Sometimes the best approach to getting more reviews is simply asking for them when you’re interacting with customers face-to-face. However, before asking, you’ve got to provide excellent customer service and demonstrate a high level of care for your customers’ pets. You can do that by:

• Keeping owners in the loop about how their pet is doing
• Sending pet pictures throughout the day
• Maintaining a clean environment
• Making it easy to schedule drop-off and pick-up
• Providing plenty of activities for pets

Then you can ask pet parents for reviews as they come to pick up their pets. Handing them a card with instructions or having a QR code that goes directly to your reviews page makes it easy to do that. You can even offer a small discount on future services if they leave you a good review.

People love posts and stories about animals, especially their own. And they’ll want to gush about their pets’ experiences, particularly when they write reviews. Be intentional when building your social media presence by doing things like:

• Highlighting a pet of the week
• Showing off your facilities through videos or photos
• Spotlighting group photos of pets playing and socializing
• Sharing existing positive reviews and testimonials

People flock to social media to ask their friends and family for personal recommendations, and having an active social media presence helps increase your visibility—especially when people check out your page. Regularly posting and engaging with your audience will attract more attention to your services, which can subsequently lead to more positive experiences and reviews.

Make sure that you’re answering their questions, addressing any concerns and responding to every review that customers leave on your page. The more your audience sees you engaging and interacting with them, the more likely they are to leave you feedback, too.

Leveraging social proof is valuable for your page and shows that you value what customers have to say about your pet boarding or daycare business. It builds credibility, encourages others to share their thoughts, and even helps prospective customers make a buying decision.

Everybody texts—that’s what makes texting an effective and convenient way to reach customers. Its high open rate is a sure way to get your review requests seen almost immediately, but you’ve got to make sure that customers are opted in to receive texts from you first. You can do this by:

• Having them text a keyword to your business number
• Putting an SMS Chat widget on your homepage, which customers can use to start text conversations with you
• Asking customers to agree to receive texts via your contact and registration forms

Keep your texts brief and straight to the point—you’re working with a smaller character count, and you need to touch on all key points within one text. Pre-made text templates are helpful here so you don’t have to draft a message each time you send a review request. Try sending a text like:

Hi [Customer]! We’d love it if you could write a Google review to share your experience with us: [URL] Thanks for choosing [Your Business]!

In addition, a dynamic business texting software with review management capabilities can help you connect with your customers and manage reviews all in the same place.

Collaborating with local businesses to showcase your services helps leverage your customer base, boosts exposure and increases your chances of earning more online reviews. You have more opportunities to collect reviews when you have another business behind you.

The combined customer bases and referrals from both sides contribute to a collective, shared experience for everyone that they’ll want to talk about. You’ll also have more people to help you ask for reviews. As a pet boarding or daycare business, aim to collaborate with similar businesses such as:

• Veterinary clinics
• Pet supply stores
• Dog trainers
• Pet photographers
• Local rescues and shelters

Showcasing each other’s services helps demonstrate your value to both sets of customers, which can positively influence how people perceive your business. By building your pet business community, you help each other grow, and cut down on costs along the way.

Pet owners have to go to different places for different services, but if you create a bubble where they can get everything done at once, it’s a win for everyone. For example, partnering with a local dog trainer gives you an opportunity to host training sessions at your facility while people’s pets are staying with you.

Collaborating helps grow your customer base, giving you exposure to new customers while building on your existing reputation with current customers. Creating memorable, positive experiences like this is key to earning more reviews.

One of the most important things you can do as a business owner is to actively respond and engage with all reviews. Responsiveness shows transparency and it demonstrates that you value customer feedback, regardless of what they say. It also shows Google and other platforms how active you are, thus affecting your rankings. When responding to reviews, be sure to:

• Be empathetic and clear
• Express gratitude
• Use an appropriate tone
• Offer resolutions
• Note valid criticisms to further improve your services

Above everything, maintain a positive, professional decorum in your interactions. You’ll leave a lasting impression when customers see you’re focused on finding solutions. The more you monitor and respond to your reviews, the more customers will be encouraged to leave you feedback.

Jessica Ayre is a content marketing specialist at Text Request, a business texting solution. If your business wants to start texting with customers and earning high-quality reviews, Text Request can give you all the tools and resources you need to create a successful strategy. www.textrequest.com