Reviews are one of the most important aspects of a company’s online presence. If you want to attract local customers to your dry-cleaning business, it helps to have as many positive reviews as possible.
How important are online customer reviews? Research shows that 87% of consumers read reviews online before visiting a local business. On top of that, 79% of consumers think online reviews are just as trustworthy as personal recommendations.
Online reviews can be invaluable and for many businesses it can be hard to motivate customers to leave a review.
How can you get more reviews from your customers?
With our four-step plan, plus one creative bonus, you’ll be filling your online profiles and websites with excellent reviews from loyal customers.
In the end, this can mean more customers coming into your doors and greater profitability for your entire dry-cleaning company.
Train Staff On Every Aspect of Your Business
This is the foundation of the whole process. If you’re going to get positive reviews, you must deliver outstanding service. Train every person on your staff, from part-time workers to full-time managers, on the importance of serving customers. Make it known that you expect outstanding customer service at every level, and implement customer service steps like enhanced communication, free on-site coffee, and other measures that make people love your dry-cleaning business.
Here are a couple articles to get you started.
- How to Implement Customer Service Training With Employees – Read Here
- 8 Ways to Coach Employees to Better Customer Service – Read Here
Make Customers Aware That Reviews are Possible
People rarely go out of their way to leave a review, and it’s hard for customers to leave reviews if they’re not even aware that reviews are possible. Start providing information throughout your location and customer communication that lets people know how and where they can leave reviews. This can include places like Facebook, Google, Yelp, and any local sites.
Start by simply asking your customers—especially those with positive experiences—to leave a review on [fill in your preferred review site]. You can ask in person when they’re finished with a transaction or you can send them an email or text message with a link to the review site. If you want to setup these email and text messaging campaigns for your customers, you can do it easily with Enlite.
Make it Easy to Leave Reviews
Remove any barriers between your customer and the review. There are many tools and resources you can use to procure reviews for your company, and it’s important that the process is simple and easy for customers; otherwise they likely won’t bother. If you have a platform for leaving reviews on your site, for example, don’t require customers to leave an excessive amount on information, such as location, phone number, or email address. A first name should be enough; the more fields that a customer has to fill out, the less likely people will be to leave a review.
Always Ask for Honest Reviews, Not Positive Reviews
It can be tempting to not just ask for reviews, but to ask for positive reviews. Simply asking for honest reviews is enough. In fact, requesting positive reviews can actually be counter-productive, because people are less likely to leave reviews if they feel you are trying to tell them what to write. If you have established a foundation of service and are providing excellence in every aspect of your dry-cleaning business, asking for honest feedback will surely result in positive reviews.
Bonus Step: Ask for Reviews from Vendors
Vendors are stakeholders in the success of your business. They want you to succeed; after all, if you have lots of business, that means you’re buying more cleaning products, machines, and accessories. Any vendor with whom you have a positive relationship is a potential source for a positive review. While they may not know what it’s like to be your customer, they probably know that you are a high-quality business with integrity and service. Simply having positive business dealings can be a source of reviews, so use these to your advantage.
Follow these steps and you’ll have a full list of positive reviews from loyal customers!