Earn the Right to ask for a Positive Review!
Positive reviews and referrals are like golden tickets to securing more business. I am an avid reader and reviewer on social media review sites because an organization's reputation is a often a significant factor in my decision to pursue one business over another when making. Most services that I have attained over the past several years are either a direct referral from my network or from strangers on social media.
I approach online reviews and experiences with caution and am as analytical of the reviewer as I am of their content itself. I try to filter those who set forth to cast a shadow on a business out of an unreasonable spite (often from a negative experience they caused themselves) but will skip over those without positive reviews in favor of those who have them. Many long-standing businesses with good reputations have none. I always wonder why people are less motivated to write about positive experiences than negative. I believe the truth is that anger is more motivational than gratitude.
In his book, Fanatical Prospecting (which you need to read), Jeb Blount explains that the "real secret to generating referrals is: Give a legendary customer experience. Ask." Nothing could be more true! If you provide such an experience, you have earned the right to ask for a referral or review and many people are happy to provide that for you - especially if you personalize it.
I've written before about Soil-Away in New Hampshire who absolutely provided a legendary experience to me, and whom I've used for additional services since. Something I noticed that they do very well is to send a personalized, sincere, hand-written thank you note after each experience and they ask customers to leave a review. I had already left one on Yelp! when the note arrived, but was happy to take a moment to share it on Facebook and Google as well, per their request. They earned that from me! And you know what? When I used them again, they took the same care to thank me (even sent me a coupon for a free appetizer at a local eatery - bonus) and earned an updated review of excellence.
This type of request is incredibly rare for me. I've only been asked for reviews a handful of times over the past decade but have written many, and would give more if asked because I want to support those who treat me well. I bet that the reason you aren't getting reviews and referrals is because you haven't asked.