I’m sure by this point you know reviews are important. They are key to driving new customers to your business and growing your sales. The more reviews you have, the more trustworthy your business will appear to be. Therefore, online reviews have a significant impact on a customer’s path to purchase.
A lot of discussion around online reviews revolves around how to avoid or manage bad ones, but the truth is the best way to neutralize a bad review is to counter it with a ton of positive ones. But too many business owners aren’t doing enough to encourage online reviews and get passed over in favor of businesses with more feedback. If that’s your case, you have to start finding ways of encouraging your customers to leave their reviews, but definitely without coming across as desperate.
Yes, such a task can be very difficult. But we’ve got your back! These are some ideas to help you drive up the number of reviews about your business:
1. Create incentives
Sometimes even the happiest clients need some extra incentive to take time out of their busy schedules to write down their feedback. While you should avoid at all costs buying reviews, there are ways of incentivizing feedback that doesn’t undermine the whole process. For example, you could offer a monthly giveaway to a random client that leave a review. The thrill of winning makes for a great incentive to give feedback. You just need to make sure your offer is for writing a review, and not for writing a good review. Offering a small incentive is a good way to show your appreciation for the clients that review your business and you encourage customer’s feedback.
2.Make it easy
One of the best ways to encourage online reviews is to make it as easy as possible for your clients to give them. The average customer is not going to look for ways to leave your business a review. So, you better take pressure off their shoulders. Put direct links to your review profiles on your page, your follow-up emails, and newsletters. You can even download and print “Find us on Yelp” or any other reviews site banners for your store. And don’t forget about the process itself of giving a review. Any amount of form filling is going to put off most reviewers. A simple star—or emoji! – rating function should do the trick.
3.Ask the question
As simple as that. Yes, it is an obvious one, but you need to make sure you ask at the right time, in the right way. You don’t want to come across as aggressive or—even worse—desperate. If your product or service is actually good, they won’t be bothered by your kind request. Your customers understand—as you should too—the importance of online reviews and online reputation. If you want to increase the number of reviews for your business, simply ask for them.
Encourage your customers to leave reviews by following these easy strategies. By giving incentives, making the process a lot easier, and just asking your customers for online reviews, you’ll generate real conversation about our business. Try the steps above and boost your number of online reviews!
Want to learn more about Online Reviews? Check out this new infographic from Website Builder
