A survey showed that 93% of users admitted that an online review impacted their buying decisions. Every business understands the importance of online reviews and uses a review management software to manage reviews. To get ahead of the competition, you should employ ways to increase your online reviews.

Send A Follow-Up Email

The most common method of asking customers for reviews is a follow-up email after the purchase. You should create an automated system to send pre-set emails after the customer has bought something from your business. The system should be set to get more Google reviews and also distribute some to other important platforms like Facebook, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.

Timing the email is critical to increasing the odds of getting a response. You don’t want to send an email instantly after purchase and also not a week later. You should also consider the type of business you have before settling on the correct time for sending the email.

For instance: If you have an online apparel store, sending an email just a day after the purchase would be fruitless because the customer may not have even received the product yet. In this case, you should track the delivery and send a review request a few days or a week after it.

However, if you have a restaurant, you should send a follow-up email within 24 hours of serving the customer.

Set Up Profile On Recognized Review Sites

You should be on review sites where customers can leave reviews for your business. Firstly, consider creating your profiles on general and most popular platforms like Google Local, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, and others. Then give some focus to your industry-related sites. For instance; if you have a restaurant, you should look into TripAdvisor, Zomato, Foursquare, Zagat, and OpenTable.

In the case of Google Business Profile, you or your staff should make in-person contact with customers at the hours you have stated to be eligible for a listing. So, any online store can’t be listed on a Google Business profile. However, if you have an online business, you can get listed on Trustpilot and similar platforms to collect reviews for your business.

Make It Easy For Customers To Leave Reviews

Customers who have a bad experience with a business don’t like to take the time to leave a review unless they have a really bad experience and they want to express themselves. This is also true for customers who found your products or services good. They won’t be keen on leaving a review unless the experience was extremely amazing and they want to express themselves.

These extremely bad and good experiences are not too common, so you have to make the reviewing process easier for customers so they can leave a review no matter their level of experience with your products or services.

When you ask for reviews, in an email, for example, include a link to your profile on a review site so your customer can simply open the link and leave the review. Also, make the process easier a review management system.

Even when you’re directly asking for reviews, you can put a review link in the footer of every email and newsletter you send to the client. You can also have banners and pamphlets that have information about your business or certain products and services, and also a QR code that leads to your business profile on a review site. Moreover, you can also include a similar QR code in your receipts and packaging.

Ask When The Client Is The Happiest

All review sites forbid businesses to directly ask for positive reviews. However, to increase the odds of getting a positive review you can time the review request well enough. Look for the time when the customer is the happiest.

Ask For A Review After A Purchase

Customers are happy when they make a purchase (unless they have been overcharged). We have mentioned above when you should send a review request email after a purchase depending on your business. However, there are other times as well when a customer is the happiest.

Ask For A Review When A Customer Makes A Repeat Purchase

If a customer is making a repeat purchase, it shows that the customer is liking your product or service. There is an excellent opportunity to ask for a review after the purchase because they are most likely to leave a glowing review that you can show off on social media.

Find Customers On Social Media Who Like Your Products Or Services

Speaking of social media, monitoring your social profiles can help in finding customers who are satisfied with your products or services.

If you spot a customer praising any product of yours, you should leave a message to the client where you thank them for liking your products and ask them to share their experience with others in the form of a review. Most of them will be glad to leave a review.

Ask For A Review When A Customer Praises Your Business Or Products Offline

Happy customers don’t hesitate to express their satisfaction when buying in person or through chat or a phone call. For instance, your client received delivery on time with your delivery service. The client calls for some information and praises the service. You can ask them if you can send them a text or email from where they can leave a review for your business.

Ask The Customers For Review Who Refer Other People To Your Business

If someone is referring a friend to your business, it’s a clear sign they are happy with your services or products. So, note the medium of communication they prefer and send them a message that thanks them and asks them to leave a review.

Personalize Your Review Requests

Automating the review requesting process saves you a lot of time. But you should also consider sending personalized review requests as well. This will show customers that you value their opinion.

If you have a business with high customer in-flow, it may not be possible to send every customer a personal review request. So, you should do this customer who you think will most likely leave a nice review.

You will begin the message by thanking the customer for buying from you or liking your products. Look at their history and personalize the thanks. For instance, if they are your loyal customers, thank them by stating that. After this, state how reviews are important for your business and why their opinion matters to you. Leave a link under the request so the customer can quickly leave a review if they want.

Create Multiple Ways For The Customers To Review Your Business

This is good for your customers and your business as well. Customers will be able to leave a review on a platform they use the most or trust the most, and your business will get reviews distributed on all major review platforms.

Conclusion

Reviews play a huge role in the success of a business, so don’t shy away from asking your customers to review your business. Use a white label review management system to make the review process easy for the customers and monitor reviews, and reply to all the reviews.