Word of mouth is still seen as the most effective form of marketing and greatly influences other potential customers to either patronize or avoid your brand. In this digital age, the next best thing would be to have your customers post online reviews as consumers would prefer to read unbiased feedback of your business or product to help them decide whether or not to buy your product or employ your services. So here are ways for you to encourage your customers to review:
Ask Them To
The first step to encourage reviews is to ask them. If you’re in the restaurant business, a mechanic, or any service-based business that interacts with the customer in person, it’s best to ask them to leave a review or feedback on your website or social media page on top of asking them to tell their friends and family about your business.
Additionally, you can solicit reviews via a timely email. Send them a link to your webpage feedback or review section or social media page, saying that you hope that they are enjoying your product or service and ask them to leave a review. You can even attach a brochure for other products and services, as well as any other promos that they can take advantage of.
Provide Incentives to Review
It’s not entirely advisable to provide a discount or instant reward to customers that provide reviews as it somehow undermines the whole process. However, you can run a monthly draw for those customers that leave a review or offering small perks such as a free drink on their next visit upon presenting a screenshot of their review, or a loyalty point system that can be exchanged with products once enough points are accumulated.
Multi-Platform Options
Make it easier for your satisfied customers to review by giving them all the options to do so. Don’t limit them to only leaving a review on your website, so it’s best to have a social media page for your product or business to allow them to comment and post their review and feedback there, as well as to air out any concerns. You can also list your business in review forums or sites such as Yelp, Google Maps, and TripAdvisor.
Allow and Respond to All Reviews
There will be good and bad reviews. Even if you selectively only ask satisfied customers to leave a good review for your business, disgruntled or dissatisfied customers are more likely to review without prompting. And that’s okay, allow them. Having only excellent or stellar reviews would make other customers suspicious that you’re paying or faking reviews. But it’s important to answer or address any bad review or concern to properly avoid having a negative image, and show that your business cares for its customers. For positive reviews, a simple “thank you” and “hope to do business with you again in the future” can go a long way to encourage other customers to review and also to build brand loyalty.
Bonus: Hiring Help
If you’re having issues with technicalities such as putting a review and feedback section in your webpage or registering your brand or business in a trusted review website such as Yelp or TripAdvisor, you can always hire a Search Engine Optimization or SEO services firm to help out your business in Denver to allow reviews, as well as making your business more “visible” and accessible to customers.
Conclusion
Many consumers rely more on online reviews of your product or business; the lack of reviews could make your business seem suspicious, and only having disgruntled customers review your business can be quite detrimental. So it’s important for you to encourage satisfied customers to review your products and business, not only does it make your business look legitimate, but would help other consumers decide to do choose your brand.
