57% of consumers won’t use a business that has less than a 4-star rating online. That stat could be pretty intimidating to a lot of businesses. The truth is, there are many things you can do in order to increase your amount of positive reviews in order to improve your customer connections and your business:

Just Ask! Most of your happy customers will be willing to leave your business a review online about their great experience with you. Sometimes they just need to be asked so they are reminded to take that step.
Provide a Link: Make it easy for your customers to leave you the positive reviews you need by sending them a link to your Google listing or your Facebook page after each and every service.
Train Employees: Training your employees to ask happy customers for a review makes all the difference. Don’t let your hard work go unnoticed to potential customers simply because you forgot to ask for feedback!

Guess what? Even if your business currently has lower than a 4.0 rating, it’s not too late to make things right. There are steps you can take to improve your online reputation while connecting with your customers (both happy and angry).

Negative Reviews:

It’s not uncommon for businesses to receive negative feedback online, in fact most businesses will have some negative reviews mixed in with their positive ones. The good news is, you can still connect with your customers and promote a more positive relationship, even through negative feedback. When your business’ online rating drops because of a negative review, the first thing to do is respond. Your response to a negative review should have all the same qualities as your response to a positive one:

Professional
Friendly
Understanding
Helpful

Using negative feedback as a growth opportunity that your business can learn from can actually be very beneficial for you. Show other searchers that you provide great customer service in the way you respond to your upset customer.

Positive Reviews:

Now to get to the fun part! Let’s talk about positive online reviews. Are your reviews shedding a positive light on your customer connections? Even if you have a 4.0 (or higher) overall rating online, you should still be working to keep that reputation up. If your happy customers are already leaving positive reviews, great! Think of how many more you could receive by remembering to ask every customer to leave a review after a service. When it comes to positive feedback, the more the merrier. When someone leaves you a positive review, be sure to respond. Some businesses only respond to the negative reviews they receive, and neglect those customers who are happy and helpful to your reputation. Thank your customers for taking the time to leave feedback about their awesome experience with you, and make sure they know that you appreciate them right back.

For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. If any of these tips have helped you or if you have anything to add, please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!