Loyal followers of Cariad Marketing will know that we love Google My Business (GMB). Not only is it a place to make your business stand out on page 1 of Google, but because it’s a Google platform they love it too! Which means that if you give it some TLC, they will pay you back by being favourable to your website in the rankings.
One of the great things about GMB, is that your potential customers are able to see all of the reviews that have been left by your happy (and sometimes not so happy) customers. Google then generally takes around 1-3 working days to review the comment for any nasties, then your business will receive a notification that it’s been received. Next, you are given the opportunity to respond (tip – it is important to acknowledge every review you get, good or bad as ignoring any is bad practice – if it’s an unfavourable review, try your best to take the matter offline with an offer of a phone call as this is likely to be well received by an aggrieved customer).
This is the normal process. However, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have been turned completely upside down. Even the mighty Google was not exempt from this. And this is the reason why your new reviews may not be appearing as you expect.
What happened?
Google’s GMB review process has been disrupted by the pandemic, and like most businesses, Google is working with limited staff, meaning they are delayed in carrying out the normal review checks before they are posted. According to Google, “new reviews, review replies, and new Q&A will be unavailable at this time”.
Frustrating isn’t it? As a business you have worked hard to encourage your loyal customers to leave you a review on Google, and quite rightly. These are the best “snap shot” of your business advocate your brand in the best possible way.
Fear not, they will return. Some of you may have noticed that the functionality has started to resume, but for many, Google will be rolling these back out depending on the service offering, or country you are in and things will slowly get back to normal. If you are one of the unlucky few who are still waiting, here’s a tip to ensure that you get the great reviews you deserve, and where people can see them.
Use Email regularly
In most cases, email addresses are given out quite readily, either at point of sale (instead of a paper receipt), or as a requirement for an online order. Utilise the data and follow up the order with a request to leave a review on another platform, such as Facebook or an industry specific platform (Trust Pilot, Checkatrade, Open Table, TripAdvisor etc). If you’ve done a great job, don’t let this go to waste!
