Any tips on getting customers to actually leave you yelp reviews? I am advertising through Yelp and getting traffic but not generating leads , I think, because I don’t have any reviews yet. Even I when on yelp pick the company with the mpst five syar reviews. I have several coupons for incentive to leave reviews but the few customers I have done that for so far won’t leave one, even after a discount and following up to ask. Seems par for the course I guess once they get the service it doesn’t matter to them. I am thinking of giving them the full price quote and once they show me their review I will give them the discount price. Seems like a delicate balance.
so you’re paying for reviews!!??
I’m trying out one month of advertising. It’s just like yelp there but there are some advantages but after having it for a few weeks I have decided it’s really suited for a business owner who has a moderate amount of traffic or who is well established. You get your ad listing placed above others, they remove competitor ads from your page, you get a photo gallery and call to action button and you can track all your leads, clicks to website, etc…in real time. It works great according to the studies I read but like all advertising you gotta do it consistently and we all use yelp: if your new and don’t have reviews you don’t get calls. I click on the conoany with 35 5 star reviews myself. Unfortunately the one review I had they removed for some reason and that on review got me the one job I have got off of yelp. It’s only been 2 and a half weeks but right now my main focus is just getting my customers to actually follow through and leave a review after I have discounted their service. Like I said I’m going to start quoting them full price and if they can show me a review by the time I leave then I will discoun. $15 off service or 15 percent off for a yelp revoew (2 specials I am running) sounds like a pretty good incentive to me!
I’m far from being a yelp expert on reviews . But getting good reviews is hard , simple as that . For every 20 happy clients , 1 will leave a review . For every unhappy client , you’ll probably get 1 bad review .
Best time to talk about a review with a client for me is when they are raving about how good their windows look . I usually say something like .
Well mrs smith thank you so much for giving us the opportunity. If you happen to write reviews , please feel free to express your self the way you feel on our yelp Page.
Hope that helps , oh also . Asking clients to leave you a review before you leave and I’ll give you a discount . I wouldn’t do that , that will hurt you really fast .
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Good advice. It’s kinda on the honor system, like here’s the discount, now see ya later and I hope you stick up to your end of the deal. Doesn’t quite work like that I’m learning. Thanks for the insight though I yelp always if people ask me but I guess not everyone is the same.
I guess there’s a difference between yelping everything and writing reviews on yelp. Most high end clients don’t write reviews , they don’t want to be bothered with it .
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Good to know. So what’s the alternative in a yelp based world for a new guy. I got an ad out, door hangers, rear windshield wrap, joined the chamber of commerce asked for references and was offered them, left business cards. Just keep at it I assume?
I am curious why giving incentives to take time to write reviews is bad. Buying good reviews is definitely dishonest and bad business. However the last week I started offering to take 20 dollars off if they will do a review before i leave. Although i make sure to explain that I want just an honest review of what they liked and what they didn’t like about the service. And that I don’t want to buy their good review but just so other people know what to expect when choosing our service. I make it very clear to them that i don’t want to buy a good review. I go above and beyond with customer service so they usually are thrilled about my work. the 20 dollars is cooperating them for the time they take to do it. Nobody has taken it that way at least. Would you guys still consider this wrong?
Not trying to do bad business here.
I really hate the idea of Yelp… For that matter, Thumbtack, Angieslist, Home Advisor… They’re all middle manning between us and our customers. Yelp is especially bad because of the pay to play element that so many people complain about.
We’re going to focus mostly on Facebook and Google for reviews, which happen to be the two places we’re going to spend the most money on for ads.
As far as getting reviews, you have to really establish a system for acquiring them and then ask for them multiple times, in multiple ways, throughout your relationship with the customer.
Carry a tablet and ask them to do it as you pack up your stuff. Send a follow-up email and ask. Mail a hand written note a few weeks later saying thanks and telling them how important reviews are for your business and how they can do it in 3 simple bullet points… Lots of ways.
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For the record the coupons I have are not to “buy” a good yelp review whatsoever. I am confident that by the end of the process I will have earned the review I deserve. I hate Yelp and all those other players too but I feel like you gotta have them to be relevant now. Phoenix is a huge competitive market and when your just starting it’s hard to get clients, period IMO.
You answered your own question.
I would consider it bad business.
Hey bro , It just takes one client that takes it the wrong way . And he’ll write a bad review and say :
don’t do business with this company , he pays everyone $20 to write good reviews. All reviews are fake
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well i appreciate your input @wcs and @GenaroGuzman i probably wouldn’t have thought of this as bad before this. I genuinely didn’t have bad motives by trying this. But it isn’t worth it to me incase it is taken the wrong way. It doesn’t take much to hurt a reputation in business. Thanks for helping!
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we have 16 reviews from 1700 jobs done, it just takes time.
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Asking for reviews in the right way at the right time is really important. For example, sending a review invite immediatley after the job closes and including jobsite photos can result in a lot better review conversion rate (more great reviews).
And gently encouraging customers over time with regular review reminders can really help you ramp up your reviews.
Theres some great products that save you tons of time by automating this process (I’m a bit biased of course as I’m the founder of one of them 
- NiceJob.co)
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personally, I don’t see anything wrong with it. I get it, you’re trying to motivate them to actually write something (good or bad)… but… ponder this excerpt from Thinking About Offering Rewards For Reviews? Think Again - ProspectaMarketing
“…In recent years, multiple settlements involving the FTC have helped to clarify how this application works regarding online reviews and underlines the fact that incentivizing reviews is illegal.”
Read that part where the guy was giving $10 off for good or bad reviews and was sued. 
So… because of some bad (people faking) apples… we all have to work a little harder.
My line is “Help us keep costs down by sending us a quick review!” .
man that sums it up right there. Good post! I know never again will i do that. Too risky.
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i have 5 google, 8 facebook and around 15 or 20 that came via the feedback button from tcf.
reviews definitly make a difference for search (google reviews) and buying confidence.
with every tcf invoice i was sending an email including a plea for a review and link that opened a google review and a link that opened a facebook review, also in case they had neither the feedback button.
i signed on with nicejob recently and will be adding the existing feedback reviews to the review page and sharing all to my social media via nicejob.
i have very little facebook presence, i am trying but i just don’t it so far. i did share one of my google reviews on facebook the other day to see how it looks and one of my customers gave it a like and facebook says it reached 55 people!
i’m pretty sure nicejob is going to improve my response but also greatly increase the display and sharing of the reviews.
no one seems to use yelp here but i have a yelp account and my reviews will be shared there as well.
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Hey @cactus27 great to hear your getting alot more exposure for your reviews by sharing them to your social networks. It’s one of those steps that’s easy to skip with so much else on your plate, but as you can see with your first 2 shares already, it can really drive sales!
If you want to get even more people seeing those reviews, add a photo to them before you share them (since you’re using NiceJob this is built in and really easy to do).
Reviews with photos attached get 2-3x more views generally!
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