This is a guest post from Andy Sernovitz — CEO of WordofMouth.org and SocialMedia.org and New York Times best-selling author of “Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking.”
You can’t get awesome reviews without being awesome
First and foremost, you need to be a great business that sells something fantastic. No amount of marketing gimmicks or advertising budgets can overcome generic, unremarkable stuff. Find ways to go above and beyond with your service, your product, and your customer experience.
Once you’ve really nailed the first part, the rest is more straightforward than you might think.
Get more reviews by just asking
For starters, have you asked your fans to review you? It sounds obvious, but so few businesses regularly ask customers for feedback and reviews.
You probably already have a whole bunch of happy fans who would love to support you. But they’re busy, and so few of us wake up one day and say, “Today’s the day I write a review about my dishwasher!”
So remind them. Let them know how much their reviews mean to your business and how much you value their feedback. Your happy customers would love to help.
When you get great at this — that’s when you can start exploring advanced techniques. Because if just asking isn’t working, you have bigger problems to sort out first.
About Andy Sernovitz
Andy Sernovitz builds organizations that help people help each other. His company, GasPedal, builds peer-to-peer communities for people leading meaningful change at the world’s biggest companies, including SocialMedia.org and SocialMedia.org Health. He wrote the best-selling book Word of Mouth Marketing, which teaches you how to earn the respect and recommendation of your customers.
