Why Reviews are Important for Service Based Business?
Before we start discussing why reviews are important for service based business and how you can take your service-based business to new heights using positive Google reviews, it’s time for you to answer a quick question.
Let’s say you’ve just moved to a new city, bought a new home, renovated it to suit your needs, and done everything that you should do within your imagination and budget to make your new place feel like home.
But then you sense a certain stench coming out of your bathroom. After a quick but careful inspection, you conclude that you need to lay out new plumbing and fix a leaky faucet. You don’t know anyone in the area, so what would you do?
Well, what most people would—you turn your laptop on and ask Google, right? Then you would type in “best plumber near me” or “best plumber in Denver” or whatever your city’s name is, and within seconds, a list of local businesses pops up, complete with star ratings and customer online reviews.
Now it’s natural that your eyes would naturally gravitate toward the businesses with the highest ratings and glowing testimonials.
You try reading them all to make a quick decision and book an appointment, confident in your choice, all based on the experiences of others.
This scenario of hopping on to Google to look for local grocery stores or any/all kinds of service providers is now so common and trustworthy, that it has become part of the common public psyche.
This is the power of Google reviews—a modern-day word-of-mouth that can make or break a service-based business, or any buffer for that matter.
But service-based businesses do suffer, or get rewarded, a bit more than product-based businesses for one very important reason. Let’s see why.
The Importance of Online Customer Reviews for Service-Based Businesses
Product-based companies already have a certain buyer in perspective when they are building their brand.
So, let’s say there is a company that sells alkaline water packaged out straight from a certain trusted and famous natural resource; then they are knowingly targeting high net worth individuals who also happen to be health conscious.
That means they have already done their fair share of research related to customers’ psyche, values, and spending habits.
This helps them to know what these customers expect when spending so and so amount and how to create a tailored experience.
This kind of created a safe and close environment that allows the company to experiment with how they interact with their customers and vice-versa.
Now compare that with, say, a new hair salon in town. If you are searching to avail services of one, then you would come across two options: one with dozens of positive reviews and another with only a handful of mixed feedback. Which one are you more likely to choose?
The answer is obvious—and it highlights the critical role that Google reviews play in today’s consumer decision-making process.
Unless the salon is a brand in itself, it doesn’t project any novel USP. That’s why the only people who would be walking in would either be the ones who can afford their rates or the ones living in the neighbourhood.
No control over who walks in means no control over what they write. And you definitely can’t tailor the experience based on the knowledge of purchasing power alone, at least not like how product companies do.
That’s why your reviews remain the only inductors of quality to your potential clients, and hence the importance of Google reviews for your service business.
A string of positive reviews can quickly establish your business as a trusted provider in your area, while negative feedback can have the opposite effect.
Setting Up for Success: Getting More 5-Star Google Reviews by Building a Review-Friendly Culture
This is how a typical customer service cycle works when the promoters or operation heads of a business enterprise are not aware of positive Google reviews.
Customer walks in, they wait for their turn, they get their work done, and they pay, they leave.
That’s it. No one goes the extra inch to ensure that customers not only get their service but a satisfying experience.
This often happens when a good service is mistaken for a good experience. Such kind of latent or subtle disregard for customer experience isn’t going to take your business anywhere, anytime soon especially in today’s digital world.
You have to have a culture that values every touch point between your business and your customer. In such a culture, this is what a typical customer service cycle might look like.
The customer walks in and they are treated with a smile aligned with the customary greetings. In case they have to bear with a certain waiting period, they are provided with refreshments reading material, or anything that could keep them entertained for a while.
Once the job is done, there should be some medium to solicit their advice and reviews, and then you see them off.
Creating a culture that values customer feedback is the foundation of a successful review strategy. It starts with fostering an environment where customers feel valued and heard.
When customers see that their opinions matter, they’re more likely to share their experiences online.
Encouraging Customers to Leave Reviews
We have already written a very nice piece on how to encourage a customer to leave a review here.
So keeping the topic short, encouraging customer feedback can be as simple as training your staff to ask for reviews after a job well done.
For instance, after completing a service call, your technicians can ask customers if they’re satisfied and suggest leaving a review.
This personal touch never takes longer than a minute and can significantly increase the likelihood of receiving a positive review.
Making it Easy for Customers to Leave Online Review
When you’re asking for it, make sure you are making it easier for them to give it to you without any hassle. This is often the most ignored part of the anatomy of positive Google reviews.
One of the biggest barriers to getting reviews is the perceived hassle of leaving them. To overcome this, make the process as simple as possible. Provide your customers with clear instructions and direct links to your Google review page.
QR codes on invoices, carry bags, or business cards that can take customers directly to your review page are a sure winner.
Sending emails and follow-ups is another effective way to prompt reviews. You can send a thank-you note over email after the service is completed along with a link to leave a review regarding your service.
One more thing. Time is pretty crucial when you are planning to get positive customer reviews. The best time to ask for a review is immediately after the service has been provided, while the experience is still fresh in the customer’s mind.
Incentivizing Reviews: What’s Legal and What’s Not
Our last post was about the legal angles involved in the process of online reviews. Here is the link to the same if you have some time.
It pretty much covered all the aspects related to why it is important to stay within Google’s, or review platform’s, guidelines when collecting customer reviews.
See, offering discounts or gifts in exchange for positive reviews is against many of the top review platforms’ policies and can lead to penalties, including the removal of your reviews.
So, instead of bribing your way to glowing online review, you can focus on ethically encouraging reviews. For example, you can enter customers into a drawing for a gift card if they leave a review—positive or negative.
Examples of successful incentivization strategies include loyalty programs where repeat customers can earn points or rewards for leaving reviews. This not only incentivizes reviews but also fosters long-term customer relationships.
Expanding Your Reach: Managing Reviews Across Multiple Platforms
Now, here is something crucial. See, Google reviews are no doubt pretty crucial for any business especially for local business. For reasons we saw above and because anyone with a smartphone can leave them. They are famous even among those who are not likely to call themselves avid reviewers.
You should, at all times, always keep in mind that your local or service-based business is bound to receive consumer reviews on other review sites too. And these platforms, like Yelp or TripAdvisor, have a tremendous impact on your online reputation and visibility in search results.
That’s why leading online reputation experts advise that to maximize customer satisfaction and maintain a positive image; your digital team should actively monitor and manage reviews across as many positive reviews platforms as possible.
Other than Yelp and TripAdvisor, some other popular social media channels include Facebook, sometimes Instagram, etc., and other industry-specific platforms relevant to your business.
Now comes the negative reviews. Most business owners often dread the act of responding to negative reviews. But responding promptly and professionally to such reviews is quite important. How to do that on a daily basis and master patience while doing are quite an art and something that we would learn in the next part of this blog.
When you address customer concerns and offer solutions, you help mitigate the impact of negative feedback while also showing your commitment to customer satisfaction.
But you might ask: “How can I do that?” There are just so many customer reviews and customer review platforms. You can always go with some kind of review management tool to streamline this whole tedious and long process of review monitoring and responding across multiple sites.
This helps in two ways. First, you can save your time and use that time on more important aspects of our business. Second, you never have to miss an opportunity to engage with your loyal customers, in turn maintaining a positive online presence.
So, folks and business owners, always keep in mind that more customer reviews generally lead to increased visibility and credibility.
Managing Negative Reviews: Best Practices for Service-Based Businesses
Getting good reviews is only one part of review management. The other parts are going through to understand the reviewer’s intention, replying to them individually to make your customers feel you care, picking up on the feedback offered to rope them into your daily operations, and using them in your marketing materials.
Let’s start with responding to positive reviews. When it comes to that, you should take your sweet time to thank the customer and express your appreciation.
This not only shows that you value their feedback but also reinforces the positive experience they had with your business.
You can go ahead with a simple “Thank you for your kind words! We’re thrilled to hear that you were satisfied with our service”. Such simple responses alone can go a long way in building customer loyalty.
But when it comes to handling negative reviews you and your team might require a more strategic approach. The first thing to do is to ensure that the negative review is not fake or a troll.
If that is the case, you would do better by reporting them to the platform. If not, start by acknowledging that you indeed went wrong somewhere.
Respond promptly and professionally, acknowledging the customer’s concerns and, if possible, then offering a resolution.
There is no point in arguing your case in a forum where your potential customers might be reading it all. So, avoid getting defensive or argumentative.
This would only escalate the situation, damaging your reputation further.
So, if the customer was unhappy with your service, you respond with something as simple as, “We’re sorry to hear about your experience. Please write to us to let us know how we can make it better”.
Once you are done responding, the next step is to understand the customer sentiment. Are they saying anything in particular? Like, is your place of business not clean enough?
Is the menu too pricey? Is your staff rude? Done well, you can weed out the usual and common suspects to make your daily operations smoother.
Leveraging Positive Reviews for Marketing
Positive Google reviews are very much a goldmine to use in your marketing materials. You can use the content in your social media posts, in your website’s testimonial section, in digital ads, and even in product packaging.
You can ask your digital and online reputation team to create a dedicated testimonials page on your website.
This is the best place to feature the best reviews. Then come the brochures, emails, and even the product packaging.
Such a showcase not only boosts your credibility but also provides social proof that your business delivers on its promises.
Going one more step forward, you can create branded hashtags for customers to use when posting about your services or praising your service. This helps spread the word about your business and creates a community of loyal customers who actively promote your services.
Now comes the next big thing when using your customer reviews. SEO.
The SEO Impact of Google Reviews: How Google Reviews Affect Local SEO
Google reviews not only influence consumer decisions but also search results.
This is another reason why are customer reviews are important. With time, Google has concluded that nothing is more powerful than authentic user-generated content that adds value to consumer experience.
That’s why it prioritises businesses with more positive reviews over other businesses of the same nature.
You can try this out yourself. Try searching for a local restaurant and you will see that the ones with good and more reviews are more likely to float on top.
This is why your SEO strategy should always be in sync with your review solicitation strategy, as this helps you score brownies points with both customers and search engines in the long and short run.
Google checks three things in a review and then uses them to rank a service-based business: review volume, quality, and relevance.
Once you rank well in these three, you spear ahead leaving your competitors’ businesses behind.
Now here is a quick checklist that your team should follow to help optimise your business presence for SEO:
- Reply to as many reviews as you can with positive intent.
- Use keywords relevant to your business to increase the keyword count in the user-generated content
- Use the most updated pictures in your Google My Business (GMB)
- Update your GMB with the latest business news and event announcements
- Keep your business address and contacts updated
In line with point number 2, here is a bit more actionable content. For example, if you run a landscaping business, and your customers frequently mention terms like “lawn care,” “garden design,” or “tree trimming,” Google will associate your business with these services, potentially boosting your ranking for related search queries.
Encouraging customers to use relevant keywords in their reviews can be done subtly. For instance, when asking for a review, you might say, “We’d love to hear about your experience with our [specific service].”
This prompts the customer to mention the service in their review, adding valuable keyword content.
Recap of Key Takeaways
Google reviews are a powerful tool for driving growth in service-based businesses. As consumers trust online reviews, having positive Google reviews can build trust, enhance your business’s credibility, and improve visibility in local search results.
By creating a review-friendly culture, making it easy for customers to leave feedback, and managing reviews effectively, you can harness the full potential of Google reviews to grow your business.
Remember the importance of responding to reviews thoughtfully, handling negative feedback strategically, and leveraging positive reviews for marketing.
Additionally, understanding the SEO impact of reviews and staying vigilant against fake reviews are crucial for maintaining a strong online presence.
At Prosperly, we specialise in helping local businesses like yours increase their 5-star Google reviews and attract more customer referrals. Our tools and strategies are designed to make managing your online reputation easier, so you can focus on what you do best—providing exceptional service to your customers.
Don’t let your business’s potential go untapped. Partner with Prosperly today and start building the strong, positive online presence that will drive your business forward. Let us help you turn your satisfied customers into your most powerful marketing asset.