Getting Customer Feedback Outside of Google My Business 

When it comes to customer feedback and reviews for local companies , Google My Business (GMB) is a major player. GMB is so big, in fact, some local business owners don’t seek out feedback from anywhere else.

If you’re one of these business owners, you might think you’re getting plenty of feedback on your business just from GM B – and maybe you are getting a lot of reviews . B ut are Google My Business reviews really telling you the whole story?

Naturally, part of getting feedback from your customers is identifying individual problems and trying to make them right. But the other – larger – part of customer feedback is using the information to make your business (and its interaction with customers) better. You need to know what’s making your customers complain, of course, but you also need to know what you’re doing right and what they’re happy about.

If you’re relying on Google My Business alone you could be missing important observations from your customers.

Here are some other channels you can use to get feedback from your customers.

While GMB is the giant among local review sites, there are two others that are just as well known. These are often called the “big 3,” that is Google My Business, along with Yelp and Facebook. Assuming the business has a presence on the platform, consumers can leave ratings and testimonials on each of these sites. Companies can also respond to feedback via the platform.

Remember, these platforms have the potential to reach many people in a very short amount of time, so monitoring your listing and responding to feedback (particularly negative) is important.

There are hundreds of industry-specific review platforms out there. Some are more popular than others, but all have at least some degree of customer traffic. In many ways, these platforms perform much like GMB or Yelp; customers leave a rating and testimonial and, in most cases, the company itself has the ability to respond as needed.

While the feedback from these sites may be very similar to that of the “big 3,” you may find the customers are a bit savvier and the feedback a bit more focused.

Examples of industry-specific platforms are Houzz or Angie’s List for contractors, HealthGrades for the medical industry, and OpenTable for restaurants.

If you’re interested staking your claim on one or more industry-specific review platforms, you can check out a long list of them here.

The BBB may seem a bit old school, but it’s still very much alive and kicking. And it’s still an important tool for consumers and businesses alike. Customer reviews through the BBB are typically a bit different than other review platforms. Feedback is generally longer and more detailed, spelling out the specifics of a transaction.

Whether the sentiment is positive or negative, BBB reviews usually offers a wealth of information into your customer’s interaction with you.

You don’t have to remain passive in your quest for feedback from your customers. There’s no need to sit back and hope someone leaves you a review. Get out there and invite them.

Use email marketing to invite your customers to leave feedback on one or more of your favorite review platforms. This common practice is a sure-fire way to get those review numbers up. Just be careful – It's not good business practice (and against most review platforms’ rules) to solicit feedback only from customer you know are happy. This is called r eview gating. In other words, if you invite the happy customer to leave feedback, you should invite the unhappy customer, too.

If you want to gather some non-public feedback from your customers you can use email marketing in a different way. Rather than inviting people to leave you a review, email them a survey instead.

There are lots of free, easy-to-use survey platforms out there that will allow you to customize your own questions and run reports on the responses. This kind of feedback-via-survey is especially helpful when you’re launching a new product or service or you’re trying to get responses from a very specific set of customers.

There’s no doubt, customer feedback and testimonials are an excellent way to gather information about how you can improve your business . But customer reviews are also an integral part of a successful business website.

Sharing reviews right there on your homepage allows customers to get third-party feedback without ever leaving your site. With tools like Locallogy’s Review Bui lder , you can funnel testimonials and star ratings from multiple review platforms directly into your site in a seamless format.