers were given two reviews and not told which was written by the business owner and which was A.I. It turns out 58% of the people surveyed preferred the response written by A.I!
Another one of Cialdinis principles of influence is Authority, or appealing to authority.
If you provide a niche service, a plethora of online reviews displaying customer satisfaction establishes your company as an expert or authority in your field.
For more on the 7 principles of influence, check this source out.
Solutions?
BRN Digital Marketing provides an automated Google Review Campaign utilizing text messages and emails to reach out to your past customers, so you don't have to find time to do it your self or ask one of your team members to do it. With automation, no message request is missed, meaning you get 100% consistency.
The smart campaign is programmed to send messages during the highest converting periods and is designed to capture the best reviews, while incentivizing poor reviews to be dealt with in-house and kept off Google. Additionally, you can have A.I. assistant respond to all reviews, aiding in your authority figure and boosting Google ranking.
In summary, an automated Google Review Campaign can boost your reputation via the social proof and authority principles of persuasion, while also boosting your business visibility ranking in the Google Search Engine.
Click the watch demo below to see it in action.
If you're ready for BRN Digital Marketing to boost your online presence via Automated Google Review Campaigns, then click 'Book a Discovery Call' button below!
Written By:
Brady Neimanis
Updated April 2024
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