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If there’s one thing that brings us together during these troubled times, it’s that we all Google stuff. As the ancients wisely said, “Google is the great equalizer.”
Okay, maybe nobody ever said that, but Google plays a huge role in most of our daily lives. And as you’re out Googling away looking for a service or product you want, some results come up with star ratings. We don’t need to tell you that 5 stars are better than 1, but you might not know that Google’s method of calculating those star ratings recently changed. How could those changes impact your business?
Why Star Ratings Matter
Good reviews and ratings help you to build trust with potential customers. For any of those customers who find you via Google, your Google star rating will be their first impression of you. And you know that old saying about Google star ratings and first impressions— a 1-star rating means you’ll never get a second chance to land that customer again. (Or something like that.) So yeah, those ratings are kind of a big deal.
What’s Changed
The biggest ratings change is that up until recently, Google used the Bayesian average to calculate your star rating. Without getting too deep into boring math stuff, this system essentially made educated guesses about what your average might be if you had more star ratings. This often left people with fewer than 10 ratings feeling more than slightly confused about their average.
Google is now using a basic arithmetic averaging system. This means they just add up your total number of stars and divide that by the number of reviews you have. Also, star ratings are now displayed after a single review—before, Google required you to have at least 5 reviews before granting you any rating.
How to Win at the Google Star Game
By reducing the number of reviews you need to get noticed, Google is helping out those who are just getting started building their star collection. Right? Well, sort of. As long as your lone review isn’t a bad one, especially seeing as that’s the only reference point strangers on Google have for your business.
The longer you wait to request a review, the less likely you are to get one.
What all of this means to you is that it’s more important than ever to get those 5 star reviews rolling in, stat. Here’s how to get more reviews and (hopefully) increase your star rating:
- Make it easy to leave reviews. For whatever reason, the people who are more likely to leave a review are the ones who want to complain. No matter how many happy customers you have, most will never leave you a positive review unless you make it ridiculously easy to do so. How? Post clear instructions for how to check in and leave a review at your office. Maybe give folks a nifty business card with a link to your rating page, send a follow up email or deliver a singing telegram to their place of work.
- Reward your reviewers. Consider offering some kind of incentive to those who leave reviews. You could enter their names into a drawing for a new pair of socks or a yacht, or maybe something in between. Just be sure to make your terms clear and deliver on your promises. And also make sure your customers understand that they are being thanked for posting honest reviews, not being bribed to post unmerited 5-star reviews. Otherwise you’ll be slipping into the ugly territory of questionable ethics and risking your online reputation in the process.
The good news about all this star rating stuff is that the day-to-day of how your business doesn’t need to change a bit. Just keep doing what you’re doing, which hopefully includes prioritizing outstanding customer service above all else. If you aren’t giving a 5-star worthy experience, no amount of strategizing about online reviews is going to save you.
