Set a target for reviews

So many businesses adopt review management without setting targets. We think targets are an essential discipline; here we will explain why.

1. It is easy to see your reviews in a vacuum: it is so important to realise that your prospective customers will - consciously or subconsciously - be comparing your reviews with those of your competitors
2. Don't just aim to look better than your competitors: aim to look a lot better. Don't assume that because you have 30 reviews on Google and a score of 4.6 and your nearest competitor has 10 and a score of 4.2 you wont go online tomorrow to see that they are scoring 4.8 with 50 reviews
3. Encourage quality as well as quantity: a great thorough and detailed review is worth a bucketful of the likes of "They were great".

So:

Setting targets - corporate

All good business people know just how demotivating impossible to achieve targets can be, so take a long hard look at your business - and other successful businesses in your sector - and set realistic targets. Here are some benchmarks we know have been successfully set and, in many cases, exceeded:

• for hospitality: a review from one guest in ten is a good starting point
• for high value-per-transaction businesses like financial services, legal, medical, insurance and estate agency: the 'rule of 50%' applies: you should aim to get half of your clients to write a review to your Dialogue module and then have half of them copy their review to Google

Setting targets - management and staff

All your staff should see being actively engaged in winning reviews as part of their job description. Individual staff and teams should be targeted to achieve a number of reviews per month or year (and rewarded for doings so):

• calendar based targets: a number per week/month/year
• volume based targets: a percentage of customers to write a review
• quality based targets: rewards for the staff member/team that gets the best review(s) in a given period

 Our first estate agency branch to over 300 reviews on their own website and 150 on Google - with a score of 4.9. Imagine how pleased you would be for your business to look like this - on your own website and in Google search. And now imagine you are one of their competitors!

Last, but no least:

Don't pounce! What do we mean by this? We mean build reviews into all your client contact, don't suddenly send them an email asking for a review with no warning at all.

If you are a hotelier: get your reception staff to mention that you will be asking for a review at check in, and make sure all your front-of-house staff are alert for compliments and then remind your guests to mention whatever aspect of their stay the spoke about in their review.

If you are an estate agent: use the fact that you publish all your clients reviews in your initial pitch - potential clients find it immensely reassuring. Then, just like the hotelier, be on the look out for opportunities to ask clients to put their verbal compliments in writing when they are asked for their review.

As ever: our client services team are here to help and advise - please don't hesitate to contact them.