5 Strategies for Getting Quality Online Customer Reviews

How proud are you of your online customer reviews? Do you want to shout out the positive reviews from the rooftops so other people will hear and come running to your place of business? In many cases, customer reviews are a critical component of effective reputation management – however, all too many businesses fail to give this the priority it deserves. With this in mind, today, we’re looking at some of the key strategies you need to know about attaining some quality customer reviews and maintaining a good average review score. Hopefully, this information helps your business develop a stronger marketing strategy and increases your new leads.

Engaging with your customers using customer reviews is a critical component of effective business management. Not only does it allow your business to nurture stronger relationships between your customers and the team, but it can also ensure new customers have a more favorable experience with your business. As such, with this in mind, we have outlined some strategies for increasing the chances of your company getting more (and higher) customer reviews.

1. Always Ask Your Customers for Reviews

Not many customers think to automatically leave reviews for businesses they do business with when they complete a purchase. You can increase the chances that your customers will leave a review of your business if you ask them soon after they receive the products or service. With this in mind, it’s important that you begin on the right foot when it comes to reviews, and you should hence aim to request customer reviews at the time of delivery. If you are unable to catch them during delivery, we recommend following up shortly after the experience to encourage customers to leave a review while it is fresh in their minds. Of course, this requires that you deliver a great customer experience.

As many as 68% of customers will leave a review of your business if asked to do so – that’s countless more customer reviews than you may have otherwise received. Imagine the number of reviews that are missed simply by not asking customers. Asking your customers for reviews not only demonstrates to your current clients that their experience and feedback genuinely mean a lot to your team, but it’s also a vital way to encourage other potential clients to trust your brand.

2. Make an Effort to Reply to Reviews

It’s not enough to just ask for reviews from your past customers. To make the most of your reputation management, it’s vital that you also respond to these reviews. Indeed, when a customer doesn’t receive a response – or if a brand only responds to negative feedback defensively – it’s easy to assume the business doesn’t truly care about how its customers feel.

Of course, this often isn’t the case at all. Around 89% of businesses actually make an effort to read all of their customer reviews (and these businesses may be inclined to make changes based on these reviews). However, to get the most from your client engagement and customer reviews, we recommend responding to as many reviews as possible to show your customers that you genuinely read, appreciate, and take their feedback to heart. This, in turn, can also encourage other past customers to reply and review their experience.

3. Share Your Customer Reviews – For Better or Worse

Regardless of whether or not you’ve received the reviews, you were hoping for, don’t be afraid to include links to key review pages on your website. And, in turn, this can help your customers feel a little more confident about your brand’s integrity and honesty. Indeed, it’s often recognized by customers that some modern brands pay for fake reviews of their products to be written; as such, by redirecting customers to a public review platform, you can show your brand in the best light. After all, with 93% of customers relying on online reviews to influence their buying choices, it’s easy to assume that your customers will check your past reviews anyway, regardless of whether you link them or not.

4. Make Use of Reviews, Where Possible

Customers are far more likely to trust the experiences of past customers over a business’ own claims. With this in mind, we highly recommend including customer reviews in your product marketing efforts to help reassure customers of the value of your solutions. Flaunt those reviews!

This simple change can help your business integrate the most reliable and effective suggestions for customers and help ensure your business can generate more conversions than ever before. As such, it’s a critical component to consider and can go a long way regarding your brand’s marketing success. Simple tricks like slipping past reviews into conversations with customers regarding the product or encouraging your followers to view a product’s reviews on your social media can go a long way to promoting your product.

But referring people to your past customer reviews isn’t only for driving sales. In fact, did you know that according to the Harvard Business Review, hiring new staff costs around 10% more when your business has a negative reputation? In fact, your business’s reputation plays a significant role in many different aspects of your management; however, to get the most from every communication, it’s vital you try to focus on the positives. Manage your reputation and you improve the quality of your team.

However, even a neutral (review) company will still struggle to attract talent compared to an experienced brand; as such, we recommend including links and references to success stories at all points during the hiring process to show your business in the best light. Consider having a separate review for your staff. Let them help you flaunt the positives of being a part of your organization.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Remind Customers to Leave Reviews

Not all customers will leave a review initially, whether you ask or not, and usually, it’s not because they didn’t want to. Actually, some might have really intended to but, as with all of us, they get caught up with life. We all can use reminders to do things we want to do but sometimes forget. So, don’t be afraid to remind your customers about leaving a review if they haven’t; don’t persist and become a “nag,” but even one single reminder may help get a few more reviews than not sending any.

Remember, take advantage of any positive light that is placed upon your business. f you need help putting together a plan for your reviews, there are businesses out there who can with your online review management. Indeed, most business owners already recognize the value of regular reputation management efforts; and as such, if this is something you have not been taking advantage of, we hope today’s guide helps you integrate at least one strategy into your processes or even inspire you to come up with more. I

Sidekick Solutions gives clients support with online reviews, social media management, ADA compliance for websites, lead generation and many other services. We love watching our clients' businesses grow! Contact us at [email protected]