How To Get More Online Reviews – The Charity Method

We’re a culture that runs on online reviews.  Shoppers look for reviews whether they are buying a blender, building a house or getting a haircut.  Business reviews have become a democratic system that tells shoppers where to spend their money. 

As a business owner, you can’t afford to not be proactive about collecting reviews for two reasons:

1. Your competitors are likely collecting reviews.
2. Consumers are 4x as likely to leave a review about a negative experience as they are a positive one.  Proactively collecting positive reviews will eliminate the impact if you do happen to receive a negative review.

Whether you are a business owner, a marketing consultant or a freelancer, the Charity Method for collecting reviews is a proven process for generating hundreds of reviews for your business or the business you are working for.

Let’s get started!

Setup Your Business Profiles

Before we can begin putting the Charity Method to use, we have to get our business profiles setup and properly configured.  You’ll want to setup at least five profiles at a minimum.  Here is a list of great online review sites, many in specific niches for you to explore:

General Review Sites

• Facebook
• Google Business
• Yelp
• Better Business Bureau
• Yellow Pages
• Citysearch
• Angie’s List
• Foursquare
• TripAdvisor

Real Estate Review Sites

• Zillow
• Trulia
• Realtor.com

Contractor Review Site

• Houzz

Restaurant Review Site

• Zomato

Lawyer Review Site

• Avvo

Medical Review Sites

• Rate MDs
• Vitals
• HealthGrades

Wedding & Event Review Sites

• The Knot
• Wedding Wire

Begin by setting up some of the essential profiles including Google, Yelp & Facebook and definitely setup any niche sites that your business falls into.

Setup Arrivala Account

Now that we have our review profiles setup and ready to start accepting feedback, it’s time to setup the account that powers the Charity Method.  Arrivala is (currently) the only system I am aware of that automates charitable donations in exchange for reviews of your business.  There will likely be others that pop-up as it is such as great philosophy or you can, of course, handle the donations manually but for this articles purpose, we’re going to use Arrivala.

Arrivala’s cost is very affordable at $29.99/month and includes awesome features that power the collection of your reviews.  It will automatically follow-up with past clients/customers by email or text message.  It shows detailed reports of your collection efforts and even supports multiple locations and/or salespeople.  On top of all that, it has built-in charitable donations.

How do the charitable donations work?

It’s pretty simple, people write you reviews and Arrivala automatically debits your charity balance and sends it to the appropriate charity on your behalf. 

Arrivala walks you through the process of adding your review profiles to your Arrivala account and setting up the charity settings.  Take your time with the setup process and make sure you cross off all of the ‘To Do’ items.  Once you feel your account is ready to go, I would recommend scheduling a review request to yourself.  That way, you see how the requests look for your clients and you can fix any imperfections before you start sending them out to the masses.  Try scheduling two requests, one by email and one by text message and determine which type your customer would prefer.

Start Sending Review Requests

Now that our account is ready to go, it’s time to start sending review requests.  Arrivala has a nice bulk import feature built in.  If you already have a mailing list available of past customers, import it in and send out a mass review request.  If you’re a new business or don’t have a past customer list, then enter what you have available.

Arrivala’s automated processes make it hands-free once setup and review requests have been initiated.  As time goes by, you’ll be able to filter who you have and have not received reviews from.  If time permits, follow up manually with individuals who haven’t submitted a review.  Sometimes a personal message is what’s really needed to get that person to commit a few minutes of their time. 

Make It A Habitual Process

You’ve setup your Arrivala account, sent some review requests and got some pretty great reviews, congrats!  Don’t stop there.  There is a bit difference between 30 reviews and 300 reviews both in customers eyes and search engine ranking effect.  Make it a habitual process to add new clients & customers to Arrivala.  Perhaps this is an every Monday morning process or 1st of the month process if you are a business with less daily customers.

In Conclusion

In today’s culture, the importance of reviews cannot be understated.  Over 90% of customers use reviews in their day-to-day life.  You need them to succeed now and into the future.  Don’t get caught behind your competitions and be stuck playing catch-up.  Start using the Charity Method and be proactive about your review collection using Arrivala Business Reviews & Reputation Management system.