Good old word-of-mouth marketing is one of the quickest ways to grow your customer base. This highly effective strategy is entirely free for a business, as their customers do the client-getting. However, in our technologically advanced world, word-of-mouth is no longer face-to-face; it’s done through online business reviews. So today, we will look at the top 15 strategies to encourage your existing customers to leave you good reviews online.
This may seem overly simple, but getting more customers to leave you a review online can be done by asking them to do so. If your customers are delighted with the services or products that you create, they’ll be more than glad to leave you a review. Your website designer can craft a unique-looking button or link to the review page in text, such as “Please review our business on Yelp” on your website. Call-to-action controls have been proven to work time and time again.
Social media is a great way to get instant access to your customer base to ask for reviews. It’s no surprise to many that individuals utilize social media sites multiple times per day. This means they will likely see your post asking for reviews of your business the same day you request. This strategy is best used occasionally, and your message should be short. Call their attention to where they can leave a review and why you would appreciate their feedback. Another great tactic you can use with social media is encouraging your customers to ‘check in’ at your location on their Facebook profile page. When they do so, Facebook will email them to request a review of your business the following day.
3.) Follow Up Emails
If you deal with your customers through email, you should utilize this communication outlet to ask for reviews. A good practice is to have a general template that you can use for all your customers, with a few areas left open for customization. You don’t want to mass-send every one of our clients a generic email. Instead, include their name, your past interactions, and the products or services you’ve provided them with. This more personal touch will remind them of your relationship and make them more likely to leave you a review.
4.) Create An Instruction Guide
Not everyone is familiar with online review services, so you should keep that in mind. They haven’t left you a review yet because they don’t know how to or didn’t know the review site existed. So take the time to write a step-by-step guide on leaving reviews on your chosen website. You can distribute this guide via email, social media, or in person.
5.) Use Call-To-Actions On Your Receipts
Your customers will receive a receipt for purchasing your products or services. Use that opportunity to put your call to action about reviewing your business before them. This works for both paper and electronic receipts. Companies like Chipotle utilize this strategy at the bottom of their tickets and have shown significant customer response.
6.) Personally Ask Them
This simple strategy can do wonders for the number of business reviews you receive. But first, take the time to ask every customer you deal with to leave your business a review. A few reasons why it’s crucial for your business can also help. For example, when connected with you, most people are moved to take action and write a review.
7.) Incentives
You can consistently offer incentives if you’re having issues getting more reviews. A monthly or weekly giveaway to a random customer that leaves you a check can be a good strategy. Incentives can be discounts on your business services or products in the future, cash, or other fabulous prizes. You want to offer anything that will push your customers to spend valuable time writing your business a review.
8.) Offer To Be Featured On Your YouTube Channel
Some customers like to be in the spotlight, and you can use this knowledge to your advantage when leveraging it for more business reviews. Encourage your customers to send you a review video they created about your business. You can then upload these videos to your business’s YouTube channel to create a playlist of reviews. Your customers are happy they are featured on your YouTube channel for others to see, and you get more reviews.
9.) Call Your Clients Up And Ask
If you have been in business for a while, you likely have customers you may not have seen face-to-face. This is especially true for companies that see clients only a few times a year. You can get more reviews by taking the time to specifically call these customers and ask them to review your business. This is a great way to connect with your customers and share your interaction with others.
Many online review sites, such as Yelp and Foursquare, have window clings and stickers available for purchase. You can purchase these products and hang them up at your business.
This works exceptionally well for brick-and-mortar businesses, such as sit-in restaurants and gyms, that retain consumer presence for long periods. The longer your customers see these logos at your business, the more likely they will take a second to leave you a review.
11.) Display Your Existing Reviews
An effective strategy to remind customers to leave you a review is to display your current thoughts and where they are from. You can do this on your website or even at your offline location. Customers are more encouraged to write you a review as they may be featured on your following reviews showcase.
12.) Incentivize Employees
Make getting reviews an optional task for your employees. These are the people that usually interact with your customers daily. Encourage your employees to get your customers to leave reviews about the service they performed and your business in general. Those who get mentioned in reviews can receive an extra incentive. This tends to work well to keep employees motivated and start a friendly challenge amongst your team to help the business perform better.
13.) QR Postcards
People who receive personalized mail from a business they are familiar with are more likely to read what it says than mail from companies they’ve never heard of before. You can use this information to your advantage through snail mail to contact your customers. In addition, you should use a QR that links them to your chosen review site. Finally, remember that anything you can do to make it easier for your customers to write their reviews will encourage more.
14.) QR Code Review Business Cards
As you learned above, making reviewing your business as simple as possible will allow you to get the most amount of reviews possible. For example, a QR code is easy to let customers access your review page directly without typing in the address. In addition, by imprinting your QR code on unique review business cards that encourage customers to leave you a review, you can give your customers the convenience of taking the card to complete the assessment later, which works better for them.
15.) Drop In A Slip With Each Order
One strategy you can implement immediately is simply printing out a slip of paper asking customers to leave you a review and then inserting the tag into product boxes or bags along with the receipt. This is a quick and easy way to let your customers know that you value their reviews of your business. With these, you can get as creative as possible by adding multiple review sites and even QR codes.
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