With Ready Reviews, you can grow your business through word-of-mouth, the most effective way to get new customers and inspire loyalty in your existing customers!
The Game Has Changed, so the Way We Play it Must Change
Growing up, my family always made sure the phone book and the yellow pages were underneath the telephone. If we needed something, we’d check there and look for the proper services. There were no reviews, websites, or flashy ads – it was just the business listings.
Then the Internet happened. Nowadays, when I need to hire a plumber or electrician, look for a dentist, or for someplace to eat, I just Google it. Everyone does. And the Internet has taught us something:
You should take into consideration the experiences of others before you press the ‘call’ button.
Because of that one change, it means that having your business listed or even having a flashy website no longer matters.
Table of Contents
Let's Look at the Cold, Hard Facts
- 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses.
- 28% of online consumers check business reviews more now than even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 94% of online consumers say a negative online review has convinced them to avoid a business.
- 22% of consumers only pay attention to reviews written within the past two weeks, and 26% only read those from the past month.
- 53% of consumers state that they don’t trust a business with all positive reviews, especially if they have many reviews.
- A single positive review can increase conversions by 10%, while 100 reviews can lead to a 37% increase.
- Only 3% of consumers would consider using a business with an average star rating of two or less.
- 52% of consumers say they would not choose a business with zero reviews.
- 84% of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising.
- 70% of people use rating filters when searching for businesses, the most common filter being used to only show companies at least a 4-star rating.
- 40% of consumers expect a business to have at least four stars before they consider making a purchase.
- 88% of all online reviews come from four review platforms.
- 63.6% of consumers say they are likely to check reviews on Google before visiting a business location.
- 87% of people have or are willing to write a review of a business – only 13% say they never would.
- 70% of reviews come from post-transactional review request emails.
- 55% of consumers will leave online reviews to help other consumers, 34% do so to help businesses, and 42% do so to get a business’s attention.
- 48% of consumers say that brands responding to reviews improves their odds of making a purchase.
- 80% of people expect reviews to be responded to within 2 weeks.
It all beggars the question: if you saw yourself on Google, wedged in between the other businesses in your industry, would you do business with yourself?
You've Got Buyers in Heat Looking for You!
“Buyers in heat” is a marketing term that means someone is searching for your product with the intent to buy.
This isn’t like browsing on Amazon, putting things in your cart, then changing your mind, then finding something new and shiny and repeating the process.
Nor is it like visiting this page and mulling around in your head whether this is really for you or not.
When someone is Googling something like “plumbers in Boulder, Co” or “lawyers in Memphis” or “dentists in St. Paul” they aren’t just casually browsing. No, they’re looking to hire someone or make a purchase, and a crucial factor in that decision will come from your reviews.
Here’s how the process goes:
- Customer is looking for a service to solve a specific problem.
- Customer sees you on Google and checks your reviews.
- If the customer likes what they see, they’ll check your site or call you to see if your business or company can help them with whatever specific problem they have.
It’s crucial to hit step 2 out of the park!
Remember, these people aren’t looking for fun. People don’t Google plumbers, dentists, lawyers, or roofers just for heck of it. They’re searching because they have a problem or a project in mind.
They’re looking because they want to buy, and they’re searching based on category, not by business names.
So...
On the plumbers side, I guarantee the first two businesses are getting the most customers. The third business has a 5-star rating, true, but statistically speaking, customers are wary of businesses that have 100+ reviews and a perfect rating. Just look at the cold, hard facts above!
The final plumber doesn’t have that many reviews.
On the dentist side, it’s obvious who’s not getting the customers. They have a reputation problem that needs fixed pronto!
There’s another problem with the dentist side that we’ll address soon: these businesses aren’t on Google’s first page. Technically, none of them are getting nearly as many customers as they could be.
Where Do You Hide a Dead Body?
On the Second Page of Google
I tend to go pretty deep into the search results.
Well, that’s not always true.
Whenever I need an electrician or a veterinarian or something, I tend to stick to page one of Google. In fact, that’s where most people stop their search, hence the jokes and the memes.
The goal of any business should be to hit the first page of Google. The top three spots are the best, but the competition for them is fierce.
If you’re on the second page, most people searching for businesses in your industry will never see you.
Why?
Google's Map Packs Have a Strict Criteria
When I went to Google and searched for “sushi in Seattle”, this is what I saw at the very top. According to Google, these are the best sushi places in Seattle. This means that anyone else who looks for sushi places in Seattle is likely to pick one of these three places.
How Does Google Determine That?
Google’s algorithm looks for a number of things when it determines how this works.
- Have a Google Business Profile.
- Use your actual business name.
- Include your address instead of the general area you service.
- Be as detailed as you can when entering your business information.
- Use a local telephone number.
- Keep your social media up-to-date.
- Avoid address variations (don’t write ‘street’ in one box and ‘st’ in another).
- Upload Google business photos.
- Use a detailed, original description for your business.
- Maintain a high number of positive reviews.
- Keep reviews coming in regularly, not just collecting a few here and there. You don’t want to look ‘dead’ to Google!
- Respond to your reviews, both the good and the bad.
- Use keywords to let Google know what you do and don’t do.
We Should Talk About That Last One...
Reviews don’t just show Google that you’re popular, they also give you what marketers call keywords.
Keyword: A word or phrase that people commonly search for on a search engine.
“How to stop squirrels from eating out of bird feeder”
“How to change a tire”
“Pipe leak repair”
“Lawn mower white smoke”
“Is E3 open to the public this year”
These are all phrases stuffed with keywords. For most websites, this means that if you have articles or blog posts about these subtopics, Google will consider you an authority. Even better is if you can get other people using a combination of keywords and links back to you.
But what does this mean for local businesses?
When people leave reviews, those reviews have keywords. Google recognizes them and associates them with you, so you climb higher in the search rankings.
Higher rankings = free traffic. No more paying to get sponsored on Google.
Thanks for the Boring Lesson. So, How Does Ready Reviews Help Me?
Obviously, we solved all of these problems and more. Duh! That’s the point of the lengthy lesson.
All joking aside, Ready Reviews aims to be the best and most cost-effective reputation management software in the industry.
Here’s how we help you:
TL;DR Version
- Three primary ways to ask for reviews.
- QR Codes and Tap Cards
- Kiosk Mode
- Zapier Integration
- Email and SMS Campaigns
- Rewards Programs
- AI-Powered Chatbot
- Two-Way SMS Texting
We Make Leaving Reviews Painless and Convenient for Your Customers
Remember when I said that 70% of reviews come from post-transactional review request emails? If you don’t read through those statistics. I know there’s a lot and people’s attention spans have been falling faster than Disney’s stock, but they really provide a lot of insight.
Anyway, up to 70% of reviews come from people just being asked to leave them. But maybe you’ve tried that already and it barely worked. Maybe you’re afraid it’s a numbers game and you need more customers, but in order to get more customers, you need more Google reviews!
Aargh!
Don’t worry. Your big problem is that we’re a society that’s always in a hurry. We want our microwaves to cook faster, our YouTube videos to load quicker, and the speed limits to let us drive faster.
Your customers think it’s a pain to Google your business and leave a review. That’s where we come in!
Our software collects customer contact information and politely asks them to leave reviews. There are three ways we do that, all with an emphasis on making it as easy for the customer as possible so they don’t feel too inconvenienced by the request.
In fact, we have three primary means of doing this.
QR Codes and Tap Cards
One way we can make giving reviews super convenient for your customers is through our QR codes and tap cards. We can create flyers for you, tap cards in two sizes, and even ship you a tablet with a counter ticker so people can see the number of reviews go up.
What’s that I hear you say? Are you insisting that you can make your own QR codes and tap cards?
I’m going to be real with you. You absolutely can, but you have to make sure those codes and cards aren’t just going to your Google business profile; it has to go directly to the form where they write their review.
Even if you aren’t using Google (we can connect your customers to any site you want), try not to just go to your business page. Remember, convenience is key.
Also, do you have a way of collecting customer information that way? Can you enter them into a rewards program?
We have another secret weapon that comes with our software and our QR codes, but we’ll keep that a secret for now. Just wait, we’ll get to it soon.
These codes are best for businesses such as restaurants and salons. You still have to ask customers to leave a review, but the codes make it super easy and more exciting than asking them to search out your business and leave a review.
Kiosk Mode
Kiosk mode allows you or another member of your staff (you can create child accounts for your staff) to enter customer information manually. This works best if you use the rare software that doesn’t integrate with Zapier (hold your horses, we’ll get to it) or if you just don’t want to deal with third-party software.
Once you enter customer information into your back office, the software will automatically send out a review request as your specified time and you have that person’s contact information for life.
Integration through Zapier
If you want to be almost totally hands-free, you can use Zapier, a third-party software, to connect your Ready Reviews account with almost any software you already use to enter customer information, such as QuickBooks. This means that whenever you enter customer information into your software, Zapier will automatically send that information into your Ready Reviews back office and the system will send out a review request automatically at your specified time.
What could be more convenient?
Send Review Requests Automatically
I’ve mentioned twice now that the software will automatically ask customers for a review. You just set it up and watch it work its magic.
Email or Text: You can choose to send requests out through either email or text. We’ve noticed that email usually leads to more reviews and more keywords, but text usually has higher open rates.
Choose When Ready Reviews Sends its Request: This separates us from the competition. They all send out their requests right after information is entered, which isn’t always good.
For example, if you go to the dentist, do you really want to get a review request while your mouth is still full of gauze and you’re on your way to the car? Or for a car dealer to ask for a review before you’ve had a chance to drive your new car?
So, How Does it All Work?
Reviews
Let’s start with the reviews. After all, that’s why you’re here, right?
This is how it works:
When your customer first scans your QR code, taps their phone against the tap card, or clicks the link our software sends them via either email or text, this is what they see.
From here, they can enter their information, and the page is completely branded to your business.
After entering their information, your customers will see this screen, asking them to rate their experience with you.
After they give their initial rating, they’re taken here, where they can leave their full review.
No having to Google your business or having a chance to see what kinds of reviews have already been left.
Want to know our secret weapon? As an optional setting, when a customer leaves a rating of less than 4 stars, they’ll be brought here. They can leave feedback privately for you, letting you know that they’re unhappy and giving you a chance to reach out to them and make things right.
These reviews don’t go to Google, so your star rating is protected. It’s ultimately a win for both you and the customer, who may not have otherwise brought their concerns to you.
We are also integrated with ChatGPT, so you can automatically respond to reviews. Remember those statistics? Responding to ALL your reviews is important!
Campaigns
Getting reviews is only one part of a profitable and growing business. Customer retention is the other half of the equation, and Ready Reviews is here to help you there, too.
So, what makes customers return? Free stuff and discounts.
Every couple of years, I get a flyer in the mail from one of our local car dealerships. If I go to the dealership on the specified date, it promises me that I’ll have the chance to win one of a number of prizes, including a free vehicle, a free TV, or a free ice fishing house.
I also read a book about a Finnish hardware store that was promising free buckets to visitors during its grand opening and everyone showed up. They didn’t need buckets, but free stuff just drew them in.
Now, these aren’t rewards, they’re events. Our campaign feature will allow you to do this. Since you’ve collected your customers’ information when you put them into the program, you can use it to let them now about sales, events, raffles, and more.
Rewards Program
What if you want to get customers back regularly? This is where rewards enter.
Ready Reviews will allow you to create a rewards program for your customers. You set up whether you want the number of visits to count towards a reward or the money spent to count towards a reward.
It could look something like this:
- A hair salon might offer a free haircut every fourth one, setting up the rewards program by number of visits.
- A mechanic might offer a free oil change after a certain number.
- A restaurant might offer a free hamburger or pizza or something after a certain dollar amount is spent.
As you can see, the sky is the limit.
You can either enter them yourself or have them scan a QR code. Your customer will have their own back office on Ready Reviews that shows them how close they are to a reward via a progress bar. Of course, they’ll also be in your back office so you can confirm when they have a reward coming to them.
Oh, and if the customer hasn’t left a review yet, adding them to the rewards program will also trigger a review request!
Chatbot
We also now have an AI-powered chatbot that can answer questions on your website. This feature is a little more advanced, but if you get a ton of calls to your business asking the same questions over and over, Ready Reviews will allow you to outsource answering them to your own AI.
The AI can even let you know in your back office if the customer wants to receive a call from a live person.
Two-Way SMS Texting
Finally, you can purchase credits to text your customers straight from your back office. Yes, this is two-way texting, so they can text you back. This is a great way to engage your customers.
