Asking for online reviews can do wonders for your small business as it helps in building trust online, gives your business more credibility over your competitors and search engines love businesses that have genuine customer reviews.
Let’s find our how customer reviews help your business online and offline?
Marketing: Customer feedback gives you key insights into consumer trends and buying habits. Your marketing team can use the information to drive decisions that can help you reach customers in new ways.
Product development: By asking for feedback about a specific product, you get a better understanding of the type of products customers actually want.
Customer service: When businesses receive reviews that involve customer experiences, they’ll be able to come up with ways to improve their services for customer satisfaction.
Quality assurance: Customer feedback helps you identify product flaws or service irregularities. This makes it easier for you to modify or update your products to better serve your customers.
Better online reputation: Posting a stream of 5-star customer reviews will no doubt inspire shopper confidence and drive sales. People will see you as a credible business, too.
Amplified search presence: A company’s review signals (ratings, review count, and review text) are factored into organic and local search rankings, according to Google and industry experts. In other words, the more reviews you have, the higher you’ll be ranking on search, which then boosts your chances of acquiring more customers.
Instant outreach: Asking for feedback proactively tends to strengthen customer relationships and can possibly convert the most satisfied customers into word-of-mouth catalysts.
The How’s of Asking for Online Reviews
Now that you know why collecting online reviews should be a vital part of your digital marketing strategy, let’s proceed to the main part of this article: How to successfully ask for them. There are tons of ways to ask for feedback from customers, especially through digital means. Here are some of the most effective ones:
1. Send an email Many businesses request customer feedback through email, knowing that it works every time they do it. As a matter of fact, email is an excellent channel for communicating with your customers. 91% of consumers open their email daily, and 58% check their email the second they’re online. Ideally, you want to use a survey when asking for feedback via email, as surveys provide structured response templates with quantifiable data. Another method is by asking for an open response that redirects customers to a form on your website or another data collection tool. That way, you can get detailed information regarding customer choices and habits.
2. Conduct a Poll on Social Media In this day and age where pretty much everyone is on social media, it makes perfect sense to use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to gather online reviews by conducting polls. Doing so allows your business to engage your customers informally through fun, simple questions that will get them engaged. And, you don’t have to wait for the results anymore; you’ll see them immediately after one casts their vote. Questions like “Which is your all-time favorite product?” and “What do you want to see next from us?” will definitely provide you a clear idea of the kinds of product your customers are extremely eager to buy from you.
3. Use a Pop-Up Survey Like the idea of asking for feedback instantly after a customer experience? We have the perfect solution for you: Pop-up surveys. Popup surveys can be in the form of a rating where consumers can pick the number of stars to evaluate their experience. You can also create surveys that consist of a numerical choice where customers can rate an experience by number, along with an option to add a comment after.
4. Have a Feedback or Contact Form on Your Website (or App) Another way to effectively ask for online reviews from your customers is by posting a feedback form on your site or mobile app. Be sure that the form is completely visible and is easy to fill out. To make it even more convenient for your customers, include a call-to-action button they can click on from any page on your website or app. Additionally, if you have a blog or you offer customer support, make it a habit to add a CTA at the end of the content to encourage your readers to provide feedback. It’s not uncommon for companies to ask questions like “Was this post helpful?” with the buttons “Yes” and “No” below it. Those who respond “no” will have a dialog box popping up where they can explain their reason.
5. Request Feedback via Text 56% of all online reviews are posted from mobile devices. You know what this means? That’s right, you can leverage text messaging to collect online reviews from your customers! Send them a friendly SMS asking to leave a review on your social media. Better yet, add a link to redirect them to a survey on your website. Here are several ways to start your message:
- “Your opinion matters”.
- “Do you have the time to write us a review on (review website)?”
- “Thank you for being our customer. Could you click on this link to answer one question about your experience with us today? Thank!”
- “Can you take a moment to leave us feedback? We would highly appreciate it!”
6. Mail a Questionnaire Who says the days of sending printed questionnaires are long gone? You can still do it, and it can still be as effective as it was before the dawn of technology surfaced. List down a set of questions that will enable your customers to express their opinions on your products and/or services. Mail these forms with postage paid so that your customers will only need to complete the form and put them right back in the mailbox.
7. Add a “Review” Option to Your Chatbot If you’re using a chatbot, you should definitely use it as an opportunity to include a survey right within the chat. Of course, you have to set up filtering in such a way that only your customers can leave them. A Little Bonus for You Before we can say goodbye, we’d love to provide you a list of open-ended questions to inspire you as you start your review-collecting journey. Have a look at these questions below!
- What can you say about your experience today?
- What do you think about this product?
- How would you rate this product or service?
- Would you recommend our products or services to others?
- What could we have done to provide a better overall experience?
And We’re Done! Online reviews, good or bad, can make an impact on your small business. Using these tips of ours will certainly help you gain as many feedback as you can ever imagine. Good luck!
Learn Where you can find small business grants? 8 great sources
How to choose the right email client for business?
How to Retain Patients for Dental Practice
Conferences for Small Business Owners USA
5 Essential Remote Working Tools
Best Social Media Marketing Tools
Kylie Jenner and the Art of Successful Marketing
Cost of Opening TopGolf Franchise
Cost to Open Anytime Fitness Franchise
55 Highly Profitable Mall Business Ideas
Cost to Start a Trucking Company
Credit Cards with Most cash back
Bank of America for Small Business Banking
Small Business Finance Company USA
Find the Best Bank for Small Business in the United States
High Income Fashion and Lifestyle Businesses
Guide to find and buy cheap government Surplus in USA
Small Business Administration USA
Steps to Qualify for a Small Business Loan in the US
Best Business to Start in California
Business Ideas for Entrepreneurs
ADVANTON Helps Small Businesses & Brands reach 40,000+ Targeted monthly users through it’s platform and multiply their sales! $60 for a Sponsored/Guest Post.
Leave a Reply