Google’s New No Gating Policy – What You Need To Know
Now that Google no longer allows “gating,” (sending only happy customers to your Google review site) here’s a review strategy you might want to consider when asking customers to write a review for your business.
The average review rating for all of our subscribers after the first two days was 97.4% and that number is just going to get better as everyone pays more attention to the entire customer service/review effectiveness process.
92% 5-star reviews
4% 4-star reviews
2% 3-star reviews
2% 1-star reviews
The key to getting outstanding results when it comes to getting both reviews and referrals with the Five Star Review System still includes:
1) Providing exceptional service and fixing problems as soon as they arise.
2) Verbally asking all of your customers if they will write a review and/or refer you to their family and friends when they are at the peak of their happiness.
It’s foolish to randomly send an automated review or referral request to a customer without asking. It is also counterproductive to ask for a review in the middle of a transaction, before your customer has fully experienced your service or before you’ve had an opportunity to identify and address their concerns? Ask everyone to write a review, but wait until they’ve fully experienced your service.
3) The single most important thing you can do to get your customers to write a review and refer you to their family and friends is to send them your review/referral request while they’re with you. Not two seconds or two hours after they leave your presence. This one thing will increase your reviews by 400%.
Remember you’re not asking your customers to write the review while they’re with you. That’s pushy and may make your customers feel uncomfortable. You’re just sending them the review request while they’re with you.
If you provide great service, not having a gating feature is of no consequence. So ask all of your customers to review you after they’ve fully experienced your amazing service.