Increase Your Sales With Small Business Customer Reviews

December 19, 2017

Chris Risse

Estimated Reading Time : 7 minutes

Have you ever wanted prospects to know, like, and trust your business before you even know who they are? It sounds too good to be true, but the truth is it is completely possible, and it is how many businesses gain new customers today. It all comes down to generating great small business customer reviews and utilizing them in your marketing strategy.

Below, I have provided reasons for making small business customer reviews a priority and the results of doing it right!

Separation From The Competition

In most local territories, many businesses provide the same products and services and can appear almost identical in many ways. The factor that separates these businesses comes down to the attitudes customers have towards the unique qualities of the individual businesses. This is where customer reviews can increase the divide between your business compared to your competition by bringing attention to the areas of your business that are most appreciated.

Customer Trust and Rapport

The small business customer reviews you receive are seen by nearly all customers and prospects searching for services like yours. Those reviews can be the deciding factor during the discovery and due diligence phase of the inbound marketing process all prospects go through when finding a product or service.

Conversation Starters

Small business customer reviews create word-of-mouth marketing by connecting your reviews to your prospects. When a reviewer gives their name and associations, through Google, Facebook, or Yelp for instance, their connected contacts are made aware of these reviews. Reviews can be shared and discussed online through these social networks, as well as offline at the water cooler or over coffee.

Improve Online Visibility

Search is a major part of the inbound marketing process. People naturally choose to access readily available information at a moments notice to gain a wealth of knowledge about a product or service. This more and more often comes immediately to our fingertips through our smart devices. Because of this, search engines have become more sophisticated by delivering localized and personalized search results.

To say it straight, search engines serve people. People want to be served the best applicable and most relevant results to consider. By having a highly rated business web presence, search engines may deem your result to be more applicable and relevant for searchers.

This is to say, the businesses, products, and services that have the most and best reviews will benefit more and more now and in the future.

Clarity Through Small Business Customer Reviews

Beyond the given marketing value that customer reviews present, small business customer reviews give great insight into the health of your business reputation. A collection of customer reviews is a catalog of feedback for small business owners and marketing directors to make decisions on how to best serve current customers and prospects in the future.

Business Confidence & Moral

When you know how your customers feel about your business, it gives you, your staff, employees, and partners a clearer perception about your business brand and what it represents. This clarity leads to confidence in what you do, how you do it, and how your customers will feel about your business in the future. When everyone in the business is confident that they are all working for the right reasons, the result is a compounding effect in increased efficiency and team moral.

Customer Insight & Development

Do you know what your customers want? Customer reviews allow you to look into the collective thoughts and attitudes from your customers about your business brand, products, and services to find new business ideas and innovation for customer experience. This can help you solve problems and gaps in products and services that might otherwise be missed, resulting in lost opportunities and loss of business.

Small Business Customer Review Funnel

Even if your business has no online customer reviews yet, don't worry, but do make it a priority to start gaining those customer reviews. The best way to gain customer reviews from satisfied customers is to be direct and consistent with asking for customer reviews and the process in which the customer can leave the review. Last, a customer review funnel is a great way to integrate customer reviews into your business marketing and processes.

Helpful Resources For Customer Reviews

About The Author

Chris Risse

Chris is the owner of Mediaryte, a digital commerce company working with local small businesses. He has worked with countless business owners on business mastery, systematizing processes, and quantifying results. Chris also is a competitive fat bike racer and has a fantastic sixth sense for detecting well hidden candy and treats.

Small Business Digital MarketingKnowledge base

Digital Marketing ResourcesUnlock Exclusive Access