Originally posted on https://arrivala.com/blog/creating-a-process-for-collecting-business-reviews/

You likely won’t find a business owner who says reviews are unimportant.  We all know it but why is it that some businesses seem to succeed on this front with ease while others struggle to bring in a single review?  We studied over 50 business owners and in the end, it all came down to one simple thing: Business owners that succeeded had a process in place.  They knew the importance of reviews so they created a system that ensured they collected as many as possible.  Not only that but 85% of the businesses we surveyed said they improved their business practices based on the negative reviews that came in.  Luckily for those businesses, they used a review collection tool which ensured that the negative reviews did not impact their public appearance but more on that later.

What were these processes that businesses put in place to generate business reviews?  Today we’ll give you the magic sauce secret recipes that made it all happen.  Let’s get going!

Printable Review Handouts

If you own a retail store or any business where you meet with clients in person this is an absolute necessity.  Creating a one-page Google review instructional handout takes less than a minute to do thanks to this free Google Handout Generator tool.  Simply enter your business name and include a logo (or not) and it instantly creates a one-page PDF that you can print out at your office and handout to customers or clients as they walk out your store or office.  The handout generator works as it provides a physical reminder to leave the review and is not as easily tossed in the trash or forgotten about.

Add Links To Email Signatures

This is another simple and easy way to start bringing in reviews with ZERO extra effort.  Head over to this free Google Review Link Generator tool to create a simple & short link allowing visitors to instantly leave a review.  It takes them all the way to the review writing screen and even works great on mobile devices.  Add the link to your signature and include it on every email you send out.

I know what you’re thinking, I sometimes email people who may not be happy with my business.  Do I really want to include this in every email?  You’re not alone here.  If this is a concern for you, consider signing up for a review automation and collection service such as Arrivala.  Free plans are available!  Using a service like this can act as a buffer, filtering out negative reviews from being published publicly.

Create & Send Out Mailers

A recent study for a retail business selling jewelry placed the value of a 5-star business review at $18.43.  Meaning, for every new 5-star review that the business brought in, they received over $18 in additional business profits.  That’s pretty impressive!  Now consider the cost involved to reach out to 300 or so past customers with a mailer and ask them to leave a review?  The cost can vary a bit from $0.50 to $1.00 per mailer but for this example let’s side on the high side at $1.00.  That would cost $300 to send out this mailer campaign.  Even if you only received a response from 10% of the 300 (30 people) then you would still receive $552.90 in additional sales based on the review value of $18.43.  That would be a $252.90 profit!

Sign-Up For A Review Automation Platform

Finally, signup for a review automation service to handle review collection from your past customers.  These services used to be very expensive costing hundreds of dollars per month but recently there has been an influx in affordable review collection & automation services hit the market.

These services allow you to automatically follow-up with past customers via email (and often time text messages) and request reviews for your business.  Some services will integrate with all of your business review profiles and can be extremely effective at getting the same review distributed to each of them.

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If you’ve been a business owner who’s been neglecting review collection, it’s time to make it a priority.  I could sit here and rattle off all kinds of statistics on how people trust reviews more than the opinions of their family and friends but we’ll leave that for another discussion.  The first two methods for collection reviews we noted above will take you less than 15 minutes to implement.  Don’t put it off any longer, get started today!