How Customers Can Leave Your Carlsbad Business A Google Review…From A Mobile Phone

 
Why does Google make it so difficult for incredibly happy customers to leave a review of their favorite local businesses on a mobile device?

Who knows, we could start asking all sorts of questions about why reviews went from gold stars to Zagat reviews, and back to gold stars again.

Or we could ponder the often times deemed duplicitous – some might say draconian – advertising policies of the world’s most popular search engine.

But…that would be a waste of time…

Speaking of which, there’s no telling why Google makes it so difficult for ecstatic customers to show their favorite Carlsbad businesses some social love, so let’s not concern ourselves with the why, let’s just focus on the how.

WARNING: Google’s method of capturing the mobile review from users on the go may very well change for the better, let’s hope so. Soon!

But until then, here is how customers can review your Carlsbad business from their mobile phones.

Google Reviews for Carlsbad Businesses: Demented & Sad, But Mobile

 
There are basically (at the time of publishing this blog post) 2 ways in which happy customers can review your business from the convenience of their mobile phones:

1. By downloading the Google Maps App from iTunes or Google Play.
2. By using their mobile browser (internet) to access your Google+ Local (sorry, Google My Business) page.

We’re betting Google makes this painstakingly disruptive mobile review process easier for consumers in the coming months, but for now let’s explore the steps involved in each of these methods.

Mobile Reviews for Carlsbad Businesses via the Google Maps App

 
This is by far the easier, and most well-known option for customers to lend some social proof to their chosen local businesses.

Here is the step by step breakdown I first wrote about here – which was directly learned courtesy of Jessie Low from Whitespark.ca – a local seo think tank consortium of gurus up in the Great White North. There’s no shame in our game, copying genius works just fine for blog posts & assembly lines.

1. If customers don’t already have the Google Maps app installed on their device, they’ll need to first go to the App Store to download and install the “Google Maps” app (Android users already have this app by default).
2. Patients will then need to login to their Google+ profile. If they don’t have a Google+ page, they will have to sign up.
3. Then they can FINALLY get down to the business of getting a review down for your Carlsbad business by opening said Google Maps App on their phone or tablet.

From here it’s just a hop skip and a jump for customers on the go to leave their favorite local business a review from their mobile device – via Google Maps.

Once in their Google Maps app they will need to:

1. Enter your business name & city.
2. Then select your business page (They can also use their current location to find a business listing if they still at your business location while leaving the review).
3. Then scroll down and click on the “Rate and Review” section.
4. Then write a review about their exceptional experience, the highly attentive & personal staff, the modern decor, the state of the art technology, the great beer, creature comforts, and so on and so on and so on…
5. And last but certainly not least, click on the “Publish” button.

REMEMBER: users must first have Google Maps App installed, then MUST login to Google+ before searching out your business. Here’s Whitespark’s video illustrating how the process works in the Google Maps App:
 

 
Now behind door #2…

Mobile Reviews for Carlsbad Businesses via a Mobile Browser

 
This hack comes to us courtesy of another local seo authority located in Upstate NY, Mike Blumenthal.

This one might strike a nerve with the happy-go-lucky customer and turn them into a spitting cursing vexingly uncooperative reviewers, and the fault lies with Google – not your business…unless of course you have 16 duplicate listings for your single location.

With this “mobile browser” method, in order to write a review of their favorite business, customers will first require the direct link to your Google My Business page from the local search results for your business (ie. business name “phone number + “city, state/province).

You see, Google made it impossible to simply just link to your specific G+ listing from a mobile device.

Instead, your formerly not so frustrated customer happy to amplify your digital word of mouth will be redirected from their wrong turn at Albuquerque to no review possible wasteland because that link to your Google My Business page will not have the review option available.

BUT…herein lies the workaround; if you provide patients with the CORRECT link – accessed from a DESKTOP SEARCH – that search result will show the oh so important the little pencil icon that works on a mobile device.
 

 
To get the link to your verified & properly categorized, citationally consistent Google My Business page you will have to perform the local search on your desktop or laptop. It is not currently possible to get these results via your mobile browser.
 

 
REMEMBER: you will first need to search out your Google My Business page on a desktop or laptop computer to grab the necessary link making it possible for customers to leave your business a review from their mobile device.

Here is how this incredibly time-wasting yet integral step is accomplished:

1. Go to https://plus.google.com/local
2. Search for your business Google My Business page (the good one if you have dupes)
3. Copy that link (and keep it somewhere convenient for future dissemination).

Copy that link from your (desktop or laptop) browser bar. This is the link you’ll send to customers – or make it available inside your location – in order for them to leave you a review directly from their mobile device.

Here’s what your customers gracious enough to still want to leave you the review will need to do:

1. Open their mobile browser and login to their Google account (If the customer doesn’t sign in until after they click the link you provided they will be redirected to the G+ App or page – no man’s land with no review or “pencil icon” – the wrong turn at Albuquerque).
2. Go to the Google My Business link that you have given them (from your desktop/laptop search – mentioned above)
3. Click on the “Pencil icon”
4. And FINALLY it’s just a matter of your incredibly loyal, especially patient customer taking some time to rate, review & & publish their POV!

There’s 2 Ways Carlsbad Businesses Can Get More Google Reviews From Mobile Devices

 
Sounds simple enough right?

Yeah, if that sounds good to you there is surely some Pennysaver or yellow pages rep out there eager to help your business acquire more new customers…

But if that doesn’t sound so convenient, click the image below to grab your – 100% FREE & 100% CUSTOM Google Review Display Toolkit.