90% of people do the same exact thing when looking for a business near them.

They go to Google and type in "gym near me" or "cycling studio Los Angeles" or "yoga instructor near me".

Whether they do that from their phone, tablet, desktop, or laptop, the results are the same. Google will display a few ads (which people quickly scroll past) then they show the local businesses near the searcher. 

No matter what kind of business you are running, these things should be considered. If your business does not show up in the preview box, or at least on the first page when someone selects "View all," then your business is losing customers and potential members every single day to your competitors who are higher up in the search results.

With a glance, you'll quickly notice something the gyms and fitness studios that appear at the top of the search results have in common. They all have tons of positive reviews. This is because Google takes into consideration a few metrics when ranking a local business of any kind, and one of those metrics is the quality of reviews.

Google cares A LOT about reviews!

Google wants to give its users the best possible answers to all their life's questions. Making recommendations for businesses near them is no exception. One way Google knows about the quality of your business is by analyzing what people are saying about you in your reviews. The more positive reviews you have the more Google trusts that you're a good business to show their users.

It's not only Google that strongly considers reviews when making decisions about a business.

In fact, 87% of people will try a local business based on their reviews alone.

Now that you know 90% of people will look for a gym or fitness studio near them on Google and that 87% of them will pick one to try based on their reviews, how confident are you that your Google reviews (and reviews on other websites) are doing a good job selling for you?

More goes into ranking your business profile on sites like Google, Yelp, and Facebook than just reviews, such as:

• How consistent your gym's information is across various websites
• When the last time you updated your information
• How complete are all of your profiles

But without getting tons of positive reviews it's very challenging to show up in more searches (without paying for ads) and even harder to get someone to give your gym or fitness studio a try.

How to Get More Gym Reviews

Now that we agree about how getting more reviews should be a top priority, let's talk about how you can get them!

As a gym operator, you have a few touch points with your members that would be natural for you to ask them to leave you a review online.

1. Upon them completing their first class. Once a new guest completes their first class with you their endorphins are pumping and they're feeling good! When they're getting ready to leave is the perfect time to ask them to provide you some feedback. Note: we suggest asking for "feedback" not for "reviews".
2. Upon them completing their free trial and signing up for the full membership. At this stage in the customer lifecycle, someone has decided that they like the service you provide and should be willing to vouch for you online.
3. Upon offering them a free beverage or giveaway. Nothing is wrong with incentivizing your guests or members to leave you feedback online.

How you ask your guest to leave you a review online is more important than when you ask it. If it takes more than a few seconds to perform the task your guests are far less likely to do it.

The best way to ask a guest to leave your business a review is by making it as easy as possible for them. Either text them a link to your review platform of choice or print out a QR code they can easily scan. 

We find that businesses who phrase the request as follows get the best results:

"Would you mind taking a second to let us know how we're doing? Feedback is very important to us. Thank you in advance for your help! https://servicegrade.co/sweat."

If you're going to ask all of your members and guests to leave you a review you need to be prepared to receive some negative ones. It's inevitable no matter how great your studio or instructors are. There are only two ways you can avoid receiving negative reviews:

1. Only ask people you are 100% certain will leave your business a positive review to do so. The issue with this method is that it will greatly cut down on the number of reviews you will get online, which is counterproductive. You need to get as many positive reviews as you possibly can and get more and more over time. Getting many then stopping is not good enough since your competitors will catch up, and Google looks at how recently your reviews were left when ranking you. If all of your reviews were made 6+ months ago you will start to lose your hard-earned rank authority.
2. Use a tool like Merchynt to make sure only your positive reviews get published online. Merchynt provides a link that can be easily added to your gym management system's communication tools, like fitDEGREE, so you can automatically ask your members and guests to leave you reviews at the best time and keep the negative ones offline.

Getting more positive reviews for your business doesn't have to be tough! If you want help finding ways to increase the number of reviews you're getting on Google and other popular search engines then schedule a free review consultation call at www.merchynt.com/fitdegree.

About Merchynt: Merchynt is a marketing software service that helps thousands of local businesses show up in more search results and get tons of 5-star reviews from their customers so they can grow their businesses without having to spend money on ads. Learn more at www.merchynt.com.