4 Steps to Driving the Best Customer Reviews

Have you ever been to a business where your experience was so great, you wanted to share it with the world? Or at least a friend or family member? When you have a positive experience with a business, you want to help others who are searching for that service to have the same experience. It’s nearly impossible not to recommend the business to others. 

The ultimate goal in business is to create that positive experience - that urge to share the news about how great you are - with each and every one of your customers. The great news is, since you started your business because you are passionate about auto repair, helping people and making some money while you do it - you’re already driven (and probably set up) to create these experiences!

Now it’s a matter of collecting that feedback in the form of reviews that drive more business.

Great customer reviews tell people that your auto shop is not only legit, but awesome enough that customers want to tell other people about it.  And those customer reviews can have an amazing impact on new business.  Customer reviews build trust and and influence consumers in the decision-making process.

A BrightLocal study released a Local Consumer Survey revealing that over 73% of consumers say positive customer reviews make them trust a business more and 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

That is a HUGE amount of potential customers you can either persuade, or lose, during this process.

So you know these reviews are important, but the question is how do you get them in the first place?  

4 Steps to Get Customer Reviews That Drive More Business

Step One: Know What You’re Asking Them For

The average shop customer isn’t going to leave searching for ways to leave a review—unless they have a negative experience.  That’s why you need to make it super simple to for your customers to write a review and know exactly what you’re asking of them.  

• Have a presence on the review sites that make sense for your business. Make sure you’ve claimed your listings on the sites that matter like Google, Yelp and other industry-specific sites.
• Add direct links to those review profiles in multiple places such as a thank you or follow-up email.  It could be a simple line that reads “Please Send Us Your Feedback or Questions’ with a crystal-clear call-to-action link/button to a survey or brief questionnaire.  
• Test different subject lines for your follow up emails.  Try using the customer’s name in the subject line. Personalization makes each email feel like a custom invitation.  Plus, it reminds the customer that you truly care about their feedback.  Find which format from Get Five Stars works best for you with these 3 ways to request customer reviews.  
• Create some sample testimonials or some of the best ones that customers can use as a model and provide them with a paper form to fill out in the shop
• Make it easy for customers to find you on social media and encourage likes, shares, comments and follows. These customer reviews are great for new and existing fans.

Sometimes all you have to do is ask and the customer will be happy to share the love. The fact that you’re asking for customer reviews is a huge win for your auto shop.  Many businesses fail to do this at all.   

Step Two: Ask EVERYONE For Feedback…Right Away

Is there a secret to great customer reviews?  Think about when your customer’s enthusiasm and positive vibes are the highest—after an awesome experience, right? So you delivered some rockstar service (like always).  Immediately after their appointment, ask for their feedback!  Right away.  Don’t wait.  The longer you go from the time of service to the time you reach out for customer reviews, the chance of your getting one drops.  Getting feedback from everyone, happy or not, allows you a chance to catch things before anything is posted online and to resolve one time issues or implement systems to prevent any recurring issues in the future.    

Step Three: The Good ,The Bad and The Happy Customer

Both negative and positive reviews can serve your business well if you know how to respond to them.  It’s important to filter responses and respond to reviews.  Ask for feedback directly, and if they respond positive, ask to review online (link to your Google account, Yelp, etc.).  If there are any negative reviews, always, always follow up with them right away and rectify it!

The Good.  If you received positive feedback, don’t just sit there basking in the glory. Leverage the positive feedback to drive new business by asking them to post their review online.  your chance to show you’re a business who appreciates customer loyalty.  Take a few minutes to thank your customer for visiting your shop and sharing their experience.  Invite them to come back and see you again, possibly providing them with an incentive like a coupon or discount.  The key to responding to a positive review is to keep it short, simple and sweet and thank them for taking the time to do something nice for your business.  

The Bad.  Negative reviews are inevitable and they’re not a business-killer so don’t freak out. The way you respond to them can impact the way others view you and your auto shop.  Never, ever ignore them.  Use them as an opportunity to show customers that  you’re listening, that you care and that you’re willing to right any wrongs.  Always respond in a timely manner, acknowledge their feedback and offer to look into the problem to find a solution.  After you’ve rectified the issue, ask them, nicely, if they’d update their review.  Most people will be happy to if you actually fixed the issue.  When you listen to and address any negative reviews, you’ll have the chance to turn an unhappy customer into a loyal one.

At the end of the day, your best tip to getting great customer reviews is to offer stellar service and customer experience all the time.  If you’re doing all you can to constantly create a remarkable experience, there’s no reason not to remind them about sharing their customer reviews. And they’ll be more than happy to do so.

The Entire Process in ONE Step!

When you become a client of BAYiQ you’re able to combine all of these steps into one simple system.  

BAYiQ sends a follow up message to all customers, if they rate good it pushes them to write a review.  If bad, it gives you a chance to resolve immediately and is then shared on social media.  

BAYiQ can help save you time and money. We all need more of both.  Ready to see BAYiQ in the works? Watch a 5-minute demo now.