Get More Positive Reviews with these 5 Easy Tips!

Are you looking for effective ways on how to gain more positive reviews from your customers? 

Word-of-mouth plays a vital role in propelling your brand to succeed in this digital setup. As a business, knowing the difference between a one-star rating and a five-star rating is important as it is the determining factor for customers to choose you over your competitors. This applies to all types of businesses—B2B’s, B2C’s, online shops, and even local stores—making it a must to know that encouraging customers to leave a review is crucial now more than ever.

This article will get you acquainted with the five best positive review-driving ways that will help your business stand out. But before that, let’s take a look at why customer reviews are important.

Why encouraging customers to leave a review is crucial

Customer reviews define how shoppers perceive your brand. Reviews deliver a huge impact on customers’ buying decisions. This is especially true when you are trying to expand your business reach. People now turn to the internet more often to evaluate how good or effective products are, and rely on the opinions and stands of other people to distinguish the difference between a good and a bad brand. Winning your prospective customers through constructive feedback plays an integral part in building customer trust and brand authority.

Moreover, feedback greatly affects your SEO ranking. Did you know that having good reviews on different review sites like Yelp, Google Review, and most social media platforms helps increase the chances of owning SERP when an individual searches for a branded term on search engines?

How can you gain more reviews?

For starters, asking a total stranger to leave a review can be awkward. Strangely enough, customers are more likely to leave a review when they are not satisfied with the product they purchased than when they are happy.

Let’s face it, we can’t get positive reviews all the time. However, these reviews, whether positive or negative, enable your business to learn and adapt to your target niche’s preferences. It allows you to reassess and restructure your current marketing strategies along with your products and services as a whole.

That said, here are five proven tips to help you encourage your customers to leave a review.

1. Ask Them

This is the most obvious way to gain reviews — ask your customers to leave one. In most cases, businesses tend to forget about doing this simple yet effective strategy.

To encourage your customers to leave a review, you must take into account the simplicity in how you ask them for feedback. There’s no need for more explanations. When you know your customers are happy with your product, ask them right away!

You can use questions like “How was your experience with our new product?” or “Did you enjoy your item?”. If they replied positively (perhaps a 4.5 to 5-star rating), request them to leave a review on other review sites as well. Remember not to pressure them. Try enticing your customers to do this when you are sure they have time to spare.

2. Send a Follow-up Email

Try sending a follow-up email after the purchase. This email will not only serve as an after-sale service but also a great way to encourage customers to write a review on other review sites.

As always, make it easy for them. Provide links to popular review sites where they can write their review, or redirect right to the section of your website’s feedback form. Highlighting ease of access adds a plus point when you want to collect more positive reviews.

3. Reward Your Customers in Exchange for Leaving a Review

Don’t get this wrong, you don’t have to pay your customers to convince them to leave a positive review. Rather, all you have to do is treat your customers with different rewards when they write a review.

It can be in the form of a voucher, exclusive updates, discount cards, or even just a free pen. It doesn’t have to be fancy, since the end goal is to show a token of appreciation to your customers.

Don’t expect too much, though. Not all customers will leave a five-star rating or feedback. Regardless, collecting their genuine reactions and thoughts about your products and services is your main focus and therefore you must be prepared no matter how good or bad it may be. This is a great way to increase the number of your loyal supporters as well as improve your referral rates.

4. Cherish Positive Reviews

Indeed, this might sound cheesy, but celebrating a positive review through your posts is one of the best ways to show the credibility of your brand. 

Giving recognition to your avid supporters by featuring their reviews on your social media platforms shows that you value their feedback. You can also post their reviews on your websites. Don’t forget to mention their names on the post or tag them and add appropriate hashtags.

5. Be Conversational

Aside from promoting a review on social media, you can also bridge the gap between you and your customers by responding to their reviews.

This shows customers that you are all ears when they post a review. Take time to compose a response to thank them if their reviews are positive and apologize if the comment they have for your brand is a negative one. This is an effective way to reach out to your customers. Not only do you amplify the relationship between you and your existing customers, it also enables you to address any concerns related to your products and services.

When a potential customer sees that you are responsive, they are more likely to leave feedback once they try or check out your brand.

The Bottomline: Be the Best

At the end of the day, the aforementioned tips won’t work if you fail to do one thing—and that is to provide the best customer experience. No matter what type of business you’re running, see to it that you remain hands-on in elevating the norms of customer experience to a whole new level. This can’t be overstated, but customers have different standards and you can’t please them all. The best you can do is offer exceptional experience the moment they are introduced to your brand, to the time they convert and make a purchase, or decide to try your services first-hand.