Are you struggling to get high-quality reviews online? It’s difficult to compete with powerful businesses like Amazon and eBay that have thousands of online reviews about their products. People don’t buy something until they read reviews about it. Based on the research from Bright Local, 86% of customers told that they read online reviews for local businesses.
If your potential clients visit your business online and view the lack of social proof, they can’t form an opinion about your company and get any reasons why they should buy from you. 88% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Whether we want to or not, customers will continue to decide whether to work with your business based on what other customers are telling about you online. To help them build great user experience, try to get involved by actively creating useful and thoughtful customer reviews online. Here are five smart tips to get positive reviews online:
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Create an Effective Review Request Email Campaign
If you have an active email list, you can create an email campaign to get more online reviews. Usually, your subscribers are big lovers of your company and want to know more about you, that’s why the chances are high to get an online review if you send a review request email. In case you don’t have an extensive email list, you can encourage visitors to subscribe by adding a popup on your site. Once they fulfill the order, you can add their email to your list.
You can also deliver triggered emails. Once customers complete an order on your site, they will automatically get your review request email at any time. Try to send emails after customers’ purchases while they have a positive experience, and the information is still fresh in their mind. Here is the example of the review request email from Amazon:
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Incentivize Your Customers
If you want to get positive reviews for your business, you should start incentivizing your customers for these reviews. It shouldn’t look like you pay people to get good reviews. Do it carefully and naturally. Put emphasis on creativity at it. For example, you can offer a free service, free shipping, discount or get $50 for a gift card. Or you can send someone a 10$ Starbucks gift card after they write a good review. You can also offer a free drink or cookie on your next visit. It may seem a small thing, but the devil is always in the details. And, it is an effective way to generate more reviews.
Once you decide to incentivize your customers, stay aware of how you are asking for that. Make it clear that a discount or a gift card is just the expression of gratitude for their feedback, but not pay for a good review. Take a look at The Rodriguez Law Group how they get testimonials from clients on the website.
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Ask for Customer Reviews in Person
I don’t mean to ask each person to leave a review for your business. Yes, it takes much time and efforts, but instead, you will get pleasure and increase your relationships with customers by asking them individually. Try to encourage to write a review gently. For example, you ask for that on your business cards, with a Yelp sticker on your front page or a sign at the bottom of receipts.
Sunil Gupta from Traffic mentioned that advertising offline that you want to get more online reviews will be a good and honest way to grow your brand reputation. Once you get a review from a client, don’t forget to thank for that and explain that they help to grow your business. Always stay direct and polite in your approach. Take a look at the example from West Coast Shipping.
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Respond to Every Single Review
Once you ask people for feedback, make sure to get bad reviews too. And, it is ok. Pleasing everyone in life is impossible. Show potential clients that you have an honest business and respond to every single review (both positive and negative) calmly and helpfully. Try to turn a bad review into a positive experience. That will help future customers understand that you are active in your online communications and can help at any time in any situation.
Based on the Harvard Business Review research that responding to all customer reviews will lead to better ratings in general. Moreover, customers who see your management responses are less likely to leave a negative review.
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Never Stop Building Relationships with Clients
Once you get a good review, it doesn’t mean that your job is complete here. Instead, you need to continue building relationships with your clients. Think of a long-term strategy to keep your company in mind of those satisfied customers who just left a positive review of your business. 85% of small businesses tell that word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most effective ways to find new clients.
Once you provide an excellent service and deliver value to customers, it will hold true for that. Stay in touch with your customers even after you are done with your services. When clients remember your company, you don’t need to look for different ways to get online reviews. Rosen Injury Lawyers are doing a good job at it.
Conclusion
According to the words of Nataliia Zorba from Roi4cio, whether you like it or not, but your business will continue to get reviews online. People read them before making a purchase decision and take them seriously. If you want to protect and improve your brand reputation online, you should take control of it. I hope that these useful tips will help you stand out from the crowd online. Do the best to make your customers happy. Always thank them for purchase and review.
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