We all know recommendations are important for a business, but what people are more likely to leave recommendations? And what makes them more likely to leave one? A recent survey by Brightlocal.com set out to answer these questions.

Some Key Findings from the survey include:

• Restaurants, Doctors/Dentists and Garages and Car dealerships are the business types that people leave the most recommendations for
• Facebook is the 2nd most used way of recommending a business next to word of mouth
• The older crowd is more likely to recommend a business via word of mouth while the younger generations use online sources for recommendations – however the older crowd in general is more likely to recommend a business
• Women are more likely to recommend a business than men
• Over 50% of consumers surveyed would be more likely to recommend a business if they had a good special offer

So what does all this mean? If you want consumers to give you a review – and a good review at that – you’ll have to offer them some kind of value. For example you may benefit from running a special at your store and asking for recommendations during the time the promotion is running (remember directly incentivizing/paying some one for a review isn’t a good idea).

You could also try running a Facebook promotion – since Facebook is used the most for recommendations (next to word of mouth) you could get the consumer while they are already using the preferred platform for recommendations.

In the end it all boils down to having a happy customer because a happy customer equals a good recommendation – whether that be through word of mouth or online.