Would you love to have more reviews for your pet product or service?
You go above and beyond for your clients and wouldn’t it be lovely if they would shout about you from the rooftops?
People are busy going about their day, they’re not thinking about raving about you on the internet, so how do you make it happen?
Keep going and don’t feel disheartened because reviews have clout.
A huge 49 per cent of people in a recent study said they trust a review as much as a recommendation from a friend or family member.
That’s powerful. And in the same study, 17 per cent of people said they had NEVER been prompted to give a review.
In this episode learn why reviews matter, easy ways to ask for them so you can attract more of the people you love to work with.
Why ask for reviews for your pet business?
A study by Brightlocal found 77 per cent of consumers ‘always’ read reviews and 78 per cent use the internet to check out local businesses more than once a week.
A further 89 per cent say they are ‘highly’ or ‘fairly’ likely to use a business that responds to online reviews.
With ‘care service’ businesses, 57 per cent said reviews were ‘very important,’ 26 per cent rated them as ‘important,’ 11 per cent said ‘slightly important’ and six per cent ‘not important.’
We can all talk about how great our product or service is but having third party validation is more powerful, it carries more weight.
They build trust and confidence in you and help with word of mouth and referrals.
Even if the reader isn’t ready to buy right now, you’ve made a positive impression.
Ideally, you want the person reading the review to see themselves in the story.
For example, you’re a dog trainer and you have a review or testimonial from a terrier owner who struggled with recall and they share how you helped and what life is like now.
If I’m reading this review, I’m nodding along and thinking, ‘this is the person to help me.’
Think of your products and services and how you can call on people to talk about their experiences of using them.
Reviews show you can do what you claim to be able to do. They’re great for social media, your website, emails, newsletters and your downloads and sales pages too.
What if you don’t have reviews?
Think of your own behaviour as a consumer – do you check the reviews on a product or have a nosey round what other people say about the person you’re thinking of hiring?
Not having reviews means people might move on to a competitor.
Consumers want to know the buying decision they’re making is the right one. They don’t want to feel silly or make a mistake.
If they can read positive experiences, they feel more confident.
If you’re new, that’s ok. It’s why getting reviews early and being brave and asking for them is even more important.
You could even work with a number of people for free to get your reviews. When I first started this business, I had a call with a lovely lady, Carol Clark, and helped her with a press release.
She was so appreciative and left a really positive review on my Facebook page and on email and when I launched my membership, she was one of the first to sign up.
This could work for you if you have a service and it’s new, or if you have a product and have ‘testers’ who can give you their feedback.
What stops people asking for reviews?
Can you relate to any of these reasons?
- You feel cheeky asking people to help by leaving a review and don’t want to put clients out.
- Asking for them feels a bit embarrassing, you don’t want to look like you’re showing off.
- You worry that it’s ‘desperate’ to ask people to tell you what they like about your product or working with you.
- What if someone leaves a bad review? How would you respond?
What compels people to leave a review?
The Brightlocal research revealed the following.
Having an exceptional experience compels 88 per cent of consumers to be ‘likely’ or ‘highly likely’ to leave a review.
Being a small business helps too.
Three out of four consumers would be ‘likely’ or ‘highly likely’ to leave a review if they knew that the business was family-owned compared to 43 per cent if it was a large chain.
Seeing unjustified ‘mean’ reviews also compels people to act, with 73 per cent leaving a review if the business had a low average star rating and they didn’t think it was deserved.
And if you have a new business, there’s goodwill out there with 77 per cent of people saying they’d leave a review if the business was fairly new.
The key message is to give as good a service as you can and don’t be afraid to ask for a review.
How to get more reviews
These simple steps will make it easier for you to get reviews for your pet buisness.
- Ask when they are on a high! When the client is buzzing because they’ve achieved something amazing or they’ve tried your product and love it or their pet looks super cute. This is when you ask for the review!
- Keep it simple. Decide where you want them to leave the review and send the link.
- Mix it up. Consider which platform the review works best on. For corporate clients it might be LinkedIn. For your services it might be Google, and for a product, it could be Facebook.
- Provide prompts. The blank page is usually what stops us writing. Give a few short points to cover and make it easy for the person to leave their review.
- Write it for them! If you’re face to face, ask if they’d mind leaving a review and what they’d say. Make a few notes or record what they say, write it up, send it to them along with the link to the relevant review platform so they only have to cut and paste it.
- Have fun with your reviews! I love this review here shared by dog photographer Nicki Cameron on LinkedIn. It’s of Jet, a Border Collie Nicki photographed. He’s lay next to one of his photos with his paws in the air!
- Incentivise with a discount code.
Why this matters
The study found nearly half, 49 per cent trust reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family, 37 per cent as much as recommendations from influencers and 28 per cent trust them as much as articles from experts.
Only 21 per cent said, ‘none of the above.’
Has this inspired you to work on your reviews? Let me know and do come and share your reviews in my free Facebook community too.
Here’s the link to my group and it would be great to see you there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/publicitytipsforpetbusinesses
Read the full Brightlocal study results here: www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
If you enjoyed this post, you might like Five things that stop you being bold in your pet business and Creating case studies for your pet business with Jenna Sloan.
