Getting a 5-star review is easy. Just do your job in such a way that your customers can’t wait to tell the world how wonderful you are, and then ask them to review your service on one of the Internet review sites.  Sounds easy enough doesn’t it? … but there’s  more.

Based on my Local Search Marketing research, the quantity and quality of your reviews do seem to make a difference. It is more common to see a business listing with more reviews ranked near the top of the search rankings than a business with few or no reviews, but this is not always the case.

Here’s What Really Matters

Ranking aside, searchers are much more likely to click on a business listing with a significant number of reviews than they are on a listing with fewer reviews. What’s more important however is that these same searchers are much more likely to contact a business with a 5.0 rating than a business with a 3.2 rating.

So the questions is, “How do you generate 5-star reviews for your business listing?”  Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Do a search on Google for your local business and notice who shows up in the map section. Odds are, some of the businesses have reviews and other don’t. Depending on the industry, you could see a range of reviews from 0-3,000.

Step 2: Click on the “# reviews” button for the company with the most reviews. Notice the sites where their customers are leaving reviews. If it’s an industry with very few reviews, you’ll probably find that most of the reviews are on Google. If it’s an industry with lots of reviews, there will be certain review sites that stand out. You’ll notice them quickly.

Step 3: Repeat this process for two or three of your biggest competitors and make a note of where their customers are reviewing their business. These are the primary sites where you want to send your customers to review your business.

Step 4: On your follow-up call, (I assume you make follow-up calls after the sale) ask your customer this question. “On a scale from 1-5, how happy were you with our service?” The reason you want to ask the question in this manner is because this is how you customer is going to rank your service on the review sites.

In the world of psychology, it’s known as “commitment consistency.” If someone states that your service was a five, they are much more likely to give you a five star rating when they review you on the Internet. The same is true if they tell you your service ranked as a three.

If their answer is “five,” thank them and ask them if they would take no more than two minutes to respond to an email with a brief (2-3 sentence) review of your service. Include a few examples of testimonials written by other customers so they can see how simple your request is. This makes it very easy for your customer to see exactly what you’re looking for and it provides them with your email address at the same time. If done correctly, it will also provide you with something known as “sentiment.” More on that in a future article.

Step 5: When the testimonial arrives, quickly email them back and ask them to please copy and paste their wonderful testimonial to a review sites on the Internet so that everyone can see it and let them know how much this means to you. Make sure you include a copy of their testimonial along with the link to the review site you selected in your email.

If you receive a testimonial that is less than spectacular, you’re under no obligation to ask them to post it to the Internet. Just write them back and say, “Thank You.”

Step 6: Rinse and Repeat. You’re goal is to get as many 5-star reviews as possible. If you ask every happy customer to write and post a review for you, you will be at the top of the search results page in short order with all 5-star reviews.