First and most importantly: run a good business, take care of your customers, and have a great product.
Then, ASK for a review.
The trick is to never ask anyone but the good, happy customers for a review.
If you ask an unhappy, impolite, disappointed or even neutral customer for a review you are literally ‘asking for it’: you’re asking for a less-than-perfectly-happy person to leave you a review which is nearly guaranteed to to result in a review that’s less than 5 stars.
When you talk to a happy one ask them if they’d be willing to leave us a 5-star review.
** IF ** they say yes to that, then send the instructions.
They can search for “your business name here”, if you have a correctly setup and verified listing with Google My Business then a panel about your business will show up and in that panel, usually near the bottom, they can click the “Write a Review” button. (they can also click your listing on the map if that’s what shows up instead of the panel)
You can also get a link you can send to your customers:
- Log into the same Google account that you used to setup and verify your business listing
- Search for your business name on Google
- You should see a similar panel, except it will be customized for you as the business owner (different from what your customer would see)
- The review button will say “Get reviews” or a similar link that says “Get your first review”
- You should then get a pop-over that includes a link you can send your customers.
