Customer reviews need to be an important part of your marketing effort. This is especially true for local businesses. Local directories such as the Google 7-Pack use the number of reviews as an important measure of which listings to display. Because you are asking for customer reviews, your staff becomes more focused on providing an even higher level of service, which translates into happier customers.

This gives prospective customers the “social proof” they are looking for about what to expect in doing business with your company.

How can you encourage reviews?

1. Ask for a review with each order. This can be an email sent as a thank you for their recent order, include a link to a review site where they can complete a review. An alternative to this is to follow up with a postcard asking for a review of your product or service.
2. Incentives: Offer a discount on a future order or some free offer if they will take the time to review your service. Some experts caution against this since it could be viewed as a form of a paid review.
3. Contest: Offer to enter everyone that completes a review into a drawing for something of value. This should be for any review (good or bad). The idea is to solicit feedback that will help your business improve.
4. Consistency: It is better to have a consistent stream of reviews rather than a bunch of reviews that come in all at one time. Set up a system that regularly asks for a review.

Not all reviews will be positive, no matter how great the service is that you offer. You will find though that the vast majority of reviews to be good… providing you do provide a quality service.

If you are concerned about potential reviews, then this may be a sign that you may need to make some changes in how you do business.

Related posts:

1. Yelp.com: Ask Your Customers to Review You
2. Building Your Online Marketing Plan
3. Using Social Media to Grow Your Business
4. 6 ways to get customers
5. Engaging With Customers