The old adage that a happy client will tell 1 person about your business and an unhappy client will tell 7, is alive and true today, but with the Internet Multiplication Factor of about 1000. A satisfied or dissatisfied customer of your local small business has resources at their disposal to let thousands of people know exactly how they were treated. Customers can review your business on Google, Yelp, write about you on their blog, Twitter how great or horrible you are, share their experiences on Facebook, and more almost instantaneously. The Better Business Bureau has nothing on social media these days. Let’s look at how you can use reviews to get more business, and respond to bad reviews so you aren’t alienating customers.

Getting Good Reviews

The first rule of getting good reviews is ASK! The majority of your customers probably love you, and would love to help, they just don’t know how, they don’t want it to take a lot of time, and often they want to be rewarded for their time. So try these ideas:

Ask in your email receipt that gets sent to customers – Let customers know where they can leave reviews or submit videos, give them the links and tell them how long it will take.

Add a postcard/magnet in the bag – Have postcards/magnets created that let customers know they can review your service or product. Studies show that magnets are kept longer than any other advertising form (I have magnets from businesses that aren’t even in business anymore!)

Ask on Twitter and Facebook – Don’t overdo it, but chances are your customers that are already involved in social networking sites are more likely to leave a review somewhere for you. Especially if you:

Reward customers with a discount on their next order – Offer a discount or free shipping with their next order. T-shirts are a great gift as well, I’ve found most people will sell their mother for a free T-shirt.

Responding to Bad Reviews

With the good, comes the bad, and in the online world it’s a lot easier for potential customers to find the dirt on your small business. A lot of small businesses could ignore bad reviews and problems before, but now more than ever, you must decide if you need to confront the issues and try to fix them. Let’s look at when you should respond to a bad review:

You messed up – We all have oopsies in life, and admitting them isn’t a bad thing. Own up, apologize sincerely, and offer to fix the problem. The customer will appreciate what you’ve done, and so will others.

Just the facts ma’am – Customers make mistakes as well, and if they are stating something that isn’t true in the review, you need to correct them. Chances are they could be talking about a different company altogether and left the review in the wrong place.

The ball is rolling – Misery loves company, so sometimes when there is a bad review, more people come out of the woodwork to pile on their gripes as well. One bad review can lead to a mountain, so it’s best to get there in the beginning and start dismantling the issues before it gets out of control.

Of course there are times you should ignore bad reviews as well. Some people just live to be miserable, others just had a bad day and needed to take it out on someone, and there you were. Most people understand that a small business can’t please everyone and will overlook a negative review if it’s clear it’s just a gripe and not a real service issue. Now get out there and get more reviews!