Over 70% of online customers rely on reviews to make their decisions. Having good reviews of your business or product online could mean the difference between getting more customers wondering what went wrong this month as you pay your bills and have nothing left over. This articles main focus will be on how to obtain new positive reviews for your company online on review sites.
If you’re in business long enough, bad reviews are inevitable. Somewhere along the line, your business won’t succeed in making every single customer happy, and some will voice their displeasure to the world. While you can’t stop them from happening, it’s not the bad reviews themselves, but how you deal with them, that will determine the impact they have on your business. One of the most effective ways to reduce the impact of negative reviews is to increase the number of positive ones. However, actually getting your customers to spend their time writing reviews isn’t just a lot to ask; it can be a tricky effort that, and if you do it wrong it can make your business look bad. In this article we are going to cover the right way to get great online reviews for your business.
The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Get Great Reviews
When it comes to getting good reviews, there’s one thing that makes, a far bigger difference than any other factor. It’s not easy. It can take a ton of work. The most important thing you can do to get great reviews is to give your customers great customer service. If they are not happy with your customer service you could have one of the best products or services in the world and they will not provide you with a positive online review. Also, studies show that people will pay more for an item or service if it comes with great customer service.
Ways to Get Positive Online Reviews
Ask for the Review
You don’t get what you don’t ask for. One of the most underrated and underused tools that any of us can tap into is a personal, transparent ask. People need to be reminded so if you want a review you need to ask for it.
Ask the Right People
If positive reviews are what you’re looking for, then you need to be asking the right customers. The right customers are the ones who are getting the most value out of your product.
There are a number of ways to identify customers who are getting value out of your product:
- Referrers: If a customer is referring others to your business, then they’re probably very happy with it themselves.
- Loyal Long-time Customers: If they are repeat customers or have been using your product or service for a long time ask for a review if they haven’t given one.
- Happy Customers: If a customer just saved a boatload of money, you got them out of a jam, you went above and beyond for them, or they tell you personally that they are happy then ask for the review.
Ask at the Right Time
How many times have you gotten emails asking for reviews that come days or weeks after you’ve last had any interaction with the business? The best time to ask for a review is when you’ve delivered an awesome experience to the customer and the service is at the top of their mind.
Ask the Right Way
Never ever ever send an email asking for “good” reviews or any other adjective that suggests that you might be trying to tell your customers what to write. We stated earlier that you should be asking for reviews but you should never ask for a good review. Instead, ask for just ask for the review or an honest review.
Respond to ALL Reviews
Responses aren’t just for negative reviews. If you’ve been focusing on making customer service a priority, then your customers don’t just have a relationship with your product; they have a relationship with you. If your friend promoted you you would probably thank them so why ignore customers who say positive things about you. A simple “thank you,” or a Tweet or Like can go a long way in reinforcing your relationships with the customers who leave reviews, and showing what kind of business you are to the future customers that are reading those reviews.
Conclusion
To get more reviews you need to spend the time to ask your customers in the right way at the right time and thank them when they do spend the time to leave a review.