Maintaining a positive reputation online is an essential aspect of marketing your water damage restoration business. Your social media presence, content on your blog, and optimizing your website for search engines all work together to create more leads for your company. One aspect of online marketing is increasing the reviews on your Google My Business page.
Why are Google reviews important your business?
When it comes to selecting a service or product, online reviews are highly influential in the decision making process. An estimated 84 percent of people believe that online reviews are as reliable as recommendations from friends and family, according to a local consumer survey by Brightlocal, a consumer marketing agency. Additionally, before making a decision, half of people are reading as many as three online reviews.
If you’re a homeowner, finding reviews is easy and 63 percent of consumers are heading straight to a search engine, like Google, to read these reviews. For water damage restoration business owners, Google reviews play a big role in influencing income. Homeowners know that impartial information about the work a company does and how they treat their customers is available at the click of the button.
Beyond that, Google reviews influence a company’s search engine optimization. Google gives preference to business who have regular interactions from customers, both with star reviews and written reviews.
There’s no doubt about it, Google reviews are an essential aspect of profitable business. Here’s how to get more reviews on your Google My Business page.
Practice Good Business
In a perfect world, satisfied customers would head right to Google to leave a positive review about your business after a restoration job is complete. This may happen from time to time, but most businesses will also need to prompt customers to leave reviews. There is a right and wrong way to do this, of course. Generally, asking customers to say specific things or pressuring them to leave a five star review is frowned upon. Your customers should be leaving good reviews because they had a great experience, not because they’re repeating what they were asked to write by an employee.
Practicing Good Customer Service
Every employee in your business should be trained to practice good customer service, day in and day out. Specifically, they should be expected to inquire about the customer’s experience after their restoration work is completed. After taking the time to listen, and making note of what can be learned from the customer’s feedback, employees can prompt satisfied customers to share their experience online.
Make It Easy
American families are busier than ever. Leaving a review for a business can often feel like one more item on their already long list of to dos. Because of this, making leaving reviews simple is one of the best ways to get more Google reviews. Some businesses may create a business card outlining the steps for leaving a business review. Others may create a card complete with a QR code that, when scanned with a smartphone, directs the customer to their Google My Business page.
Cut Back on Clutter
In addition to providing easy-to-follow directions for leaving a Google review, businesses can further simplify the process by creating a clutter-free URL for their customers. To do this, head to Google and search your business’s name. On your business listing, you should be able to see a button that says “Write a Review.” Click that button and then copy the URL from this webpage. This is the lengthy URL that will take your satisfied customers where they need to go to leave a review.
To shorten this url, simply visit the Google URL shortener and follow the directions provided. Now, you have a much shorter link for promotional materials, emails, and more.
Send Regular Reminders
Lastly, we recommend sending a reminder or two to your customers suggesting they leave a Google review. One of the simplest way to do this is to include a reminder in any email marketing you are doing already. Including a little note at the end of the email with a link to your business page. You may also wish to incentivize writing reviews, offer a small discount or a promotional item to customers who take the time to leave feedback online.
Respond to Positive and Negative Feedback
Increasing your reviews on Google isn’t where your job ends. As a business owner, it is important that you take an active role in maintaining your online reputation. Respond to any reviews left on your Google My Business page, thanking customers for taking the time to share their experience. If a review is negative, take the time to apologize when appropriate and go above and beyond to make things right.
At More Floods, we help small business owners in water damage restoration uncover more leads through our proven marketing methods. To learn more about becoming a member and the resources we have available, click here or call 1-866-667-3356.