‘I don’t care what people think about me’.

Not approach you should have if you’re a business owner.

Your customers are serving you bread to the table - you develop, grow and improve as a business thanks to them.

Which means - their opinion actually matters, and that their feedback is the most powerful base for your as an entrepreneur/business person. That’s why reviews are so important: you’re actually making something, then deliver that, and build everything else based on your customer’s feedback.

In this blog, we’ll talk about 5 secret rules that can help you to get more reviews - and not just any reviews: we will explain the effective practices on how to gain more 5-star reviews, and have the most positive feedback from the customers in your niche! Let’s start!

Want to get more 5-star reviews quickly? Click here and order your Google Review Smart Business Card Now  🔥

What Is Actually A Review?

To follow a general definition, a review is a written or spoken evaluation of something, such as a product, service, book, movie, or restaurant. It usually includes the reviewer's opinion, a description of the item or experience, and a recommendation for others.

Reviews help people make informed decisions by providing insights into the quality, features, and overall satisfaction of what is being reviewed. For example, when someone writes a review of a new smartphone, they might talk about its design, battery life, camera quality, and user experience, and then give their personal rating or recommendation.

Usually, there are a few ways in which customers can write reviews about your offers (products and/or services):

• They’re writing how they are amazed with both your product/service and your willingness to help (which means your support is doing a good job so far) - this is a sign they’ll probably leave 4 or even 5-star review.
• They’re giving their general feedback - how they’re using your services/products, how they benefit from them, and how the stuff you’re selling is helping them solving their own problems (3-5 star reviews).
• They’ve tested your product/service, but they’re not sure how it is solving their challenges, and helping them improve their business, or networking or any other part of their life. They will probably not become a returning customer, and maybe your solution is not a right fit for what they have been looking for. Most of such comments are for 3-star reviews, sometimes even 2-star reviews
• If the customer is angry, dissatisfied with your products, services, customer support, if they haven’t received the ordered item (or anything else connected with your business) on time, and if they have already paid for it, but they’re just keep losing their time (remember the formula time=money), well, we’re afraid you just received 1 or 2-star review.

If any of the mentioned situations happens - don’t panic: it’s not the end of the world. Here’s why:

1. Five-star reviews are amazing: you just received a confirmation that you made something that actually help others. You invested your time, knowledge & efforts, and that starts to pay off. Make sure to thank to those customers, offer them gift products, and specialised discounts for further orders. For example, if you’re selling software product, make sure to give them early access to some of the new features you’re developing. In that way, they’ll feel respected + they’ll know you’re taking care of them, and that you’re thankful for the positive words they had wrote about you. Then keep working hard & fulfil your promises. There’s still so much more to do and improve - nothing fails like success.

2. If you've received 3-star of a 4-star review, that means you’re on a good path - there’s just some more space for improvement. Of course that you would like to receive a 5-star reviews all the time, but those who gave you 3 or 4 stars, they just wanted to be honest, and to help you in growing your business. They’re usually ready to keep using your products with a few adjustments you should make based on their feedback.

3. Yes, 1-star or 2-star reviews can hurt. You were working so hard on something, and yet some customers are not satisfied with what you’re doing, and how you’re dealing with their issues/challenges. That’s part of the business. Make sure to apologise to those customers, and find the quickest possible way to solve their problems. If you can’t give that task to anybody else, that’s okay.

You can always turn angry customers to a biggest fans - you just need to be open, to listen to their needs, and follow what they have said. And yes - to be able to make the time they have invested in you & your product/service profitable (we’ll show you how).

Why You Should Collect More Reviews?

If you can, you must - maybe you’ve heard this sentence before.

Well, the same works for reviews, because if you’re already on the market, and you’re aware that your products and/or services are worth paying, then you surely can collect a positive feedback from your customers.

The only reason why you don’t have enough reviews is because you’re not asking for them.

Let’s look at your business or your general offer as a movie.

Think about some movie whose trailer you watched, or saw that some known, popular actors are part of it. You’ve red the synopsis, and you’re thinking: hey, I should watch this. You’re automatically becoming a potential customer of that movie - but you’re not yet the one.

Why?

Because you just met your old, good friend, Tom (who’s known as a movie lover), and you occasionally mentioned that you plan to watch that movie. And he was like: ‘Please don’t do that - don’t waste your time. I’ve been to watch it, and it was just losing of my money & patience. I left it after 20 minutes.’

You know what happens next? You decide not to go to watch a movie!

Just an hour ago, you were pumped to go, and see it. Just one testimonial, just one opinion completely changed the way you’re looking into that movie. Now you’ll need a few positive testimonials from somebody that actual like the movie, but if you’re receive just one more negative review about it, even equal number of positive reviews won’t make the situation better. You gave up - and that movie studio just lost one more customer (and guess what - if someone asks you what you think about it, you’ll transfer negative feedback about it, even though you haven’t been to watch it. But, you’ve heard others opinion about it, and that was enough to create the unique picture about the movie).

Same works for you & your business.

Every time you serve somebody, that person is not only your customer - it becomes the ambassador of what you’re doing. They will spread word about how you’re doing what you’re doing.

The more positive things have been said about you, the bigger the chance is to acquire more customers, generate more leads, create a bigger community - and earn more money.

5 Ways To Get More 5-star Reviews

Now you have a clear goal: you want to gain more 5-star reviews, but you need to have the right approach & equipment. Here’s what’s the most important to make your goal a reality:

1. Know What You’re Selling: Work & Improve your product/service. Make sure that you’re solving a concrete problem. People are ready to invest their time, energy and money if you’re really helping them - if you’re consulting them, educating them, if you’re giving them great applications, or if you’re preparing a great food. They’ll know how to appreciate it - but first you need to create your offer: good enough, accessible, effective, and have a right target.

2. Care About Your Customers: No one wants to wait - make sure that you’re answering fast on your customer emails. You can set automatic responses that you have received their email, and that you’ll answer fast. Answer in 24h is not enough - you must become faster: people will never stop being amazed if you answer them within one hour. That’s why you should invest in your Customer Support and Customer Success team as much as you can - your job is to make your customer to feel like he/she is the only one - even though they aren’t. Also, make sure to reply to every negative comment/review - do not hide behind bad situations.

3. Make New Customers From Your Current Customers: You can always generate more leads + good reviews from current leads and current reviews. If someone likes what you’re offering, they’re most likely open to recommend the same to others - people love to talk about things they like.

Just ask: ‘Hey, do you know anybody else that would be interested in this?’.

Then offer them gift products, specialised discounts, offer them a chance to become a part of your referral program (if you have one).

Remember, you’re not only making new customers - you’re making ambassadors.

4. Do The Follow-Up: Following-Up is rated as one of the most important skills in 2024. It simply means that you’re reminding potential customers and/or users about your offer. You’re continuing to give them value through your products and services, and you’re constantly giving them the Pros & Cons they’ll experience with or without your solution. If they’re not making a decision, you just need to give them some space (usually a few days) - and then go back to them again: call, write, send personalised reminders, create limited offers with an urgent deadline. Don’t forget your customers - they won’t forget to stay faithful to you.

5. Own The Right Tools For Networking: You need to work more on the business, than in the business. That means you’ll need to automate things, making sure that you’re earning money & good ratings even while you’re sleeping or if you’re not at the place where your business is happening (e.g. restaurant, caffe, beauty centre, medical lab etc.).

One of such solutions is Tapni Standee: an NFC tool that will allow you to collect reviews easier than before without even asking. Customers can just tap or scan the standee, and the Google Review form will open right away.

For example, if you own a restaurant, you would like to collect reviews about the food, location, stuff and so on. You can place Tapni Standee at every table (and use it as a menu as well + Google Review Generator), or at the payment place, so that customers can leave a review while they’re waiting for the bill or food to pick up.

You can also set the Tapni Standee at the reception table: in that way customers can give you the review as soon as they got in or when they’re leaving your offices.

On top of that, you can always print the QR Codes and place them at every corner of your place, set them in the packages that will arrive to your customers, and collect reviews faster in that way (make sure to offer some discount code for the next purchase if they leave a review).

Tapni Standee

3 Bonus Tips For Better Reviews

We’re always open to give you some additional tips (and have in mind we’re not giving advices - we’re just talking from the experience):

1. Make sure to answer all the negative reviews on any of the platforms (Trust Pilot, Google Reviews, App/Play Store) - answer as soon as possible, and write how the problem will be solved (for example: our Customer Support will contact you within a 2-hours and take care of the damaged order you’ve received).

2. Ask customers that left positive reviews if you could post them on social media etc. You can use those 5-star reviews for ad-campaigns, blogs, stories, banners on your website, or to share it with other customers as well.

3. Make a list of questions for your customers: how your tool actually helped them? How your software/product has been accepted in their company? What feature they’re using the most? How much time they’re spending using your product and in which occasions?

P.S. We thought about the teams/growing businesses as well. If you would like to track how many time your QR Code was scanned, how many people visited your Google Review or Trust Pilot link, Tapni Business Dashboard will give you the exact results.

Test, track, measure, improve - then do it all over again: your customers will be happy for it. 🌟