Get More Reviews with Strategies to Make It Easy
Ep10
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Why Reviews Matter
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[00:00:00]
Welcome back to the podcast. So excited to be with you here today. We are going to get really, really specific, really, really tactical today, it's something that I'm always telling people about because I think that it's small steps that can really be powerfully transformative down the road.
So you're out there, you're doing your work, you're making the dollars. You have a great service. People are happy, but your Google page, your business listing is a ghost town. You've got like two reviews and one of 'em was your uncle, right? That's just a difficult place to be because we know how important.
Reviews [00:01:00] are, I mean, what's the first thing you do when you're considering buying something on Amazon? those five star reviews and the number of reviews is really powerful to getting you to.
The point of trust where you're willing to pay, where you're willing to click that, put it in my cart, I want to get this, I'm gonna buy it. And that's the same thing for our own side hustles. We have to be able to get that social proof to help us. Land the next opportunity. I know we hate asking for things.
We hate asking for help. We don't want to be pushy salesmen to our friends, the people who work with us. I know it can sometimes feel icky, but we're going to make it really practical today, really specific, and honestly, it's not as hard as you make it out to be. This social proof is critical because it's building the bridge between this thing we kind of do here and there for some people that we know, and an actual business that somebody.
Reaches out to us. Like we're not out there [00:02:00] necessarily having to get those opportunities. They see what we can do. They see what people say about our services, our products, and they want to reach out. And that is the place you want to be because that's actually going to move the needle.
So we're gonna have a couple really practical things.
Ask at the Peak Moment
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So the first thing, and the first mistake I often see is in the timing of our asking. Oftentimes we're not choosing the right opportunity. When we work with somebody, they're naturally going to be inflection points where they are most excited about what they're doing with you.
You don't want to ask for this when the invoice is due and, hey, yeah, by the way, while you're paying this, would you leave me a review? I would love that. You need to find that moment. Where the dopamine is hitting, you need to find that moment where their brain is buzzing because they feel the momentum, they feel the impact, they see the results.
That's the moment that you [00:03:00] have to ask for review.
Real World Timing Examples
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So for example, in, in my own case. When I was doing music production on the side, there were specific opportunities to capture and say, this is the moment to get a review. So when somebody would come into the studio and record with me right before they leave, they've been recording all day, and then over the speakers, they're hearing their song, they're hearing it come together.
They're just leaving for the day. They are excited. And so I say, Hey, I would love to get a review. Would you be willing to do that? At that moment right there, you've planted the seed, and that is the moment where they're gonna be like, oh yeah, I'll leave you a review. This is fantastic. It's all fresh in their mind.
They're experiencing the benefit. You're gonna get a higher quality review. And it's, it's going to be fantastic. The other opportunity, which I had identified as like this big dopamine hit, is when I finish that [00:04:00] first mix. So when they come work with me, they go away. We've done the recording, and then I'm putting it all together and editing it, making it sound great, tightening up the performance, and I send over that first mix.
That is a moment they're putting it on in the car. It's super exciting. It's their first opportunity to listen to an almost finished product, and they can, they see it, they see the benefit. That's where they're really experiencing that opportunity at the highest level. With me. That's the other opportunity that I say, this is a moment to get a review.
My wife actually sells on Etsy, and so she has headbands that she sells. Everyone that she sells, she writes a handwritten note and says, would you be willing to leave me a review? So first it makes it really personal because they see somebody hand wrote this.
And the second thing is, when do they [00:05:00] see that? They see it, when they get the product, when it shows up in the mailbox. So they get it out. They're trying it on, they're showing, you know, their friends and family. That's the moment, that's when they're most excited when they get that package. I mean, we know how we feel.
Like when we were seven and somebody actually wrote us a card in the mail. That level of excitement. Well, now here's this package coming. They're super excited. They've been looking forward to it. There it is. That's the moment to ask. That's when you want to get that review. Most of us, what we're doing is we're waiting until the project is over and finished, and maybe we're asking for the bill to be paid.
Maybe they've paid the bill and we're, we're just following up later, like, Hey, I was so glad to have you in, would you, you know, be willing to leave me a review? But the, the excitement's worn off. We've waited too long. If you want the review, that actually is going to get new customers. You want it to be really high quality, so you need to ask when their brain is getting all that dopamine, [00:06:00] all that excitement, feeling, that benefit of working with you, getting that product from you.
That's the moment they see the result. You have to catch them in the moment of their win and ask them to write the review right then.
Make the Ask In Person
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I was at a a business coaching event a week ago. And we're talking, and one of the gals was like, I, I need to get more reviews. And I asked her, I said, when is somebody most excited about having worked with you?
And she says, honestly, right at the end. I said, well, that's when you need to ask. And you need to really make it clear like, Hey, this was, I'm so glad you're experiencing this. I'm so glad you've got the momentum. You know where you're headed next. You know what your next steps are. This is awesome. People really need to learn how I help them, and a review is incredibly powerful for that.
Would you be willing to leave me a review? That's all you have to say When you're in person. Be honest. I think we all [00:07:00] know how powerful reviews are because we use them ourselves when making buying decisions, so don't be afraid to make that. Ask and do it in person. Just do it in a natural way. Just say, Hey, if you've really enjoyed working with me or you've enjoyed this product, a review goes a long way.
It really means something to me. I don't just say, Hey, leave me a review. Like if you just throw it casually out there, they're gonna treat it casually. But if you explain to them that this is incredibly powerful for small businesses like yours, they're gonna be more likely to be like, yeah, I, I see how that could help you.
So catch them in the wind. They're going to write a review that's going to write itself. It's so much easier when it's really, really fresh like that.
Remove Review Friction
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The second part, now that you get the timing down, the second part is we have to eliminate all friction in the review. Okay? So for example, in that situation, I was talking with that other business owner.
She's got a coaching consulting client that's leaving, and she asked that question, would you [00:08:00] leave me a review? And that person says, yes, I'd love to. Well, what's the next step? Right? Are you going to ask them to go like, Hey you know, yeah, it's on, it's on Google. So what I want you to do is open up your phone.
I want you to search for my business name. Make sure you spell it right. So you find it. Get up that Google Business listing in there. Just open that listing and then there should be a review button. You click that button and then you fill it all out.
Gimme five stars. Awesome. Thank you so much. That is a lot of friction. That is a lot of difficulty that you want to avoid. You do not, you don't want that because cause you've added friction, which makes it harder to get through the entire process.
You could apply this to a lot of areas of your business friction. But this is one specifically on reviews that it doesn't have to be that difficult.
Use Links and QR Codes
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So for example, I'm just going to use Google as the example here, but Google, if you go into your business listing, it says get [00:09:00] reviews. There's. Get reviews button and that has a link.
And if somebody were to use that hyperlink, they would not only skip the process of searching you, they would also skip the process of clicking the leave review button. So that link will instantly take them literally to the review text box. It'll open up your listing and pull up the review text box, five stars, leave some.
Text in here, type in a review, boom, go. That is so much simpler. So in this situation with this other business owner, as somebody's leaving her office, I said, well, let's, let's make that even crazier. You. You say, Hey, would you be willing to leave me a review? They're getting out their phone already. ~'cause they're like, okay, where am I going next?~
~Who do I gotta text back? Who do I gotta call? Where's directions to the next place I'm going, they're getting out their phone anyways. ~Here's a QR code right here next to the door on the way out. Scan that, and it's gonna use that link from the Google Business listing and take them straight to the [00:10:00] review.
They're already gonna have their phone out here. Quick scan this with your camera and it'll take you straight there to leave me a review when I would do this with the music clients. I need to do a better job of that. I don't have a QR code, so when they're here, that's a great way to physically do it.
When I'd send them that first mix, I put that direct link in the email. It's right there ready for them. They click that link, it's gonna go straight to the review. I get much better responses from that. Now I'm not in a big city. I'm not in a giant city, but there's a half million people in the metro area, and I had the most reviews of any recording studio in the city.
I would guess there's probably 10 serious ones in the city. I had more than all of them at one point when I was really focused on this, and I think I still do, I, I haven't checked in a while, but I'm, I'm probably close or still have the most reviews, and it was literally from this system asking them at the time, they're [00:11:00] most excited about having worked with you when they're really seeing that benefit and then removing all friction.
So it is easy for them to do. And I see so many people who are building great business, but they're making it too hard for somebody to help them. If you are asking them to take extra steps to be able to leave you a review that they don't need to take, you've already failed.
You're giving them a chore. You have to relentlessly remove all friction. So do what I recommended. Use a QR code direct link in a text, handwritten, handwritten note, just to really make it clear like how, how much you value it. Put some effort in on your end to make it easy for them, and you're gonna get so many more reviews.
Make it easy for them to say yes.
Follow Up Without Nagging
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And then the final thing that I would say is don't just ask one [00:12:00] time. Now, you don't wanna badger somebody over and over and over. I get that we, we don't wanna live in that place, but I identify as many of those opportunities for the dopamine hit as possible.
Lots of us are busy. Lots of us don't have the time. Maybe your business, you're not doing some things in person, so there's not a great opportunity to, you know, there's that dopamine hit. I'm gonna ask them right now while they're in front of me. Maybe you don't have that opportunity with your business, and I, I get that.
So find several d. Places to be able to ask. So if you miss on the F, you ask the first one, they're busy, they forget about it. Then pick that next moment. Find that next moment. So it's really almost like an email drip sequence and that you're going to hit these different spots along the client journey to be able to ask for those reviews.
So just make it conversational. Remind them how much it means to you, how much it benefits your business as a small business, and identify those individual spots and ask [00:13:00] multiple times. Doesn't need to be 7, 8, 9 times. Identify two, three spots. And consistently asking in those places, and you're gonna get a lot more reviews for your business.
People are gonna be connected to you. They're gonna love the service. They're gonna feel like they got a lot of value. They're gonna leave you a glowing review. And that's, that's really what we're after here.
Homework and Simple System
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So I hope this is helpful. Make it easy, relentlessly, remove friction because your side hustle is going to need the receipts, the social proof to prove that it's worth the time.
For somebody to hire you, it's worth the effort to reach out to you. You are the one to talk to because they can see that. They see that in your Google reviews. They see that in your shop reviews that people have left from buying your product. You really have to focus on that because that is a massive benefit to you, ~especially when you don't have, you know.~
~A lot of business, right when you're just getting started out this early on can be really, really powerful. So ~ my homework for you this week is first [00:14:00] identify the direct link that you're able to share. What is that hyperlink? So Google business, there's one to generate there. If you're selling on a shop, you know what's the quick link that you can generate there that takes somebody directly to a place where they can leave a review, then generate a QR code.
Google search will help you find a place to easily create a QR code that take, uses that hyperlink. You can put that on a business card. You can put that on a piece of paper in your wallet. You can put it on a little sign by the door, but just have that QR code ready to go so that when somebody says, yeah, I'd love to read a review.
Hey, great. Here, scan this real quick and I'll take you straight there. Make it super easy. And finally, for those who are sending emails out to their clients, if that's the moment you're capturing, write an email template. You can do it in a Google Doc if you're using Gmail. You can actually make templates in there.
Go into the advanced settings, and you can set it to where you can have a [00:15:00] template that's saved. And then anytime that you are reaching that moment with the client, you just grab that template with the link in it. Copy, paste, go send should take you less than 30 seconds to send these emails. And now you've got a system, you've got a process that's going to make it easy for you to get those five star reviews that are gonna help you grow your business.
Wrap Up and Next Steps
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So I'm excited for you. Do those steps. Build that and start using it and then tell me. I want to hear about how this is helping your business. Grow those reviews and give you additional opportunities with new clients. Take care and I will see you next time. ~I. ~
[00:16:00]
