As a business owner, you know what other people say about your business is crucial. It significantly affects your image and whether you will attract more customers your way in the future. Because of this, you must collect as many positive reviews as possible for your business.
Two of the most popular ways to collect these reviews are through Facebook and Google.
With Google being the pioneer of search engines and content and Facebook being the most popular social media platform, the two make a dynamic duo, and you should have both in your portfolio.
When you are a large corporation, getting reviews from both sites is not an issue as you only need to delegate employees to the individual sites, but if you are a small business owner, you don’t have the time and resources to do it.
Because of this, most contractors and other small business owners are forced to choose one.
If you are in a predicament as to which platform you should concentrate on to get the most value, this article will shed more light on each platform and, in the end, advise you on the best platform to gravitate towards for the most outcome.
Google reviews
To start our journey, let’s kick off with Google reviews. Google reviews are owned by the search engine giant—Google.
One of the advantages of these reviews is they are easy to collect.
A person can simply search your business name on Google, find the business, and leave a review. You can also send out a link to your Google review page and proceed to leave you a review by clicking on “Write a review.”
Google reviews are also tightly tied to local SEO. This means the more positive reviews you have on your Google Business listing, the higher the chances of your business showing up when people are searching for a service you provide.
Lets us be honest. As a business owner, you are looking to boost your SEO to bring in more business, right? So, the fact that Google reviews give you this boost is quite advantageous for your business.
People are always searching for “___near me,” and in most cases, they go with the business that shows up at the top and has the most stars.
This means that if you have many reviews and plenty of positive reviews (many five stars), your business will always be listed at the top; hence you have more business coming your way.
Google doesn’t have a problem with you asking for reviews from your customers, so you can send them a message, email, or ask them in person to leave you a review without worrying about getting penalized or the review being hidden or deleted.
You can also quickly respond to the Google reviews, which comes in handy at fixing the negative reviews left by dissatisfied customers.
Facebook reviews
With over 2 billion monthly active users, and over 40 million active small business pages, we can all agree that Facebook is a giant in its own right.
Just like Google reviews, Facebook reviews are straightforward to collect. Facebook is meant for communication, so you can quickly get in touch with your clients and ask them to leave you a review—without leaving the platform!
Simply share your Facebook business page and ask them to let you know about their experience with your business. You can also ask them to share the page among their friends, which brings even more reviews your side.
Due to the ease of communication, you can even chat one-on-one with your followers and customers.
While Google reviews are mostly negative, obviously because most people are inclined to leave reviews when disgruntled than when satisfied, most Facebook reviews are positive, so you have little work to do when it comes to damage control.
Most reviews on Facebook are positive because most of the people leaving the reviews already like your page, and few people will like a page that they are unhappy with.
Facebook reviews are directly tied to Google’s algorithm. This means that when someone searches for your business on Google, your reviews on Facebook will show up in the Google search results. You will agree that’s not bad for a “two for one” type of deal, is it?
So, where should you concentrate your efforts? Google or Facebook reviews?
The ideal situation would be to collect reviews from both platforms, as they come with perks to your business.
Unfortunately, not all of us are capable of multitasking and getting reviews from both platforms.
If you don’t have the resources to invest in collecting reviews from both platforms or you want to concentrate on one platform, then go on to the next, we would recommend you start with Facebook.
The reason for this is because Facebook gives you an easier time collecting the reviews, as you can directly get in touch with your clients from your page. As mentioned, you can even directly chat with them.
You also have a high chance of getting many positive reviews which gets the ball rolling.
As mentioned, the Facebook reviews will still show up on Google search, which positively impacts your business’ SEO.
How do you get started with Google and Facebook reviews?
There is no way you will collect the vital reviews if you aren’t correctly set up. How do you do it?
Claim and update your Google My Business profile
While this might seem obvious, data from Google shows that over 44% of businesses haven’t claimed their Google My Business profile.
While this might not affect the ability of your clients to leave reviews, it comes in handy at improving your online image as it shows the search engine and potential customers that you are trustworthy.
After claiming your profile, make it easy for customers to discover your business. You can do this by adding high-resolution images, accurate hours of operation, correct contact information, news, offers, and any other relevant details.
Claim your Facebook business page
The same way you should claim your Google My Business page is the same way you should claim your Facebook page to increase your business visibility, so you are discovered more on News Feeds.
Facebook’s algorithm is partially based on your page’s credibility, so the more credible you appear, the higher the chances you will show up in the News Feeds.
Once again, after claiming your business’s Facebook page, add high-quality images, accurate working hours, correct information about your business, news, and offers.
To maintain consistency and appear legit, ensure that the information across your profiles is similar.
Remember that a minor inconsistency, such as a difference in street abbreviations, can raise an eyebrow to your prospective customers and even hurt your online visibility.
Ask for reviews
Once you have claimed and set up your profiles, now it’s time to ask for reviews. Both Facebook and Google don’t have a problem with you asking for reviews, and there are plenty of ways to go about it.
You can ask the customers in-person to review you after you are done with the work, or you can call them to ask about their experience.
Here at Score My Reviews, we have found that sending a review request via email and text works the best.
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as sending a few texts and sitting back and expecting droves of reviews to pour in—you need to be strategic about how you go about it.
To help you out, here are tips you can use to collect reviews:
Ask for reviews as soon as possible
Some contractors wait for days or even weeks before asking for reviews. This is wrong, as results are often abysmal. To increase your chances of success, ask for reviews as soon as you deliver a service.
For example, after you have cleaned the sewer lines, ask your client how they feel about your work and whether they would mind leaving you a review.
You can ask them one-on-one or send them a message. It depends on you. The reason asking for reviews as soon as possible works are done is because you are still fresh in the client’s mind.
If you ask them for a review, weeks or even months after delivering a service, the chances are that they can’t even remember who you are (unless you did a lousy job). And you don’t want this, do you?
Ask reviews from all the customers.
Due to the importance of online reviews, some contractors cherry-pick the clients they feel they did an excellent job for and ask for reviews from them. This is wrong.
Even if you feel a client isn’t satisfied with a service you delivered, ask them to leave you a review. From the negative review, you will learn the areas you need to improve on, and at the same time, your reviews will be authentic.
You also will avoid getting penalized by Google.
While Google doesn’t have a problem with you asking for reviews, it doesn’t condone review gating. This is where you try to manipulate the reviews in your favor.
When you collect reviews from a select group, you will be influencing the reviews in your favor as chances are high you will get only positive reviews.
Avoid this as it can lead to a penalty in the search rankings, and your business might fail to show up in the search results.
Reviews are meant to give an accurate picture of your business so that future clients know what they are getting into. Don’t try to manipulate them.
If you are worried about the negative reviews showing up in your profile, use our Score My Reviews review management system that allows you to collect the negative reviews in a discreet notepad form so that you can iron out the issues with the client before the review goes in your profile.
Make it easy for the customers to leave a review.
As much as the customers are happy with your service, it doesn’t mean they are ready to jump through hoops to leave you feedback—you have to make it easy for them.
What most contractors do after finishing their work is to ask their clients to find them on Facebook and Google and leave them a review. As you can tell, this is already too much work on the part of the customer.
Instead of doing this, send them an email or text bearing a direct link to your profile to make the work easy for them. This way, the client simply needs to click on the link and fill the review form.
What shouldn’t you do when collecting Facebook and Google Reviews?
Don’t pay for reviews.
You shouldn’t pay for reviews.
To increase their review count or balance out the many negative reviews they have received, some contractors try to pay people to leave fake positive reviews.
While you might get away with it, in the event Google or Facebook gets wind of it, your profile will be penalized, and you won’t be visible on the search results or Newsfeeds.
Don’t ignore the reviews.
Reviews aren’t meant to be one-sided, so don’t simply ask for them and sit back and wait for your clients to do the heavy lifting.
It would help if you make your reviews interactive by responding to them.
Some people will respond only to the negative ones in the bid to right a wrong, but you shouldn’t limit yourself here—go ahead and also comment on the positive ones.
You can leave a simple comment such as “thank you,” and this will go a long way towards showing your customers that you recognize their effort.
How can Score My Reviews help?
Score My Reviews helps you automate the review collection process. Instead of manually sending every one of your customers a link to your profile, Score My Reviews allows you to enter batches of your customers’ names and contact details and sends them an email or text asking them to visit your profile pages and leave their feedback.
Score My Review’s easy-to-use dashboard allows you to manage reviews, respond to your customers, and track your progress so that you can be the obvious choice in your area of specialization.
