Obtaining Customer Reviews

Today’s consumers are very review focused during their search process. Whether it is choosing a new plumber, toy or going to a new restaurant, people are seeing what others thought. They use other consumer’s experiences to help weigh the pros and cons before making their decision. Gathering reviews for your business or products is gaining more importance and should be considered as a part of the customer experience. This article will provide some general tips and guidelines on obtaining customer reviews.

Where Reviews are Posted

Most reviews are posted on social media or directory pages. Some examples include Google +, Google Places, Facebook, Yelp, the Knot, Weddingwire and more. If you don’t already have a business profile on these sites, you should definitely consider it. They are very accessible for customers to learn more about your business or product before visiting your website. Just creating a social media portal page isn’t enough, you also have to interact and post items as well so that your business doesn’t look stale.

How to Ask

One of the best ways to get reviews is by polling current or past customers. Asking for a review should be incorporated into your sales process. After a customer has used your service or bought a product, the simplest way to do it is to email a thank you note. The email should include a thank you for purchasing or using your service and asking them to review the service or product. These thank you emails should be sent out as soon as possible. The longer you wait to send the review, the less likely they are to be proactive and leave a review.

Making it as easy as possible is important, so you should include a direct link for the site where you want them to leave a review. You can customize the site you choose to have them write their review on based on the customer. For example, if you are a photographer and you are asking a bride for a review, including a link for her to leave a review on the Knot or Weddingwire would be appropriate. Not everyone needs an incentive either, if they were satisfied majority of people will leave a review for free. Another easy way is to post the link to your review page on social media asking for reviews.

Good Review vs. Bad Review

When you do receive a review, share it! Let people know about how awesome this client thought you were! Create a testimonial page on your website to keep reviews, so that others can read them as well. Now not all reviews may be rainbows and sunshine. For the most part you cannot do anything about those reviews other than to gather more positive ones to outweigh the negative. There are some sites that can let you contest the review based on certain circumstances. Also, certain sites are getting smart and recognized if you are trying to have employees put in positive reviews, so there’s no faking it! If you do receive a negative review, see if there is anything you can learn from it. Whether or not that client was a pain to deal with, there was obviously something that they did not enjoy, so see if it can be turned into a teaching moment.

As you start to obtain reviews on your social media sites, keep an eye on how frequently you are getting reviewed. Making sure that you have recent reviews is important to searching customers. It shows searching customers that you are not out dated and the overall satisfaction level that customers have with your business.

Posted on October 30th, 2013 in Corporate Travel & Advice, Useful Tips.