In the last blog, we looked at how to get a good review and where to have your customers leave reviews. But the question is how do you get a client to actually leave a review? And what happens if they leave a bad review?
We have all been there when we carry out a job for a client and they are over the moon, telling all their friends, and you ask them if they would mind leaving a review and they are happy to. But a week passes, no review and you give them a reminder and still no review. People are busy, they have busy lives and often it just goes out of their head. I have a few tactics you could try. Have you ever tried giving them your phone or tablet to leave a review there and then? You could simply walk the client around the job or show them what you have done, ask them if they are happy, and if they say yes then say “that’s great, would you mind if I just get you to leave a review online? It will just take you one minute”
Often they will give you an instant review there and then. You can also approach them directly and tell them how much a five-star review will mean to your business. You could also offer an incentive, if they leave a review you can send them a discount voucher for a future service. Now it’s important to check the terms and conditions of the review platform you are using to make sure this isn’t against their policies, but often an incentive for every review is left can work really well as an extra push.
So what if we get horrors of horrors, a negative review, what are we going to do then? Well it’s going to happen isn’t it, no matter what we do there are always going to be negative reviews. Maybe someone let you down, you let someone down or you get an awkward customer and you get a negative review. It can be horrible to see that, as this is a business you are working so hard for, so it can be heartbreaking. The first thing to do when you see that negative review is to try not to go on the defensive, but instead try and learn from that negative review. Try and think what you might have done wrong, and where you could have improved your service. Now you can re-contact that customer and just have a chat to them about why they have left such a bad review. Often if someone is disgruntled and feels like they have to leave a bad review, it’s because they think that no one is listening to them. So maybe it’s a chance to have a chat with them and talk about their experience and acknowledge what you have done wrong, just listen to them and if you can try and turn it around. Is there anything you can do to change their mind?
If you do manage to smooth things over and rectify a problem you can always go back to them and say: “We’ve tried to rectify this for you, we really rely on reviews for business and bad reviews can really hurt us, would you mind deleting that review?” Now we can’t be too pushy about it but often that might be enough for someone to take down their bad review. But if that is not an option and the bad review needs to stay up there, then it’s important you reply to a bad review, again not being too defensive. Simply reply and say “We are really sorry to hear that you have felt the need to give us a one-star review, that really hurts us as a company as we are striving to deliver the best service for our customers. We have taken your comments on board and we are going to make sure that doesn’t happen again.” It’s not defensive, you have acknowledged it. And if anyone is reading that and can see your other good reviews, they can see you are a good company and that these things happen.
So even if you do get a bad review don’t worry, and don’t let it put you off. Don’t be shy, ask your clients for reviews and if you do a great job and follow the tips in these blogs, you will be flooded on the internet with great five-star rated reviews.
