Want to Help Local Businesses in Lafayette? Try This Totally Free Idea
(KPEL-FM) - Recently I took my wife, adult children and their significant others to have a dinner in Lafayette to celebrate some life events that all fell around the same time. The day prior my wife sent me a video of some ladies on Facebook who were giving their review of a new restaurant in town. Since this isn't a paid article, I can only say they sold noodles and dumplings at their establishment.
The video itself was enough motivation to try something new, and the experience we had was one of the best dining experiences we've had as a family in some time. From the service to the quality of the food, the ambience, the entire evening was one for our record books.
It was at the end of our dining experience that our waiter asked a favor. He said something along the lines of, If you open your phones and write a review, I can get you a little dessert for each of you. That's all it took for the entire table. We each grabbed our phones and immediately started typing out our experience with an honest, timely review. After displaying our phones to the waiter, he returned with a dessert for each of us (which was also delicious).
At that moment I realized that this was the first time I (or anyone else at our table) took the time to review any business we had the opportunity to encounter. The concept of asking for a review is something that plenty of local businesses could benefit from, with or without the dessert.
Why Google Reviews are Important to Locally-Owned Businesses
If you are confident in your establishment, from the front of house to the quality of the product you're serving, requesting an honest Google review should be part of your routine, especially if you're a new business. Even old businesses can benefit from reviews. It's a great way to be rated when people are searching for something, and also a great way to catch problems and address them, in the public eye, showing that you appreciate their observations.
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In this digital age, it's a given that people are finding your business via search results, social media recommendations and digital marketing. If your business doesn't have a quality website providing essential information such as hours of operation, menus, and other vital information that is easy to view, at least having some sort of social media presence with that information can help.
How to Improve Your Locally-Owned Business Digital Footprint
Things like Google Business Profile can be a great tool to get your business in front of customers searching for what you offer. Then, when your customer is about to receive their bill, asking them to submit a review can help build your brand reputation, or even fix issues with problems you weren't aware existed...because no one took the time to say anything.
As is other areas in life, If you don't ask, you won't get. And, if you're a customer that had a positive or negative experience at (especially) a locally-owned business, your free support by writing a review will help those businesses as well.