Testimonials or client reviews are powerful tools to help instill credibility and trust with prospective clients. Users researching a new business will look to the feedback of others in hopes that their experience can help them decide if your business is the best place to schedule an appointment for them or their family.
Reviews Can Help Legitimize Your Brand
People tend to trust what other people say about a business more than what the business says about themselves, so website reviews, google reviews, social media reviews, etc. play a significant role in building confidence in your brand. Platforms like Google, Yelp and Amazon do their due diligence to ensure reviews that are posted are legitimate client reviews, bringing more value to the reviews posted there as legitimate and trustworthy. Even having business profiles for reviews helps build confidence with consumers that your business is established and responding to reviews that have been posted provides a personal touch to help reinforce the exemplary customer service and customer experience users can expect with your business.
Social Proof
Have you ever been persuaded to buy something or try something new from an influencer or celebrity on social media? If you have, you’ve allowed Social Proof to influence your buying behavior, which basically means that seeing someone else do something helped validate your decision to do something similar. Social proof could be even considered written or video examples of someone in your business or a business you’re researching and validating a potential desire or decision to shop with there too because of a positive experience or product they are sharing. Social proof on social media marketing has become increasingly popular in recent years to the point instead of just asking someone to leave you a review, asking someone to share a review on their social media channels could reach a wider audience and carry more weight depending on the person(s) sharing their story and the following they have.
Reviews Impact SEO
Not only can reviews help users that are researching your business feel more confident in their decision to work with you because of the positive feedback they see online, reviews can also help your business rank better online and show up in more google searches to reach more potential users. Google evaluates the frequency, score and diversity of reviews as ranking signals for local search and increases in the number of reviews, review score and the number of platforms you’re getting reviews on could trigger your google business profile to show for more searches or to show higher on the local map pack.
Generating reviews can be free, and can provide multiple advantages for your business. Promote the channels that your clients can provide feedback in your office, so when they are leaving and their experience is top of mind, they have easy access to post a review and share their experience. If you send any emails or newsletters to your clients, include a link or links to your review platforms encouraging your loyal clients to leave you a review. You can also post on social media prompting your followers to rate and review your business there. Reviews are valuable to your business, as you plan out your marketing and content calendars, keep testimonial content and client requests for reviews on your roadmap, and watch how it positively impacts your online presence and brand recognition.
