There isn’t a business in existence that doesn’t want more stars on its online review profiles.
Those big, gold icons represent the one thing that every company wants: truly satisfied customers. Good reviews are a signal to other people in your target market (like your best friend recommending a restaurant to you) that you can deliver on your brand promise.
The best kind of review? Five stars. Four stars means things were good, but not perfect. Five stars is a ringing endorsement – “get the solutions you need from these people!”.
Before we dive into how your business can accumulate more exceptional five-star reviews, let’s take a look at exactly why good online reviews are so valuable.
Why are five-star online reviews important?
- 82% of consumers always, regularly or occasionally read online reviews for local businesses
- Google My Business review signals help your SEO, making up an estimated 15% of local pack ranking factors
- Online reviews help build trust in the business, resulting in more conversions
- The more reviews you have, the more people have ‘tried’ your product or service, which increases how trustworthy you seem
- Only 48% of consumers would consider using a business with fewer than 4 stars
- 12% of consumers won’t use businesses with a rating lower than 5 stars
- Star rating is the top review factor for other consumers, above legitimacy and sentiment
- 94% of consumers are more likely to use a business after reading a positive review
- 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family
*Non-linked statistics from BrightLocal.
Yep, that’s a lot of numbers, but they all add up to the same thing: five-star reviews are important.
How to Get More Five-Star Reviews
Provide a Five-Star Experience
You didn’t get good marks in school for not doing the work, and, hey, guess what, it’s no different here in the business world.
To get five stars, you’ve got to give your customers an experience worth talking about.
Research has shown that people are more inclined to share things that make them feel high-energy emotions like anger, awe, anxiety, surprise and amusement.
While we’re all pretty familiar with expletive-laden ‘anger’ reviews, that’s definitely not the kind of emotion you want to be generating in customers.
Go for awe, surprise or (depending on your business) amusement.
You’re running a restaurant? Serve up something that leaves people awe-struck and reaching for their camera.
Managing a call centre? Train your agents to be helpful, so customers hang up and feel pleasantly surprised by the experience.
Running a tour? Keep your group thoroughly entertained, and watch those five-stars roll in.
Remember, nobody writes reviews about mediocrity.
Just Ask
“Ask, and you shall receive.”
That’s a saying that holds true across lots of areas in life, and getting online reviews is no exception. To get positive reviews, you need to ask.
How? Well, you can use review management software like Brag Reviews. We’ll help you gather the reviews with our Campaign Manager, which uploads them to the right places – let your customers brag so you don’t have to!
You can also literally … just ask. When you’ve provided someone with a great experience, don’t be afraid to ask, either verbally, on paper, or on your website, for them to leave a review. Most people get that online reviews are important, and they’ll be happy to help (as long as you’ve given them a good product or service).
Make Things Easy
If there’s one thing most humans have in common, it’s that we don’t enjoy doing things that are difficult. If you want more five-star reviews, you need to make it easy for people to give them to you.
First, figure out where you want your reviews to go. For example, if you already have 56 Facebook reviews, but only three Google reviews, guess where you want to point your customers? You should also consider which review platforms are likely to generate the most value for your business.
Once you know which platforms are important, simplify review-giving. Send customers a link in an email using Brag’s Campaign Manager. Make things as easy as humanly possible.
If you really want to get reviews rolling in, think about adding incentives – “leave a review and receive 10 free reward points!”. Just remember that you can’t make these incentives conditional upon a positive review, or you’ll be veering into endorsement territory.
The Bottom Line
Here’s how to get more five-star reviews:
- Provide a solution that’s actually worth five stars.
- Ask for it (but make sure you’re under promising and over delivering at every touchpoint).
- Make things easy.
Oh, and you can use review management software like Brag. Ask for reviews virtually, collect all those five-star compliments, and respond to the love that your customers are giving you – all via one easy-to-use dashboard. More five-star reviews, in the places you need them the most.
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