Because of the internet, more people scour business reviews now than ever. When it comes to the art of good reviews, it’s important to keep in mind:

• Who
• Why
• What
• Where
• When
• How

Be sure to read our other articles or stay tuned for the next ones coming out in our series! This one will be focusing on: who.

Who to Ask

Thanks to Yelp, Google, and Facebook, virtually anyone can leave a review of a business at any time. Rather than leaving it to fate though, many businesses will personally ask their clients/consumers/customers to leave a review. If you decide to do this, you’re basically left with two choices: asking everyone or asking some.

Asking Everyone

In your lifetime, you’ve likely been asked to complete a brief survey at the end of a phone call with a business. It doesn’t take a genius to understand more than likely, the employee was required to ask every (or almost every) customer on the phone that question. When businesses incorporate this method, it ensures a lot of feedback. This feedback can be, and should be, organized and investigated to see what customers like and don’t like.

There’s an obvious drawback to asking everyone for a review or making review-writing easily accessible (such as an automated email or “Review Us!” card at the front desk). You will inevitably get some bad reviews, especially from individuals who were insulted that you asked for a review after what they considered to be unacceptable service.

Asking Some

Many businesses train their employees to only ask for reviews after a positive customer interaction. What’s “positive” is subjective, meaning there’s a possibility you’ll actually get some average reviews from what you thought was great service.

While there may be some potential customers who find businesses with very little bad reviews to be suspicious, being selective about who you ask can lead to really personalized and even touching reviews. If your service, product, and/or good was able to change someone’s life, there’s nothing wrong with asking for a review! Ultimately, people look for stories with happy endings in reviews.

How are your reviews? Contact us to learn more about our Reputation Monitoring services.