Customers today rely on online reviews when researching businesses. Regardless of your industry and the demographics of the shopper, your online reputation is vital. If your online reviews aren’t that great, you’ll need to take some steps to turn the tide. If you don’t have any online reviews, you need to start thinking about how to get them.

Make Sure You’re Providing Great Customer Service

Look at your online reputation to see where it stands. Evaluate what you’re doing to make sure each customer has a good experience. Ask customers how you’re doing service-wise. If you’re not providing a good experience, you want to know before you start asking for customer reviews.

Make It Easy For Customers to Leave Reviews

Figure out where you want your customers to leave reviews. Get your business listing in order so that customers can find your business online. Use these links in your email signature and newsletter. Place links on your invoices and receipts.

Ask Your Customers for Online Reviews

Once you’re sure that you’re providing a great experience, ask customers to leave an online review. Just say that you’d appreciate it if they left a review on whatever platform you want. Yelp, Facebook and Google are great places for reviews, but you may have an industry-specific site you’re targeting. Don’t incentivize your reviews. Yelp frowns on offering specials for posting a review. In some places, it’s illegal. Just ask customers to leave a review.

Keep the Reviews Coming

You can’t simply ask for a few online reviews for one month and ignore them for the rest of the year. You have to keep asking. Follow up with reviews, both good and bad. This lets potential customers know that you care about their experience. It can be time-consuming to manage your reviews, but there are some online tools that can help.