TREND IN FOCUS
A five-star approach to review management
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iven that 99% of consumers reported using the internet to find information about a local business in the last year,* there’s no denying the importance of reviews. But as Jamie Pitman of BrightLocal, a dedicated local SEO platform notes, “Consumer habits and preferences are changing. If you want to make the most of reviews, you need to stay on top of where consumers are going and have a presence there.” Facebook falling out of favor According to Pitman, there’s been a diminishing trust in Facebook over the past few years. “Between bad actors and congressional hearings, people are losing faith in the platform. For the first time in the company’s history, its user base is shrinking. On top of that, how it handles reviews is a bit confusing. They had reviews, then they had recommendations, now they have some sort of hybrid. The system isn’t clear to consumers or to businesses. As a result, consumers aren’t leaving reviews like they used to and also aren’t valuing them as much.” Google seizes the moment As anyone who uses Google knows, the company is actively looking to build trust and help businesses leverage reviews. “Recently,” Pitman says, “Google introduced a new feature on its local pack. When you’re presented with a map showing businesses that match your search, if you roll over a business, a little snippet of a review for that business appears. It might include a key word from your search, which serves to boost your confidence in the business and in Google to deliver what you need.” Making the ask For 84% of consumers, reviews play an ‘important’ or ‘very important’ part in their decision when searching service businesses or tradespeople. “You could offer the best service in the world,” says Shawn Hill, community director at the reputation marketing software company NiceJob, “but if you don’t have reviews that say that, no one is ever going to know.” Hill notes pros may be hesitant to ask for reviews, and may not know what to do with them once they have them. “If you set expectations with the customer early that you’ll be looking for feedback throughout the project on how well your team is performing, it becomes a partnership aimed at helping you improve the customer experience. Plus, if an issue emerges, you have a chance to show how responsive you are.”
Hill says that makes it easy to ask for the review when the job closes. Try something like: ‘You’ve said so many nice things; I’d like to share them on Google,’” he says. “And you want to make is super easy for the customer to provide the review. Tell them you’ll send a link, and thank them for sharing their experience.” New biz leverages reviews to great success Jaime Burkhard started Murfreesboro Painting in May of 2021 and has already earned 39 5-star Google reviews. “As a new business, we felt the quickest and best way to grow was to prioritize reviews PRO TIPS and the customer Finding the review link provided by Google is ‘clunky,’ Burkard created a experience,” he custom link (murfreesboropainting.com/review) that drives customers to says. “The best way the same review screen. to get potential customers to NiceJob software includes a smart code that presents clients with all trust us was to let connected review sites for a business. other people tell BrightLocal provides a free Google Review Link & Place ID Generator: our story. We put brightlocal.com/free-local-seo-tools/google-id-and-review-link-generator reviews in front of prospects every chance we get. They’re on the front page on our website and we include reviews of similar projects, including photos, in every proposal.” Throughout the job, Burkhard and his team are focused on creating the best possible customer experience. “That makes it easy to ask for a review as soon as the invoice is paid. I never ask for five stars; I just send a link and ask them to take 30 seconds to share their experience.” If someone is slow to respond, he’ll send a follow-up note a few days later, informing them of his referral program or asking if they’d be willing to take some photos of the finished space. “I don’t ask for the review but that’s usually sufficient to get one.” Murfreesboro Painting responds to every review immediately, often peppering their response with a project location or some details to boost SEO rankings. *Local Consumer Review Survey 2022, BrightLocal
May/Jun 2022 | inPAINT
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