I recently had a spark of an idea that I thought I’d share, thanks to a chat with a current client. Let me share a bit of the backstory: our team’s main focus is helping businesses grow. While that is a simple statement, it’s often not a single item that we address. We usually start with a slick website and polish up the Google Business profiles, but then we dive a bit deeper, in more of a consultative role, and help them identify any part of their process that could use a bit of a tune-up. This could be anything from spicing up their proposals and making their payment terms more defined to getting those all-important Google reviews rolling in.
So, there I was, chatting with Zack from Elevated Land Management Solutions. Just like we do with all of our clients, we helped him devise a straightforward text message that his team can send out once a job is finished, encouraging clients to leave a review. And it’s been effective—he’s definitely seeing an uptick in reviews. However, Zack pointed out that he’s not capturing them all. While discussing this, I stumbled upon something intriguing. Essentially, he noticed that not everyone replies to the initial review request, but when he follows up to see how things went with the job, responses come flooding in. This observation sparked an idea. We’re all aware that people are more inclined to share negatives online, but getting those positives seems to be a bit more challenging. It seems that when people see the review request, they think, “I’ll get to that later,” only to forget about it entirely.
So this is the idea, what if we blend those steps?
Start with a friendly, “This is Zack from Elevated Land Management Solutions. I am reaching out to ensure that our recent service met your expectations in every aspect. Are there any areas we might have overlooked or any further details you believe we should revisit?”
The client responds with, “Nope, all fantastic. Really happy with what you guys did.”
And then, Zack swings back with, “Awesome, that’s exactly what I like to hear! If you could spare a minute of your time, would you mind sharing a quick review? Here’s the link, it’s super easy. It helps us a lot, and I would really appreciate it.”
This new approach kicks off the conversation with a question that should get a response, instead of diving straight into asking for a favor. I’m thinking that starting it this way and then sliding the review request in right after that positive feedback, they might be more inclined to leave a review immediately. The way I’m asking for the review is very much like asking for a favor, because, let’s face it, that’s exactly what it is. They are really helping you out by leaving a review. It’s an action that takes their time and doesn’t do anything for them directly, so treating it like a favor I have found tends to yield better results, and with this newer idea of splitting it into two parts, starting with that friendly check-in might just make it a bit harder to put off till “later”
I’m rolling this out with a few clients and I’ll circle back in a month with some detailed results. But the results aren’t really needed for us to know this is a good idea so I thought I’d share it.
