Ever wonder how you could make it easier for your customers to leave a review? If you’re interested in providing a link on a website or in an email that sends the customer directly to leave a review your Google+ profile, follow the steps below. In summary you will do the following:

  1. Go to Google Local Search: https://plus.google.com/u/0/local
  2. Find and go to your profile page and go to the About page.
  3. Embed the link on your site, or in an email request.

Users have to be logged into your account before they can leave a review. So when they follow the link they will either be asked to login or they will be taken directly to the page with a review dialog box.

For instance, if you want to leave a review for the ThreeFortyNine coworking space

Step 1: Go to Google Local Search

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Step 2: Find the Profile

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When the listings come up, click on the business name.

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Step 3: Copy the URL

Copy the Google Local profile page url, https://plus.google.com/107775422523824459466/about.

Note: you will have to log in to get to this step. Don’t worry, the URL is the same even after you have logged in.

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Step 4: Send the URL to your customers

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In order to link a word to a URL in email (in GMail), the following steps must be taken:

a.) Select “Compose”

b.) At the bottom of the composition box, hover over the “+”, will see a chain icon (highlighted below):

GMAIL SNIPPING 1

c.) Select the chain, this will lead to the following box:

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d.) Enter “review” into “text to display”, and the desired web address into “Web address”

e.) Hit “OK” and the word is now linked to the required URL (this helps to stop posting long links in emails)

We encourage you to think about when in your business process it makes sense to request a review. It is important to request a review in a timely manner. If you own a store, ask them after they have made a purchase in the store on a postcard or asking if you can send them an email. If you provide a service, ask them after the project is complete or after a major milestone. For example, if you are a realtor, you might request a review when their offer has been accepted or when the house closes.

Mark van Berkel is Founder and President of Hunch Manifest Inc. While managing business operations he also leads the team in designing semantic technology to provide personalized online presence and reputation management services. Prior to forming the company, he was consultant in enterprise software projects to companies including Panasonic, Shell, and General Electric and was an Architect for a world leading human capital management software-as-a-service. Mark holds a Bachelor of Information Systems from StFX University and did his graduate studies at University of Toronto, getting a MEng Industrial Information Engineering and an MBA, Strategy and Innovation from the Rotman School of Management. In 2006 he published a 170 page report as a researcher at the Semantic Technologies Lab at the University of Toronto and built a semantic technology prototype for SAP Research Labs. Connect with Mark on LinkedIn or Twitter. Mark is also certified in Google Analytics.