How to Write Google Review – Writing a Google Review is a simple task that you can complete from your phone. The Review feature on Google gives users a chance to rate businesses and services they use as well as share their experiences with their friends. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to writing a Google Review from your iPhone or Android device.
Table of Contents
How to Get More Google Reviews from Your Customers in Five Simple Steps
Step 1: Ask Your Customers for a ‘Favor’
If your customers have had a good experience with your business, they’re usually more than happy to “pay it back” through a positive customer review. Framing your request as a “favor” lessens your customers’ feeling of obligation. Interestingly enough, this makes them more likely to comply with your request. (1)
Asking for a favor not only shows that you have trust in your customers, but it also allows them the opportunity to provide support for you and your business.
When asked in the right way, most happy customers will be happy to leave a good business review. Get as many “favors” as you can because Google will automatically highlight any 3 of these reviews in your Google Review Summary section. (2)
While getting customers on board to write a google business review is a huge milestone, remember that Google’s algorithm is also crawling for the right kind of reviews.See how
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Step 2: Give Them A Reason To Write A Review
Giving a reason for your request increases the chances that your customers will oblige by up to 33%. Studies performed by a Harvard professor in 1978 revealed the power of the word “because”.
The conclusion of the study is that giving someone a reason that you are asking for something will increase your success rate no matter the reason. (3)
When you’re asking for a review, be sure to include a reason. “Because we would love to hear your thoughts” or “because we care about what you think of our business” may just be a few extra words, but it can go a long way in improving your review response rate.
While there are far more technical reasons for requesting reviews such as boosting local SEO to build online authority and trustworthiness and providing recent feedback to prospects, you should keep explanations simple.
Step 3: Thank Them For Being Willing To Leave A Review
When it comes to customer service gratitude is always a good idea.
In a cold email response study, response rates increased dramatically when gratitude was expressed in advance. (4)
Similarly, getting customer feedback via reviews can lead to improved customer service when acknowledged by a business.
Step 4: Have a Script and a Process
Now let’s see how these tips, altogether, work to increase your review generation rate. You’re welcome to copy this script or tweak it to fit your business’ unique needs.
“Hey __________ [customer name], thanks for coming in today! I was wondering if you could do me a favor?”
*Customer responds affirmatively*
“Would you mind writing a review of your experience? Because it really helps other customers make the decision to come here.”
*Customer responds affirmatively*
“Thanks! We really appreciate you being willing to do that! In a few moments, you will get a review request from our office. You can just follow the review link that we send you. It makes it really simple!”
A happy customer is likely to reciprocate the positivity if you just ask. By making the process simple and introducing a little bit of psychology into the equation, you’re well on your way to acquiring a bank of positive reviews.
Step 5: Find A Review Software That Automates The Process
In an ideal world, everyone would have automated review software like Weave.
Review software allows you to request a review from the customer immediately after they’ve interacted with you, they get the request at the time when they’re most likely to leave you feedback.
Usually, the request includes a link that they can click on. They will be sent to a review website like Google or Facebook where they can leave feedback in just a few minutes.
How to Write Google Review
Method 1: Placing a Review Using Your Computer
- Log in to your Google Account. You can log in from any Google website, including the Google search page. Click the Sign In button on the top-right corner of the page and sign in with your Username and password.
- If you are not signed in when you try to write a review, you will be asked to sign in before writing.
- If you do not have a Google Account, you will need to create one.
- Search for the business or place. You can write reviews for restaurants, businesses, attractions, etc. Simply search for the establishment, either through Google Search, Google Maps, Google+, etc.
- In order to write a review using a mobile device, you will need to open the location’s info in Google Maps, and then use the “Rate and review” box.
- Look for the existing reviews. When you see the establishment in the search results, you’ll see a star rating, as well as the number of reviews that have been written.
- Click the “Write a Review” button or link. Depending on how you searched for the establishment, you may have several options for writing a new review. Click on the link or button to open the review form.
- The link will be next to the star rating in your search results, while the button will appear underneath the establishment’s name in the sidebar in Google Search.
- Give the location a star rating. Reviews come in two parts: the star rating and the written review. Most people who see your review will look at the star rating first, so make sure that it matches your feelings about the location.
- You can give anywhere from 1 (“Hated it”) to 5 (“Loved it”) stars. This will be averaged into all of the star reviews, creating the review that is seen from the Google search of the location.
- Write your review. Once you’ve given your star review, you can write the written portion. Use this space to critique your experience with the location. Refer to this guide for tips on writing a comprehensive and useful review.
- Publish your review. Once you are finished writing your review, click the Publish button to publish it to the web. The review will have your name and a link to your Google+ profile.
Method 2: Placing a Review Using Your Smartphone
- Launch your smartphone’s web browser. You can use any web browser installed on your device.
- Go to Google’s main webpage. Type Google’s address in the search bar of your browser. This will take you to the Google Search page.
- Search for the establishment you want to review. Type in the name of the place you want to review into the Google search box, and press the Enter key to load the results.
- Initiate the Review process. The right side of the results page will feature the one that you referenced in the search. Scroll down until you see a box that says “Write a Review” and tap it.
- Log into your Google account. On the next page that loads, enter your Google login details into the fields provided then tap “Log in” to proceed.
- Select the star rating you would give the experience. All the stars are already full, so just tap where appropriate, with 5 stars being the highest.
- Tap the box below the star button and write your review into the field. Be as specific as possible.
- Tap the “Publish” button on the top right side of the screen to publish your review.
Write A Review From The Google Maps App
- In the Google Maps app on your phone, search for the business that you want to review.
- Maps will return a search result with a map that includes a banner at the bottom about the business. Click that banner.
- Scroll down in the window that pops up until you get to the reviews section. You will see five stars unpopulated with your profile picture above them. Click on the number of stars you would like to leave for the business and proceed to write about your experience.
- Click “POST” to leave the review.
Writing a review is a simple process, even for your older customers. This process is even simpler when you use automated software.
How to Delete a Google Review
If you are a business owner, you’ve probably seen a negative review come across for your business at least once. The review could be the result of a misunderstanding with a customer, or even someone on your team dropping the ball, in which case, you should try to rectify the situation immediately.
Unfortunately, there is another common source of negative fake reviews that you can’t do anything to rectify. Those negative reviews come from competitors who are trying to tarnish your reputation. In an effort to do this, some competitors post negative reviews about your business. In these scenarios, you’ll need a strategy for deleting Google Reviews.
Before we get too far into this process, you should know that this is not always guaranteed to work. However, it has worked on a number of occasions, so it’s often worth going through the process.
Step 1: Locate the Review on Google
Locate the fake google review you are trying to remove. You can do that by searching for your business name in Google and clicking on the total number of reviews.
Step 2: Flag the Review
Locate the review that was left by your competitor and click the flag. To get the flag to show up, you will need to be hovering over the review.
Step 3: Select Your Reason for Flagging the Review
When you click the flag you will see these options:
Click the circle that indicates that the post is a conflict of interest. Take a screenshot of your form filled out and save the screenshot with the date.
Note as well that google’s policies consist of a list of 10 types of prohibited and restricted reviews, which Google might remove, not only when flagged, but automatically.
After a week or so has gone by, check whether the fake review was removed. If it hasn’t been, go to Google My Business community you will see a page in the search result that looks like this:
Click Spam & Policy and you will be taken to a page that looks like this:
Step 5: Submit Your Case
Click the plus in the lower right-hand corner to start your post in the forum. In the interest of your reputation management, you need to be as persuasive as possible about the fact that this review was not from a real customer. Explain how you know that it is a competitor, attach the image showing that you flagged the review first, then submit your post. The more descriptive you are and the more details you have to back up your position, the more likely you will be successful in getting the bad review deleted.
This forum is typically very quick to respond, so you should know within the day whether your report will be escalated.
Conclusion
Google Reviews help people decide whether or not a business is the right one for them. Online reviews are now a part of our daily purchases as consumers. At one point in time, if a customer wanted to check out the reviews on a local business, there were only those left from Yellow Pages or other directories.