Today, millions of consumers rely on reviews to determine what kinds of businesses they want to patronize. If you own a company that doesn’t have a Yelp or a Google review to its name, you might be missing out on many prospective customers.
It’s well-documented that people rely on online reviews to see if a business is trustworthy.
Studies have shown that customers are 61% more likely to buy from a site that has positive reviews and/or ratings from customers. That means if your business isn’t getting reviews, you’re not growing as much as you should be.
Even if your business does a better job than your competitors, it doesn’t matter if people don’t know it. Here are some tips for asking for reviews from your customers while remaining professional.
Include a Prompt After a Product or Service is Provided
The best way to ask for a review is to include a prompt after a new customer patronizes your business. It doesn’t matter if they ordered a paintbrush from your online store or just had you fill out their taxes.
If you provided them with a product or service, then you probably have some kind of contact information for them – especially if the transaction occurred online.
After confirming their payment, you can include a follow-up message or review request email that links them to a review page. Invite them to leave their thoughts on how the process went.
This page could be as simple as a clickable thumbs up or thumbs down to as complicated as a star rating system with an optional textbox for people to leave their thoughts in detail.
Keep Your Review Request Simple
Whenever you ask for a review from a client or customer, you want to use simple language that gets your message across. Anything too wordy might be skipped over by someone with a poor attention span or general unwillingness to read, even if they are a happy customer.
Avoid paragraphs, exotic words that aren’t often found in your average vocabulary, and long sentences. In addition to being easier to understand, studies have shown that plain language is viewed as more ethical and trustworthy by most consumers.
Use Easily Identifiable Visual Aids
When in doubt, spell out instructions on leaving a review as concisely and thoroughly as possible. If your customers get confused halfway through the process, they’re much more likely just to give up the whole review.
To make sure that doesn’t happen, you can include clear visual instructions on how they can leave a review or rating.
A simple diagram can work wonders for many who might have trouble with written instructions. Over 65% of people are visual learners, so including diagrams and helpful illustrations can be a much clearer guide than a detailed paragraph.
Show Reviewers You Listen
Knowing that the business owner will see what they have to say can encourage people to leave a review of a business.
People want to know that their customer feedback is being heard, so responding to individual online reviews not only follows best practices but shows excellent customer service.
If it’s a positive review, you can simply thank them for their patronage and remark that you’re happy they had a positive customer experience.
If it’s a negative review, you want to assure people that you have listened to the customer feedback and will incorporate it. Your response rate, whether a small business or a large corporation, needs to be high.
Personalize Your Review Request
No one likes mass emails that feel like they could have been sent to anybody. If you want to pique your customer’s interest, you should personalize your communications with them.
A simple “Hey Joe” can feel much friendlier than “Dear Valued Customer,” so make sure your review request email, phone call, or text message relays a friendly yet professional greeting.
Your message can also cite their recent experience with your company. If they paid to have their upholstery redone in their car, then ask how it’s holding up and if they like the fabric.
The more personalized your message, the more effort you display when reaching out to individual customers. This might make them more inclined to write a review, give your business a rating, or become a repeat customer!
What Are Other Benefits of Customer Reviews?
Your business having publicly-viewable customer reviews can do a lot of good. Firstly, it demonstrates to your potential clientele that you’re a company that cares about what people have to say.
It also shows that you’re a real company that has done actual business with people, not just some scam.
Online reviews can also boost your company’s SEO. When people in your area look up a product or service that you provide, you want your company to come up in the search results.
Google and other search engines will rank websites that utilize genuine, user-generated user reviews more favourably. Receiving a Google or a Yelp review also plays a significant role in SEO.
The sooner your page comes up in the search results, the more people you’ll have clicking on it. This means more customers and more growth for your company.
Customer reviews can also give you valued feedback on improving your business, whether this comes in the form of positive feedback or negative feedback.
While you might think you have everything figured out when it comes to your products or services, this isn’t always the case.
customer review might be able to clue you in on how to streamline the purchasing process, more efficiently run your store, or better market yourself.
Final Thoughts: Should I Ask For a Review as a Business?
While an online review request may seem pushy or unnecessary, reviews are an important way to grow your business – and there are plenty of ways to ask for a review that leaves your customers wanting to do so!
A great review from a satisfied customer is the perfect way to bring in new business, while a bad review will help a company realize where it needs to improve.
Whether you ask for a review through social media, text message, or a review request email, always appreciate the value of customer feedback on a review platform.
Do you need more positive reviews for your business? We’d be happy to help! Click here to learn more about Review Rabbit’s review generation services, and sign up today!