Isn’t amazing how much you feel the love from clients when you go back to work after months off, isn’t it?
But the question is: How do you keep the love flowing, flowing so much that you’re drowning in it?
And how do you find the time to work on keeping the love flowing while you’re rubbing clients, getting more masks, disinfecting tables and doing twice as much work laundry than pre-Covid?
Well, you pick a client-bringer-in-er that gives you a big bang for a small investment of your time.
It’s called get more online reviews, and it only involves you using your mouth and a finger or a few fingers.
First, how do reviews lead to more clients?
Think about how you shop online. You look up a business or product, and then what do?
You look to see what the reviews say.
Reviews are deal closers. Good reviews mean the customer is calling you and not calling the business above or below you.
Also, reviews play a percentage in your Google My Busienss (GMB) ranking. It’s not a big percentage (15% according to MOZ), but nevertheless, reviews count.
With Yelp, a review platform, reviews are its lifeline.
And good Yelp reviews helps with your Yelp presence.
By the way, why worry about Yelp?
Search “massage near me” and see where Yelp ranks in the organic search.
Consistently, number one.
So, you may have guessed by now that we’re going to get more reviews for two, free online-platforms—Google My Business (GMB) and Yelp.
Yuck, reviews, that means I have to beg clients to say how much they like me.
Actually, no.
This is the perfect opportunity to tactfully explain to key clients, regulars and clients who come in sporadically but love your work, the impact Covid-19 has had on your business.
Here’s how it’s impacting our business: (1) reduced number of clients we can see in a day because we have to space them out, (2) increased operating costs (disinfecting supplies, more laundry, new equipment and PPE)), (3) past work-stoppage (4) projected work-stoppages.
Don’t overlook number 4 if you’re in the US because a lot of the states are going in the wrong direction right now, and we haven’t even hit the second Covid wave due in the fall.
Asking for Reviews
After you explain the impact Covid-19 has had and will continue to have on your business you can then lead into how a review could help you out.
It could be something like this:
“Tylese, I don’t like asking favors, but I couldn’t work for months and it’s a strong possibility that I may be in the same position in the fall, is there any way that you might do an online review for me? If not, no biggie—we’re good. But if you can it could really help my business out.”
By the way, the intro regarding how your business is doing will more than likely come up naturally with key clients. They’ll ask you from the get-go because they don’t want you to go out of business.
If a client does ask you how your business is at the beginning of the session, I wouldn’t hit up that client for a review right away. Wait until the massage is over and then circle back.
“Hey Tylese, you got me thinking earlier when you asked me how my business was doing. There’s something that could really help me out. My friend who helps me with my website said that I needed more online reviews…”
Are you starting to feel like this is do-able?
Eventually you’ll find the words. You just have to start your mouth moving. And once you start hearing yourself talk out loud, you’ll figure it out.
Okay, now we need a simple way to send them to the review site with zero barriers.
GMB Reviews
For GMB we’re going to do this:
Go to your GMB account and click on Share Review Form:
It will allow you to share your review form via a link on popular social media and also through email.
If you want to text a client your review form use the GMB app on your phone.
Download that here if you need to.
Scroll down to Get More Reviews.
Then click on Share Profile.
Yelp Reviews
For Yelp we’re going to do things a little different. First, Yelp wants organic reviews. They don’t like it when reviews seem forced, and they’ll flag these reviews.
So, you’re not going to send your clients to Yelp to do a review unless that person is a Yelper and has a history of reviewing businesses on Yelp.
Instead of sending most clients to Yelp, you’re going to put a Yelp badge on your website Homepage.
The badge alerts customers and clients that they can leave a review.
Here’s where you go on your Yelp Business page to get your badge.
If you don’t have a Yelp Business page, go here.
If you ran a Groupon you’re going to put a link to your reviews on your website, like we did on our homepage.
You can also pull a couple of testimonials from your online reviews and put them on your website.
So, in between disinfecting and changing your mask ask for reviews to keep that phone ringing during this massage reopening.
And, yes, this is part of ramping up to raise our prices.
Let’s give that another month or two. In the interim, we have some more things to do to lock in more customers during this particular reopening phase.
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