How To Get Good Reviews for Your Startup Business

When you’re starting out, reviews can often make or break a business. If consumers see your business has 5-star ratings, they’ll be much more likely to buy from you. On the other hand, if you upset customers, you might end up with a bad reputation. That’s why you need to know how to get good reviews for your startup business.

You can’t tell people to give you good reviews, but you can make sure they do by giving them a great customer experience and pointing them in the right direction. You can also make sure other potential customers see your good reviews by implementing them on your website. Here are some tips to help you get good reviews for your business.

Give Exemplary Customer Service

The most important factor in getting good feedback is to ensure that every customer is satisfied. If customers are blown away by your service, they’ll be much more inclined to leave you a good review and even recommend you to friends.

To give the best customer service, you need to ensure you can respond to customers fast. Large stores often have a dedicated customer service desk for anyone who needs help. But if you have a website, you should also implement Live Chat software and include your contact details. You should also have customer service staff to respond to queries as swiftly as possible.

Related: 7 Quick Ways to Improve Website Engagement

Most businesses use the “customer comes first” philosophy. After all, giving a small refund to a dissatisfied customer will result in fewer losses than if the customer leaves a 1-star review and other customers decide not to buy from you because of it. Make sure you set up fair policies for customers and find ways to deal with their complaints without damaging your business.

Use Social Media

Social media is an invaluable tool for businesses nowadays. It’s one of the best ways to market your business to new potential customers and it also puts you in direct contact with your target audience. It can even come in handy for generating good feedback for your business.

Many businesses allow customers to share their content and even share their purchases with social media share buttons. You can implement these to your website using plug-ins like ShareThis and AddThis. When people see their friends vouching for a business on social media, they’re much more likely to use it.

You can also reach out to social media influencers with large followings. Offering them a sample of your goods and services to promote on social media can generate good feedback and bring many people’s attention to your business. 

Related: How to Find the Perfect Influencer for Your Brand

Finally, make sure you offer prompt customer service via channels like Facebook and Twitter- this is where many consumers go to complain. Helping them publicly can generate more of a positive buzz for your business and make new customers more comfortable buying from you.

Implement Customer Reviews on Your Website

When buying from a new business, many customers head straight for their reviews. If your business has a range of positive reviews, new people will be much more likely to spend their money with you.

There are many ways to implement reviews on your website. Many online stores use e-commerce software which asks buyers to give reviews on the products they buy. When you gather reviews for your products, it can make them more attractive to new customers and you can also learn which products are your most popular and which need improvement.

You should also sign up for services such as Google My Business and TrustPilot. Many customers look to these sites to see whether a business is worth buying from or not. You can embed your rating right on your homepage and, if customers see you’re highly-rated, they’ll be instantly impressed.

Give Customers an Incentive

While it’s easy enough to set up a platform for customers to give you a review, getting them to leave a detailed, positive review can be trickier. Many customers are simply too lazy to give feedback on everything they buy. Customers who had a negative experience are much more likely to go out of their way to give a bad review.

If you want more positive reviews, it helps to give customers an incentive. Most businesses send out automated emails to customers asking for a review. To get the good reviews flowing in, offer something as simple as a 10% discount code for their feedback. Not only will this generate more positive reviews, but it also encourages them to buy from you again.

Incentives, in general, can keep customers happy. You might even want to give customers reward points for every purchase to promote more loyalty. The more you give customers to improve their experience, the more likely they’ll be to recommend you.

Pay Attention to Feedback

To run your business successfully and promote more positive reviews, you need to pay attention to your feedback. And that doesn’t just mean your positive feedback- in fact, your negative feedback is even more important.

If customers complain about your business for any reason, you need to nip it in the bud fast. If you hear your staff were rude or that customers have to wait too long, tackle these problems as quickly as possible.

Some of the best businesses respond to their bad reviews via platforms such as TrustPilot. Apologizing for their inconvenience and letting them know what you’re doing to resolve the problem can make a huge impact. Simply showing your customers you listen to them can result in them using your business more in the future.

Conclusion

If you want to get more positive reviews for your business, it won’t happen overnight. But, if you follow these tips, you’ll start to generate good reviews much faster. Give every customer a great experience and start using platforms such as Google and TrustPilot to generate feedback. If a new customer looks you up and finds out you have tons of good reviews, they’ll be much more inclined to check you out and even buy from you.

The Atlanta Small Business Network, from startup to success, we are your go-to resource for small business news, information, resources.