23 Nov Why your business needs reviews and what you can do with them

I know you’re going to be busy the next few days busy restocking shelves and board-folding every t-shirt on the display tree this weekend during black Friday and small business Saturday. But right after you make a customer’s day and check them out, there is one more thing you should do, ask them for a review. They don’t have to drop their bags and do it right then and there but asking them is only going to hep you in the long run.

61% of shoppers are open to buying from new retailers during the holiday season, and in the 2017 holiday season 46% of them actually did. That means now is the single best time for you to generate “new” business. While they may have seen or followed you on social media, they are also finding you by talking to Siri. Google says that key terms like “brands like” and “stores like” have grown over 60% in the past two years (e.g., “stores like Victoria’s Secret but cheaper,” “brands like Pottery Barn but local”). Having reviews from customers will show the people that are doing the searching that you’re the go-to place.

There are a few other ways you can leverage reviews from your customers. Google recently rolled out Small Thanks. It allows you to turn your business’s raving reviews into works of art. You can even have them printed and framed to display for people to see right in your shop!  Jut type your brand’s name into the display bar.  It will then automatically create some pretty cool looking graphics based on the current reviews you have.

Still don’t believe me? According to Google, 71 percent of consumers say that positive reviews in search results make them more likely to use that the business, and listings with positive reviews see 360 percent higher clicks to their site. I Like those odds.

Don’t just listen to the data, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Before you try a new brand, store, or restaurant, what do you do? Scan their Instagram feed, check them out on Facebook, and read the reviews on google. Chances are you’ve been posting to social, why aren’t you trying to collect reviews?