Whether you’re looking to strengthen customer relationships, build your reputation or increase local search rankings, reviews are an effective tool. Learn the best practices and techniques for asking for reviews from customers. Personal requests generate better results and more direct connections but are more time-consuming. Automated requests are quicker and more efficient but can appear impersonal or robotic.
In-Person Requests
Reviews are a potent marketing tool that may help businesses improve their standing in the eyes of the public, foster trust, and climb search engine results pages. Defining your goals and deciding whether you want customers to review specific products or services, the overall experience or both is essential. Once you know your plan, it will be easier to determine who to ask, when to ask them, and what method or platform to use. Asking in person is an excellent approach to acquiring reviews. You can ask return customers directly or use a point-of-sale kiosk or texting service. By giving a consumer a device with a form that allows them to enter their feedback, which will be instantly placed online, you may also request a review after a sales or care experience. In-person requests are more personal and have a better response rate than general request methods like email or social media posts. However, they can be time-consuming and only reach a limited number of customers simultaneously. Many organizations use reputation management tools and other technologies that may automatically submit reviews through email, text, or at particular times of day to speed up the process.
Automated Requests
If you have the stools like GoSite or capability, review-request emails are an excellent way for customers to provide feedback proactively. They can be targeted to specific customers (such as repeat buyers) or all of them. Customer interactions, such as NPS surveys or purchase completion, can trigger them. The optimum time to request reviews is after the service is rendered or at the time of the customer’s purchase. For example, a spa may be able to ask for a review right after a massage, while a camping gear seller might wait a week or two to give them some time to use the product. It’s important to remember that it’s against Google’s policies to offer any incentive for a review, so don’t incentivize your customers with free products or discounts. By taking the time to request reviews from customers proactively, you can leverage this valuable marketing tool to grow your business. In addition, online reviews can lead to more sales conversions as consumers are inspired by the positive experiences of others to complete a purchase.
Email Requests
Customer reviews may be obtained by email, especially when you can tailor the message for each recipient. It is often done by addressing the recipient by name and signing off with your first name, creating a sense of trust between you and the customer that encourages them to comply with your request. In the email’s body, you must specify what you expect to accomplish from this review. It could include gaining new business, increasing your rating on a particular website, or measuring customer loyalty. It will help you craft a clear and concise request to which your recipients are more likely to respond positively. It’s also essential to decide when the best time is for you to ask for a review. For e-commerce stores, this usually means a few days after the transaction, when the item has been dispatched and the buyer has had a chance to experience the product. For service businesses, this can mean any number of points in the journey, from immediately after service to a few weeks following purchase. Reputation management platforms and other automated software can help you create and manage review requests scheduled for several days after a transaction. These emails can be highly personalized and targeted at specific groups of customers, or they can be more general and sent to a larger group of people.
Social Media Requests
Customers love to share their experiences with brands, and online reviews can help businesses in many ways. They build trust, increase search engine rankings and attract new customers. However, generating a steady stream of reviews can take time for a business to achieve. Proactive review request strategies can help you turn satisfied customers into effective brand promoters and boost your online reputation. An email is an excellent tool for soliciting reviews since it makes it easy to contact your client base and request their opinions.
Using personal, targeted requests at specific customers usually generates better results, but generalized request templates can be more impersonal and may appear too pushy. Another option is to include a review request in your NPS survey or other customer feedback forms. You can also use reputation management software to automatically send review requests after a certain number of days following a customer’s interaction with your business. Finding your top brand supporters is the ideal way to launch your review-requesting campaign and prevent embarrassing situations. You may find your most probable promoters by looking at the supportive social media posts and comments your business has gotten or by doing an NPS survey.
