Are you using customer reviews to their full advantage for your small business? Everyone likes to get good reviews, but not enough small business owners are looking at them as an important tool for marketing and public relations. Here are just a few reasons why you should encourage and utilize reviews for your business.

The Importance of Customer Testimonials

Nothing will convince a potential client to hire your business or to purchase your product like hearing great things from previous customers. Being able to write your own glowing copy or ad material is only going to go so far because you are obviously going to put yourself in the best possible light. People are going to listen to the less biased opinion of your customers whenever they can.

Honest Feedback is Valuable

This applies to any reviews, whether positive or negative. Seeing how clients or customers feel about their transactions with your business can be a valuable resource, even if it's a bad review. You can find problems and (hopefully) fix them to improve business, or continue following practices that seem to be working.

Either way, most people are more likely to be honest when leaving an online review rather than when they are talking to you face-to-face. It's just human nature. This lets you see a more truthful comment than you would otherwise get.

Reviews Allow and Encourage Engagement

Reviews don't have to be a one-way method of communication with customers having their say and that's it. A smart way to leverage these reviews into more PR for you is to respond when appropriate. Most places that house reviews these days allow for comments or replies by the person or company being reviewed.

So take the opportunity to build a conversation to further cement a positive experience. Thank them for their kind words and make it clear that you appreciate the review. On the other hand, if it's a complaint, do some damage control. By offering and apology for the bad experience, a refund for damaged product, or advice on fixing an item that isn't working, you can salvage a negative commentary into a positive relationship. Not only can you save that one person from abandoning your business, it shows other people reading the reviews that you are willing to help when there are problems. That may be more valuable than a positive comment.

How to Get Reviews

Generally, we're talking about online reviews and you have a few options on how to get them. You can have a collection of your own reviews on a business Facebook page, including the usual star rating option too. As more and more businesses use Facebook as their web presence, this can be a great place for reviews. Or you can encourage comments on a review site like Yelp. Having a Google My Business account will also let you add reviews to your search engine results.

After a good transaction with a customer, mention that they can leave a review if they want and hopefully they'll take the time to do so. If you are running a website, have a prominent link to your review page to help promote it.

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