A FORMER police inspector turned entrepreneur from Ross-on-Wye is helping other businesses show their personalities with a novel reviews wid­get.

Martin Firman says bespoke invention Review Biz provides ‘the most effective marketing SMEs can do,’ due to its focus on their own individual brand.

Martin launched Review Biz in 2015 after realising that larger review websites concentrate too much on their own brand, rather than the client’s, and that the drive to generate hundreds of reviews doesn’t work for many local enterprises.

Martin, who served in the Bedfordshire police force before switching to the corporate world 20 years ago, said: “These days, the usual marketing blurb just isn’t enough. As well as reading what a company says about their product or service, we also want to know what their customers say. Customer reviews tell the real story and bring a brand to life.”

Review Biz invites customers to write reviews – which take one minute – and notifies the client when a review on their website goes live. Benefits for the client include a boost to search rankings, automated posts sent to Facebook and Twitter and the chance to get in touch with the customer, either online or in person, to say thank you or to discuss issues.

“The business has gone from strength-to-strength since we launched it 15 months ago, with clients telling us they love it as it quadruples the average number of reviews they get,” says Martin. “99.9 per cent of reviews are four or five star and we’ve had no inappropriate comments. The reviews are good for rankings and they demystify some businesses by showing the scope of what they do or simplifying something that a potential customer might have otherwise thought too techy.”