Emergencies bring out the best in people – fact. Just look at the response from the population to the call for NHS volunteers. Half a million in just over 24 hours. Humans show this trait at difficult times, and want to help each other. We also have more time to do it! As part of our Coronavirus Business Fightback, here’s something business owners can do today that will help their business when normality resumes.
Emergencies bring out the best in people – fact. Just look at the response from the population to the call for NHS volunteers. Half a million in just over 24 hours. Humans show this trait at difficult times, and want to help each other. We also have more time to do it!
As part of our Coronavirus Business Fightback, here’s something business owners can do today that will help their business when normality resumes.
Grow the number of customer reviews and testimonials.
Now is the time to ask the customers and referrers who have benefitted from your great service to give you a glowing recommendation. Here’s how to do it.
- Make a list of who to ask. Choose people you are confident have been happy with what you have done for them.
- Think about the elements of your service you want people to focus on in their recommendation e.g. value for money, reliability, friendliness, communication, helpfulness, knowledgeable, trusting. We’ll come back to this later.
- Ask the people that you have chosen if they would be happy to participate. Here’s an example email:
4. You should be confident that the people you ask will be happy to help. I suggest the length of a good review is about three sentences. Here are some examples from our own business:
Service emphasis = Strategy. “Sixth Sense Marketing have really helped me and my business in an area that I knew little about. They are so easy to do business with! Clear strategic marketing plans are in place and the manner of working has established strong trust levels, that for me, are critical when making decisions outside of my own areas of expertise”.
Service emphasis = Integrity. “I first met Sixth Sense through business networking. Over a period of time, their honesty, integrity, and passion for helping people shone through. I decided to engage them to help provide more visibility for my business. Being only three months down the line, I am starting to get found via social media channels. I can thoroughly recommend Nick at Sixth Sense for his unassuming, yet hard-working desire to do the best for people, no matter what size of business you own.”
If you are stuck for something to write, get in touch with us. Some business owners find it tricky to write about what they do. We can set you on your way.
5. Once you have agreed with your customer the wording, it’s time to place it. We would recommend a Google Review because that’s the review platform that best suits the profile of our clients, but there are alternatives. If you are using Google Reviews, then you can send a link via email to your reviewer for them to click on, and copy and paste the recommendation.
TOP TIP: Once the Google Review has been successfully submitted, you will receive an email notification. That provides the opportunity to thank the person for leaving the kind words. It’s thought that Google values the response from you as much as the review itself.
6. The review should then be added to other marketing assets that you use to promote your business e.g. website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram etc. We like to use a .jpg image like this one to appear alongside the review.
7. We are asked a lot of the time how many reviews should my business have. In normal times, one or two a month. The most important thing is to spread the reviews out evenly over time. Google hates a splurge and then nothing. My recommendation in the current climate would be to collect as many as you can and add one a week.
8. If you instigate these steps, then when ‘business as usual’ returns, you will have customers ‘talking’ to your next customers about what a great business you have and a fantastic service you provide. What others say about you is far more powerful than any claims you make yourself.
Good luck! If we can help in any way drop us an email or give us a call 01252 213131. Stay positive and know you’ve just taken a positive step in the Coronavirus Business Fightback.
Follow us