Luck is engineered.  Whether you have mostly bad luck or mostly good luck depends on your foresight.  That applies to online reviews, which a business needs to succeed, especially if it’s “local.”  Your foresight influences everything, including how many people review you, how high your ratings are, how persuasive your reviews are, and how many good new customers your reviews and rankings produce.

Your ability to haul in the glowing reviews depends on what you know before you ask.  Why?  Because that influences whom you ask, when you ask, what you ask, and how you ask.  It’s like the Japanese principle of nemawashi.

Can you just wing it?  Sure, and that may work out fine.  Or your requests will make unhappy customers more likely to tell the world, or rub happy customers the wrong way, or produce a bumper crop of generic and mediocre reviews, or take too much of your time, or all of the above.  Too much planning isn’t sustainable, but too much spontaneity can result in a “No Regerts” tattoo on your business.

Below are 20 points I suggest you try to find out before you nudge a customer to review you on Google Maps or anywhere else.  These nuggets are especially helpful if you ask by email, but they’re also applicable to in-person, phone, or text requests, and to ORM software.

Do you need to know all 20 points?  Of course not, and in many cases you probably can’t determine all of them.  All I’m saying is that the more of the 20 questions you can scope out before asking someone for a review, the better.  Probably 5-10 of the points you’ll know off the top of your head or are obvious.  The other good news is that in doing a couple minutes of homework you’ll probably uncover some problems affecting your local SEO, some missed opportunities, and ways to make more your customers happier than ever.

See how many of these 20 questions you can answer about a given customer before you ask for a review:

1. Is this the right customer? Sometimes one spouse or family member was the point of contact or decision-maker or payer.  Other times you’ve got a two-headed customer.  In either case, ask the person who would expect to be asked.

2. Did this customer review you already?  If so, thank them for that review and maybe ask if they’d be willing to copy and paste that same review onto another review site.

3. Are you sure they didn’t already try to review you and run into problems?  Like, “I posted you a review, but then it didn’t show up on Google Maps.”  If this is their second whack at the piñata, thank them for the effort so far, and focus on troubleshooting.

4. CAN they do it?  For instance, if your Google reviews have been locked or frozen, or if your Google Business Profile page is suspended, or if your GBP page is very hard to pull up, then you’ll waste your customer’s time and may sour the relationship.  Just do a dry run.

5. Did they already offer to review you, or commit otherwise to doing so?  If so, acknowledge the offer and make your request more of a reminder or a “Yes, please” than an out-of-the-blue ask.

6. How happy is the customer with your business?  Maybe this is when you find out, but it’s best if you’ve gauged a customer’s satisfaction before you ask for a review, for obvious reasons.

7. When did they work with you?  You don’t need to know the day, but you should know the year.  If there’s a chance they’ve forgotten you in some way, your request may get more complicated, because you’ll probably need to refresh yourself on some things, refresh your customer on others, and re-determine how happy he or she is, now that your work is way in the rearview.  A 5-star review with no details isn’t much help to you.

8. Is it a longtime or recurring customer?  If so, you need to acknowledge that, maybe thank the customer for his or her loyalty, and maybe encourage some description of why this customer has stuck with you.  A review from one of your faithful tends to be more detailed and powerful than one from a nibbler.

9. Which location did they visit or work with?  If you’re multi-location, steer customers toward the specific location they interacted with, or to the one that’s closest to them.  When you don’t know, take a guess and give customers instructions specific to one location.  That’s better than for them to flounder, not know which page they’re supposed to review, and not review you anywhere.  Give them a trail of breadcrumbs.

10. What service or product did they get?  If appropriate, allude to it in your request.  Not only will your request seem more personalized and thought-out, but it’s also an opportunity to ask them to weigh in on specific aspects of your service or product.  This is the best way to get some keywords in there.

11. What person on your team have they worked with or been in contact with?  That person alone could gain or cost you several stars.  You might say, “What did you like most about Steve’s work?” or “Please describe your experience with Dr. Pepper” or “Please let me or Joan know if you had any issues, have any questions or concerns, etc.”

12. Which person on the team (e.g. technician, doctor, lawyer, agent, etc.) did this customer work with?  Similar point to #8, above.  If this person has gotten a lot of shaky reviews for whatever reasons, either reconsider asking for a review now, or at least gauge how the customer is doing.

13. Is the customer a phone person?  That can influence not only how best to ask for the review (in-person, call, text, or email), but also any instructions you give on exactly how to review you (like whether they should use the app or look for your text).

14. How concerned are they about privacy, as far as you know?  If you think they’re squeamish, don’t nudge them toward Google Maps or Yelp or even Facebook.  Consider the BBB or an industry-focused site, like HealthGrades or Avvo, where people can write anonymous reviews.  It’s better than nothing.

15. Do they have a Google account?  You know they do if you see a Gmail address, but even if they don’t, they still probably have one.  Either way, provide some quick instructions on how to set up a Google account (if they’re willing), and be prepared to nudge them toward a non-Google site if the signup process becomes onerous.

16. Are they on Yelp?  If so, you know what to do, especially if they’re “Elite.”

17. Do you think they like to take photos?  If so, and if appropriate, encourage a photo or two with their review.

18. Do they have a history of harsh reviews?  You probably won’t know unless you’ve seen their Local Guide profile or Yelp profile or Facebook page.  But if you can peek at any of those, just make sure this customer isn’t a piranha.

19. Do they have a frame of reference, like having worked with a competitor?  You want favorable comparisons.  Also, a more-experienced customer is more likely to touch on points other people care about, and more likely to weave in relevant search terms along the way.

20. Is their praise any good?   Think twice about asking for a review that you just know will sound lukewarm at best.  Some people’s compliments are so faint or left-handed that you forget what an insult is.  “He’s all right” can mean very different things, depending on whom it’s from. 

If all of those questions sound like a hassle, that’s because they are.  But what’s the alternative?

a) No strategy or no prep.  You’re eating fugu at a different restaurant every day.

b) A ham-handed strategy that irritates would-be reviewers – both the happies and the unhappies – and that you’ll need to remedy later anyway.

c) The nagging feeling that you’ve left happy customers in the woodwork and money on the table.

The more you know about your customers, the luckier you’ll get, and the stronger your reviews will be.  You’ll hit the target more often with “ready, aim, fire” than with “ready, fire, aim.”  When you know your stuff, you go in cool and confident and get it done.

What’s your approach?  What intel have you found to be critical, or just helpful, before nudging a customer to review your business?  Any intel you don’t bother with, because it seems not to matter?  Leave a comment!