Every business strives for a strong portfolio of customer reviews. Helpful in attracting new clientele and sustaining the success of your company in a competitive market, attaining both positive and negative feedback is a key component in the modern business world. But how do you encourage customers to provide reviews in the first place? Think of it as just another strand in your customer outreach planning — consider an action plan through face-to-face interaction, email, social network communications, and telephone conversations. While consumers will head straight for your contact details if something goes wrong and they wish to file a complaint, it’s true that many will not leave a review unless asked or incentivised.
There are a few important techniques to remember when reaching out for reviews, so we’ve rounded up some pointers to get you started.
How to Ask For a Review in Person
The idea of asking for a review in person really goes back to the idea of practising the oldest tricks in the book. Going back to the failsafe ‘art of conversation’ and building a rapport with your customers through strong service-based interaction will result in successful transactions and can lead to fruitful reviews.
If you’re trading in a physical, bricks-and-mortar environment, consider the discussion you might have just after a sale when your satisfied customer is genuinely aware that you have provided excellent service in assisting them with their needs. There is no harm in taking that moment to politely suggest that they solidify their thoughts into a tangible review. For example, if a customer makes a remark about something positive, point him towards a platform where they’re able to further elaborate on their views. Let them know that their opinion will assist future customers. If a consumer is genuinely pleased by the service you’ve provided them, they’re likely to leave a well-thought review.
Asking for Reviews Over Email
Email communication is a tricky subject to get right in any area of business — whether the motive is to promote a new product, invite people to an event, or ask people to provide an online review.
The best practice is to ensure the email is as personal as possible. Using real names rather than company names (where appropriate) can be a good place to start. Similarly, using a plain-text email over an HTML email looks more personal. It doesn’t appear to have been reused and repeated.
Keeping the body of the email short and concise with a clear call to action is always best. Experimenting with the copy and subject line is a good strategy that allows you to analyse the language customers respond to best. Depending on your brand, emails with an emoji or light-hearted statement in the subject line may get the response you desire. Conversely, the best form of communication might be strictly formal and professional. Remember that all communications should be kept in line with your branding image.
Where possible, engaging your employees in direct-to-consumer dialogue can also be an extremely effective approach for achieving reviews. A customer will be pleasantly surprised by a direct contact from a sales associate who’ve they already established a connection. The “human element” here should increase the likelihood that they will leave a review.
Reviews Over the Phone
If your business regularly operates via phone-based communications, especially to resolve complaints, it is the logical time and place to ask for a review. If you’re working to solve a customer complaint, it’s good practice to evaluate the situation first. If the situation is heated, or needs time to resolve to the customer’s satisfaction, you may want to wait until the appropriate time to ask. That would be after tempers have calmed or after the resolution is in place. If an issue was especially long and complicated, it may be best to leave the review request out until a more opportune moment. However, if a customer seems very appreciative of your support, the opportunity to suggest a review will present itself in an organic manner.
Connections on Social Media
Perhaps the most accessible medium through which to ask for customer reviews, the melting-pot landscape of social media can be a breeding ground for both your biggest fans and worst enemies. The good news is that the popularity and scale of social media mean that it can be relatively quick and easy to build a notable amount of customer feedback. However, the negative element of this is that internet trolls and those out to complain at almost anything can result in an unnecessarily poor and unrepresentative reputation. It’s particularly important, therefore, to maintain control of your social platforms — ensuring you respond to reviews and comments in an efficient manner, and ask for reviews only where appropriate without bombarding consumer’s ‘private’ social-sphere.
All of these techniques are all well and good, as long as customers (and your company) are in the right mindset when it comes to the review itself. Some people are naturally dismissive of reviews, likely because they deem them to be untrustworthy, so will often shy away from review platforms, or at least tread very carefully. Particularly in digital spaces, consumers are, rightfully, concerned about the accountability of reviews. With so much digital information and opinion floating around, it can be difficult to know who to trust.
The power of both positive and negative reviews to generate awareness and growth in your business is an undeniably powerful weapon in a competitive market where the customer can compare everything with a simple search-and-click. Getting customers to leave feedback should be considered a fundamental part of any business strategy. Using the Revain review platform allows a company to generate an extensive catalogue of customer reviews that are trustworthy, authentic and provide value to both the company and customers reading them. Revan’s custom-built AI filters reviews, first for quality that will provide value to the reader, and second to identify spam or inappropriate content protecting the company. The blockchain technology ensures that reviews cannot be modified so would-be customers can trust what they read to be authentic and useful. As consumers develop a trust in the review culture, they will become more inclined to participate in it. And with all reviews and company responses available to the would-be customer, the Revain platform will provide the means to build that trust and participation.
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