For some years now I have held the opinion that the world of small/micro businesses is, in professional terms one of the last bastions of decent human values and endeavour. The words respect, honesty, integrity, caring, reliability, trust and giving spring to mind. The terms going the extra mile, putting things right quickly and efficiently if they go wrong are also very relevant.

These are the things that you do naturally because that is who you are, the things that create huge amounts of good will with your customers/clients as well as other business owners you spend time with and know.

Your values and beliefs are what attract people to you and your business and they certainly a prerequisite before anyone will refer or indeed recommend you to others. In other words that best
of all marketing routes, namely word of mouth.

Now let’s be clear to earn that good will you have worked hard and stuck to your values because that what decent people do, so quite frankly you deserve any benefit that genuinely be derived from it.

So if you accept word of mouth is your most effective route to market, how can you maximise that on behalf of your business, how can you maximise that word of mouth effect? Well of course the answer is to make full and proper use of the feedback you get from your clients/customers in the form of reviews.

The first thing to do is to in fact to ask for that feedback, so many business owners simply don’t do that, it should in fact be an integral part of your day to day activity and marketing. Thereafter you need to manage and promote this precious material so that you can maximise the benefits to your business.

Wishing you a successful year.

The Review Biz Team