Customer reviews mean great potential for your business – and this fact is strongly confirmed by different surveys. In this article, we’d like to show you the easiest and most applicable best practices for how you can get more customer reviews.
Should I reward customers to get more reviews?
According to PeopleClaim, 70% of customers read online reviews before buying anything. Therefore, we suggest that you encourage your customers to leave reviews but not directly reward customers. You should use indirect ways. For example, we do not recommend offering a discount before they left a review. This can be done easily using Wiremo Triggers. It’s not only attracting untrustworthy reviewers but also illegal in many Western countries. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a guideline regarding Truth in Advertising, which says that any company must disclose if they have compensated their customers for giving online testimonials or endorsements in any way.
There are smarter options to reward your customers to get more reviews. One great idea is to run a monthly prize for all customers who leave a review. You don’t need to post it on your website, because of the possible detrimental effects. You’d be better off mentioning this opportunity in your emails.
Ask, ask, ask!
If you want to get more customer reviews, then it should be obvious that you need to ask for it. However, most companies miss out on this opportunity. Most people will never leave feedback on your website by themselves. With the help of software tools, such as Wiremo Campaigns, you can send out requests for reviews.
According to Robert Cialdini’s research, you greatly increase the odds of getting people to help you when you ask them for a favor. In the study, compliance was boosted by 77.3 % when the researchers asked random people to complete a survey vs not asking the helpful question first.
Automate everything
Reputation marketing software helps you automate the whole process. Nowadays, these tools are able to send out emails automatically to your recent customers, who can then provide you their feedback, which appears on your website quickly. Besides other convenient services, you can tap into the automated processes any time, such as if you want to hide some customer reviews. Some business types, such as ecommerce stores or local businesses, almost wouldn’t be able to exist without these automation software toolkits. Just imagine handling thousands of testimonials and ratings manually!
After getting it, share it!
Social media has a smashing power these days, and you should be aware of it. It’s a great tactic, to promote your happy customer experiences on all your social media channels, even if you aren’t using Facebook ads currently. People tend to like your page, or follow your business on Twitter, when they see how you take care of your customers, and they can become customers much easier if they start as your followers.
Important note: You should never brag about your satisfied customers, because it can backfire, dragging down your reputation.
Make it easy
If it’s not easy to leave a testimonial on your website, no one will do it, unless someone has a bad experience with your product or service. That’s why you should make it easy and put direct links to your review profiles in multiple places: your website, newsletters, and follow-up emails. Or you can use Wiremo to make things easier.
As you can see, there are several tricks to get more customer reviews. Amongst the first steps, you should simplify the whole process by including automation. Also, you should reward your customers carefully, keeping the customer’s journey in your head. We also recommend that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for reviews and share them afterward using social media.
