Google reviews are incredibly important for local businesses, as 99%of customers consider online reviews when making buying decisions. This makes sense - you wouldn’t want to visit a restaurant with zero or only 1-star reviews, right? Why risk a bad customer experience when you can visit a competitor just a street away with hundreds of positive reviews? That’s why you need to start collecting these valuable Google reviews today to attract more clients to your location! Let’s dive into five proven strategies to collect more Google reviews that you can start implementing right away.
How Do I Increase My Google Reviews?
Let’s get straight to the point and explore five proven strategies to collect more Google reviews! But before you start requesting reviews, ensure that your Google link is ready for distribution. This link should take your customers directly to your Google Business Profile review section, where they can easily leave a review about your business.
To access the link:
- Visit your GBP
- Locate the settings section
- Click on “Ask for reviews”
- Copy the review link
Note: the review link is the same for every customer. You do not need to copy it again and again per client.
#1 Personal Requests
Personal requests might sound obvious, but they remain the most effective way to get more Google reviews. You need to make it a habit to ask for a review whenever:
- After Completing a Sale or Service: When a customer has had a positive experience and their transaction or service is fresh in their mind.
- At Checkout or Payment: While they’re completing their purchase, provide a gentle reminder in person or online. Following a Positive Interaction: If a customer compliments your service, seize the opportunity to ask for a review. After Hosting an Event or Special Offer: Use the goodwill generated by an event, promotion, or discount to ask for feedback.
- When Customers Express Satisfaction: Pay attention to verbal or written praise, and ask if they would share their experience online.
Remember: When personally asked, customers are much more likely to leave a review. Make it a rule of thumb to follow up on every positive experience with a review request! Simply asking can go a long way - some customers will leave a review just to do you a favor. Providing good service and creating friendly, positive encounters will usually seal the deal.
#2 Review Campaigns
Creating a review campaign is a simple and organized way to request new Google reviews. It's important to avoid blindly spamming customers with random requests. To increase the chances of them leaving a review, you need to send the right request at the right time.
When Should I Send a Request?
A digital request should only be sent to existing customers and at moments when it makes sense to ask for a review. This includes the same scenarios as personal requests. Ensure you only send digital requests if you have the customer’s email address (e.g., from booking a table, room, or appointment). Don’t wait too long to send your request - if you wait months, the customer might not even remember their experience clearly.
How to Set Up a Review Campaign?
If you’re using the Obenan Review Management Tool, setting up a review campaign takes just a few minutes and can be easily managed through your dashboard. Tracking the success of your review campaign happens automatically and you can even see how many positive and negative reviews have been submitted per campaign.
If you’re setting up a manual campaign, we recommend creating a spreadsheet with all your customer contact information. Update it regularly to keep track of when you’ve reached out for review requests. To monitor how many people clicked your review link - whether through a QR code or follow-up emails (explained in the next sections) - you can create a Bitly link. Bitly links are special shortened links that let you track how many times they’ve been clicked, making them especially useful for measuring referral traffic from landing pages or websites where traffic source insights aren’t readily available.
For distributing your review requests, there are various online and offline methods, which we’ll dive into further in the following sections. To achieve maximum success, make sure you combine all these methods!
#3 QR Codes
A QR code should become your new best friend - it’s the easiest way to share your Google review link with your customers! Here’s how to get started:
- Locate Your Google Business Profile Review Link: Find the direct link to your review section on your Google Business Profile.
- Transform the Review Link into a Bitly Link: Use Bitly to shorten your review link, allowing you to track how many people scan your QR code.
- Create Multiple Bitly Links for Tracking: If you plan to distribute your QR code on different mediums - flyers, signs, menus, posters, thank-you cards, business cards - create a unique Bitly link for each one. This helps measure the effectiveness of each medium.
- Generate QR Codes: Use a free QR code generator to create QR codes for each Bitly link. If you don’t need to track performance, you can skip the Bitly step and use a single QR code for everything.
- Print and Distribute: Add the QR code to all your materials - flyers, posters, menus, or even receipts. The process should be effortless for your customers. With a quick scan, they’ll be directed to your review page, making leaving a review almost a one-click task. Remember, you’re asking something from your clients, so make it as easy as possible for them!
Our tip: Skip all these steps and create a measurable review campaign in minutes with our Obenan Review Management Tool. With this tool, you can design an appealing landing page where customers are redirected either to the Google review section or a private survey, depending on whether their star rating is positive or negative. This approach helps prevent negative feedback from being published online, giving you more control over your overall rating and online reputation.
#4 Incentivize Your Staff
You probably know that it’s strictly forbidden by Google to incentivize customers to leave a review. Doing so can result in a penalty and could cost you many potential clients! Additionally, these reviews are essentially “fake” and won’t make your business appear more trustworthy.
However, you can incentivize your staff to ask customers for reviews. From our experience, clients who incentivize their staff to encourage reviews see a significant increase in the number of reviews compared to when no incentives were offered. Consider offering a bonus for every 20 positive reviews generated by a staff member or evaluating negative reviews to identify if certain team members might not be delivering the best service.
Our tip: Create a QR code campaign for your staff members to streamline review collection. Assign each staff member their own unique QR code, which can be tracked through the Obenan dashboard. This allows you to monitor the number of reviews submitted per staff member and analyze whether they are positive or negative.
#5 Follow-Up E-Mails
Whenever a customer books a table, room, appointment, or service, you’ll have their email address. After their visit or the completion of your service, you can send a follow-up email to express your gratitude for the opportunity and ask for their feedback on their experience.
Our tip: Use the Obenan review campaign to effortlessly gather reviews by uploading an email list of your previous customers. After their visit or after completing a service, send them a follow-up email thanking them and requesting their feedback. The best part? In the follow-up email campaign, negative feedback is kept internal, while only positive feedback is directed to Google, ensuring better control over your online reputation.
These five strategies shouldn’t be used as stand-alone tactics! Instead, you should leverage and combine them all to ensure you never miss an opportunity to collect a new customer review on your Google Business Profile!
How Many Google Reviews Will Benefit Local SEO?
When you start your own business or begin collecting reviews, it can take time to reach a meaningful number. The rule of thumb is to aim for at least 15–20 reviews on your Google Business Profile and maintain a consistent review velocity. This means ensuring a steady flow of new reviews.
The number of reviews you should aim for each month depends on your industry. For example, a restaurant with hundreds of guests per month might target up to 50 reviews, while a wedding photographer with only a few weddings per month may aim for fewer.
The key is not to stress over the exact number but to focus on continuously collecting new reviews. Over time, this steady effort will naturally increase your review count.
Not only the number of reviews is important, but also your rating! A study showed that a business with ratings lower than 3.3 is not considered trustworthy! However, this doesn’t mean that with 3.4 you are good to go! The higher your rating, the more reliable a potential customer perceives you.
How Is the Google Review Rating Calculated?
The average rating is calculated by adding all individual ratings together and then dividing the sum by the total number of ratings. Using this formula, you can easily determine your overall rating.
Example: A business has 130 reviews with 5-star (56) 4-star (24) 3-star (19) 2-star (21) 1-star (10)
First add together all the individual ratings: (5x56)+(4x24)+(3x19)+(2x21)+10=485. Now divide 485 by the overall amount of 130 which will get you the overall rating of 3.7!
How Many 5-Star Reviews Do I Need to Raise My Google Rating?
Your Google rating rises quickly if you are collecting 5-star reviews. On average 10 reviews can push up your rating by point one. If we use our example from above and add 10 more 5-star reviews we will get an overall rating of 3.8!
Calculation: (5x66)+(4x24)+(3x19)+(2x21)+10=535 → 535/140=3.8
However, this can vary depending on your rating distribution and the rounding of the numbers. Google rounds the overall rating to the nearest tenth. Let’s look at another example:
130 reviews in total with: 2-star (100) 1-star (30) 230 is the total sum which is divided by the overall review amount of 130. This equals an average of 1.8. If we now add 10 5-star reviews we get an average rating of 1.9!
How Many 5-Star Reviews Do I Need to Negate a 1-Star Review?
Just as it takes about 10 reviews to build up your Google rating, it can take 5–10 five-star reviews to offset the impact of a single one-star review. Yes, this might sound alarming, especially if you’re already struggling to collect reviews. But don’t worry - a negative review is not the end of the world.
Check out our Review Removal blog article to find out if your negative review qualifies for a removal request on Google. Even if it can’t be removed, there are effective ways to handle it!
With every positive review, your negative ones will move further down the list, and most people won’t scroll endlessly to find them. However, some customers specifically look for negative reviews, so it’s crucial to handle them properly. Respond to every review - not just the negative ones but also the positive ones—to show that you value customer feedback. For negative reviews, express regret for the bad experience and aim to resolve any issues. Include your business email in your reply and encourage the customer to reach out. Respond in a friendly and understanding tone, showing your commitment to improving your service.
Keep in mind that 56%of customers change their perception of a business based on how it responds to reviews! A negative review doesn’t mean you’ve lost control of your online reputation - it’s simply an opportunity to approach the situation differently.
Did you know that 94% of local businesses that make use of a reputation management tool see a return on their investment? So, what are you waiting for? Take control of your online reputation and start effortlessly collecting more Google reviews with the Obenan Review Management Tool!
