by Vancouver Search Engine Optimization Expert Mark Bossert
80% of ALL Business starts with an online search; Can they find you?

The Right Way To Get Online Reviews

Online reviews… are they even worth the effort? People fake so many things online;
aren’t all those reviews fake too?
Admittedly there is evidence to show that reviews, and testimonials are becoming less
effective. We live in a world that is properly becoming more cautious and (sadly)
becoming more cynical. We’ve all been through the experience of an attempted or
perpetrated scam.
On the other hand, the popularity of businesses like Twitter and how one of it’s major
and most useful uses is to discover information and advice from others (called crowdsourcing);
I think shows that people are still hard wired to use other peoples opinions to
help make decisions.
You already know that testimonials from satisfied customers can be a powerful tool to
get more business. Online reviews work the same way. They create a background of
openess, of almost-trust, where new clients who are checking you out can have a shortcut
way to make a decision based on other peoples feedback. Of course, everyone is
different and online reviews may or may not help each individual with their decision.
However, there is another reason to actively promote and ask your customers for
reviews and testimonials.
A major signal that Google and the other search engines use to determine how high to
rank your site, is the online reviews that are posted by your customers.
Now before anyone gets the (…not so) brilliant idea to get your friends and family to
post up a ton of fakish reviews, I ask that you consider a couple things.
First, Google and the other search engines have systems in place to check for people
gaming the system. They probably get hit by more scams, fakes and spam postings
than any other business in history, so they are getting better and better at filtering them
out.
Second, companies that have been caught doing this have received some large fines -
up to $300,000. It’s not worth faking, especially when it is fairly easy to get real reviews
from customers.
How to Do It – The Best Way
Step one: Ask.
Step Two: Ask repeatedly, in many ways, in all communications and often.
Asking for referrals and testimonials can totally change your business. You’ve probably
heard that before and if you took action on it, youʼve already proven it. If not, here’s how
to get started and turbocharge it.
If in your business you make sales calls, then during that very first sales call; before
they have even decided that they are going to do business with you, you have a little
speech you recite. Something like:
“Mr./ Mrs. customer, we’re a small business and we’ve found that our best method of
growing our business is when our satisfied customers recommend us to their friends
and give us reviews. Can I ask you that, if we do a good job for you; would you agree to
give us a glowing review and recommend us to your friends and associates?”
Corny? Probably. Effective? Absolutely! Asking people for this on every first sales call
can double your business in the next 2 years or sooner.
Asking for reviews in this way works with the way our brains are wired. There is an
important section of the brain called the reticular activating system, deep in the brain
stem. Part of itʼs job is to search and find things once it is given a task. Actually it filters
out all the noise and can instantly distinguish useful information from within the massive
amounts of sensory data that we are surrounded by.
Have you ever started researching a new car; found a type that you liked and suddenly
started seeing them everywhere? That’s your reticular activating system at work. It’s
what helps sleeping moms instantly hear babies crying, or kids sneaking in late.
By mentioning reviews and referrals right up front, you have planted the seed in the
reticular activating system and that potential customer, even if they choose not to use
you, will be much more likely to refer people to you. The ones who become customers
will both refer more people and give you a great testimonial or review.
Prefer to wait to ask until after you have done the good job? Your odds of getting a
review drop to minimum. Youʼre off the radar at that point and part of the non-important
noise! This has been conclusively proven both in the field and by neuro-researchers.
If you have a retail store, you or your staff mention this to customers at the cash register
— every time. Adapt what you say to your situation. As a bonus, this is one of the most
effective business growth steps you can take!
To get even more reviews, the more places and ways you ask increases the amount
and quality of the reviews (and referrals) that you’ll get.
Put the request in all your email communications, in your signature file, on your invoices
and thank you cards, on the back of your business card and on your “on hold” message
and voicemail. The more places you put this, the more reviews and referrals your
business will get.
The verbage can be something simple like: “The greatest compliment I could receive is
a referral to a friend or business associate.”
Or more powerful… “Mrs. Customer, the difference between my firm and those others in
the (x) business is simply that most people spend the bulk of their time looking for new
people to do business with, and that leaves them very little time to look after the clients
they have. But in my firm, we do completely the opposite. We spend very little time
looking for new clients, which leaves us the bulk of our time to actually look after our
clients. You may wonder how we are able to do this. Well, itʼs very simple. We only take
on as clients people to whom we are personally introduced or to whom we are
personally recommended.”

For Google Local Business Center (LBC) listing reviews, the effective way to get
customers to participate is using reciprocation. One of the most powerful, unconscious
drives in people is the need to reciprocate when someone helps you. So, help a
customer and then immediately ask them if they could please do a review for you.
Immediately send them the link to your Google LBC review page in an email. Your
review section will be packed in short order. And you’ll be ranking higher and getting
more business!

If you’re uncomfortable with asking people in this way, my advice is to get over it and
just start doing it. Do it for 6 months and you will never, ever stop.

If you’re interested, another step in the process to really increase it’s effectiveness is to
embed the request within a couple stories. The technique is simple. Start a story and
before you complete it (about halfway through) start another story. Again, before you
complete the second story, do a Columbo; “Oh that reminds me, before I forget… we’re
a small business… etc.” Then finish the second story, and then finish the first story.
What the heck is all that about? The human conscious mind can only keep track of a
few things – seven plus or minus two. Putting your request inside a couple stories will
enable most peoples conscious mind to not remember your request, and they wonʼt
mess it up. Meanwhile their reticular activated system will get right to work on getting
you referrals and doing a review.

Mark Bossert
www.toplocalrankings.com

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