Customers are the biggest asset for any business. What they think and feel about a business is crucial to consider as their satisfaction is directly proportional to the business's profitability and success.
Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, all the lockdown chaos has made many businesses go online. Where digitalization has proven to be a blessing for the sellers it has also given the freedom to the customers to talk about their experience with a company on international platforms.
Many budding entrepreneurs and even the old mortar-and-brick stores are joining the online business paradigm. Osborne digital marketing continues to leverage the plethora of opportunities to land more customer reviews and maximize its profitability.
Therefore, the questions like "why do you need more customer reviews" and "how to get customer reviews" need their attention to capitalize in a highly lucrative marketplace.
Table of Contents
What are Customer Reviews?
Think of customer reviews as valuable advice from a loyal friend that you would trust without any second thoughts. Online customer feedback plays the same role, it educates the new buyers about the purchase they tend to make from a business.
A customer review is a customer testimonial from a person who has purchased a certain product or service from a company. They write about their experience with the purchase from your business on social media posts or the company websites.
The customer can post negative reviews as well positive reviews- anything that they feel. Whichever the case, posting these reviews on your website or online pages can rank up your SEO game and improve your online reputation. Moreover, it makes it easier for the buyers to find your product amongst the pool of a zillion others.
Reviews from customers have become a trademark for the business profile and help the buyers make the right purchase decision. As the new buyers tend to search up for authentic online reviews to learn more about a new product or service- they need assurance.
Why are Customer Reviews Important?
Online customer reviews showcase your business's credibility and reputation up front in the digital marketplace. Furthermore, when you ask your customers for feedback they feel valued and cared for. It helps to build a long-term relationship.
Studies have proven that more than 85% of the potential customers trust online reviews and customer experience than any real person.
Showcasing the customer stories (usually in the form of online product reviews) on your business profile is an authentic and credible source of digital marketing.
To understand the importance of online customer feedback can be acquired by looking at the following statistics:
- More than 90% of satisfied customers have claimed positive online reviews make them buy from that business
- 82% of customers always read the online customer feedbacks for local businesses to inquire about customer service and response rate
- On average, a new customer tends to read bout 10 reviews before they trust a business
It would not be wrong to say, that the customer responses to your digital marketing campaigns play an important role in determining whether a buyer will buy your products or services or not. Therefore, it is always better if you can get some good reviews from your existing customers to land more clients.
From individual products to acquiring feedback on the post-purchase experience, get as many detailed reviews as you can- there is no magic number to success.
However, an important thing to note is that quantity does matter, but what matters the most is the quality. If you have 50 social media posts out of which more than 30 are negative reviews from your actual customers, your business might be in danger of extinction.
Benefits of Streamlining More Reviews
Osborne digital marketing considers customer feedback a building block for the success of any brand. Every business must know the benefits that you can reap by getter more client reviews.
Asking your happy customers for feedback provides a plethora of benefits, such as:
- Better online reputation: Positive client review is the best source to provide new consumers with solid social proof of your brand's reputation.
- Enhanced ratings: Positive customer reviews generate a steady stream of enhanced ratings for your online business.
- Long-term customer relationships: When you request reviews from your clients, it makes them feel valued hence enhancing customer relationships. Furthermore, satisfied customers become the voice of marketing for your brand.
- Chance to improve: Bad reviews allows you to assess the loopholes in your marketing strategy, products, and services.
- Rank-up on search engines: Up-to-date and positive reviews and ratings from customers can help you rank amongst the top on search engines such as Google search.
- Get better conversion rates: People trust the customer feedback on your business's online pages. positive reviews can help you get better conversion rates and allow the newcomers to make better, informed buying decisions.
- Digital marketing assets: 5-star ratings or good reviews from the consumers can effectively upgrade the marketing strategy especially when incorporated in the social media posts.
Strategies That You Can Use to Get More Online Reviews
The online presence for every size and kind of business- be it a small home-based venture, a B2B business, or a large corporate giant- is growing day by day.
While garnering authentic reviews and customer reviews might seem exhausting initially, the business can potentially reap the benefits in the long run.
But what if the customers do not want to write down their positive experiences with your brand? What will you do then?
Worry not, to get your loyal customers talking, here are some smart strategies that you can adapt to your business model and acquire honest feedback even from your dissatisfied customers.
The Best Way to Get More Customer Reviews
The following strategies will aid you to enhance your business model, make better-informed decisions and influence the newcomer's buying decisions.
Beware, negative feedback will also flow with positive reviews. Do not feel bad, take it as a chance to improve your products and services alongside the online marketing for your business.
Know Your Goals and Your Audience
Before you ask potential customers for reviews, it is essential to build a good online reputation and also manage your social media channels. Plan on what method you will use and how would you ask a client for review.
Thereafter, streamline the clients you want to gain customer feedback or a positive review from. Do not send review requests to everyone who visits your online business. The review request campaign should be focused on a specific target audience.
Utilize Review Request Template
Social media platforms are a great way to expand the online presence of your brand especially when you can leverage them as business review sites.
A review funnel link in your social media channels can easily navigate the potential clients to your company's website and to other pages where they a client can leave their positive reviews.
Furthermore, you can use an email review request template for social media channels such as Facebook, Yelp, and Google. You can ask the customers to leave a written or even a video review about your services- whatever they feel suitable.
The review templates can eliminate the negative reviews thereby adding a positive buzz to your online brand.
Facebook Review Request Template
It has been estimated that around 1.8 billion users around the world log in to Facebook every day. Facebook also acts as a content marketing or digital marketing hub as it garners thousands of reviews from users. Many of your customers would already have an active Facebook account, all you need to do is add a review funnel link in the email or your website.
Customize the review request template that will direct them to your Facebook page where they can leave online reviews.
Yelp Review Request Template
Yelp has a great online reputation in retaining loyal customers who potentially leave a positive review for the business they use. The review policies on Yelp are a little different and they do not allow you to ask the clients directly for any reviews.
Therefore, during the post-purchase transaction email, add a review funnel link to your Yelp page, where they can write their experience.
A review request template in the email for Yelp will help you abide by the policies yet still as the clients for reviews- a complete win-win.
Google Review Request Template
Almost 60% of the people trust the Google reviews, with no questions asked. If you have an online business, you must have a Google My Business Page (if not, get running now), and that is a great platform to leverage customer reviews without minimal marketing efforts.
Google reviews also help to rank up your business on search engines and increase user visibility so that people know where to find your brand.
Pros of Review Request Template
- No hassle of generating email content every time
- The review funnel link easily connects the customers to the various business pages
- The customer acknowledges the sense of responsibility and involvement from the brand
Cons of Review Request Template
- No downside as such, except that negative reviews from customers, can bring bad names to the company
You can also design an SMS review request template (discussed later).
Leverage Email Marketing to Ask for Reviews
The easiest way to increase the influx of new reviews is to leverage a review request email campaign.
You can either conduct surveys in an email or just post a review website profile link to the page where the customer can write freely about their experience with your brand. Review request emails can be great to acquire a detailed review, especially when you are a budding online brand.
As customers tend to leave their email ids when they make a transaction, the email review volume can also help you assess the number of transactions that happened. This is why it is essential to collect email addresses during the billing and checkout procedure.
Here is how you can ask for email reviews:
- Use cold/personalized emails/ email templates: Your customers would prefer you call them by their first names-it develops a sense of trust. Therefore, the emails should add a "personalized" touch and not appear as they were generated by a feeling-less bot.
- Do not complicate it: Nobody has time to fill pages of questionnaires or search your online social media platforms to post their feedback. So just make it easy for the customers and add a review link in the email to your online pages like Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, or Twitter where they can leave valuable feedback.
- Be precise: Keep the review request short and to the point yet polite and friendly.
Pros of review request emails
- It is a quick way to acquire online reviews and bring an increase in conversion rate
- Personalized emails enhance the customer relationship with the business
- It is easier to track the number of people that used the links the emails
- The identity of the customer is not hidden
Cons of review request emails
- Most customers do not bother to check their emails
- It can become a hassle only the customers who have purchased things from your online store
Leverage Social Media Channels For Reviews
In today's digital era, where the entire world is at your fingertips, more than 85% of the world's population uses one or the other social media platform. With time, social media channels have become the biggest international marketing platforms and can have proven highly profitable even for budding businesses.
Once you decide on your review request template for all your social media pages and the company website (as discussed above), leverage them to gain more feedback.
Apart from specific review templates, you can start an engaging post where you ask specific questions and the followers (customers) leave their thoughts and reviews in the comment section. You can ask the customers to vote for which product they want or what improvements they need to see. Ask the customers to share their fun stories about the experience they had with your brand and customer service.
Pros of Social Media
This will help you reap many benefits such as
- You can get customer engagement
- Enhance customer experience on-site by answering their queries
- Indirectly reinforce them to leave positive customer feedback
- Hassle-free business marketing (Osborne digital marketing)
- Get more sales and more followers!
Cons of Social Media
Easier to steal your content and strategies
Customers can leave a bad review on many channels damaging your online reputation
Request Reviews On-Phone via SMS or Calls
You can always call the customer or send them a customized SMS to acquire customer reviews even if they forget. You can ask them about their experience and encourage them to leave a review so you can provide a better experience next time.
Customize SMS review request template just like you would do for your online pages to save time in the future yet gain valuable feedback. You can add a review funnel link in the SMS that can guide the customer so they know where to write their review.
Ask for On-Site Reviews
If the customer is shopping in-store, you can verbally ask them to leave a review via their mobile app or SMS. Furthermore, handing out placards, brochures, billing receipts and even gift cards with a review request, feedback section or a review funnel link can encourage the customers to write a review for your brand.
Even if they are shopping online, you can include reminders on the different pages so they do not forget to leave a review.
A great marketing strategy, as adapted by the Osborne digital marketing, is that provide the customer with a seamless user experience from the start of their buyer journey till even after post-transaction.
Respond and Acknowledge the Customer Reviews
If a customer does not get a response on their feedback or a query, they will never post a review for your brand again.
The key to taking your business to the top is to thoughtfully respond to all the reviews on your online pages, either good or bad. This will help the customers acknowledge your online presence and retain a long-term relationship with your business.
Even simple like or "thank you" reviews can encourage the customer to never shop from anywhere else again. Once you make the customer like your business and customer service, they will spread the "word of mouth" promoting your brand rapidly- just like fire spreads in the forest.
Now, that you have got a huge influx of online reviews and even responded to all of them, you need to scoop out the bad ones and assess the loopholes.
When you get a bad review, acknowledge it and bring the changes needed, your customers know they can trust you. If a customer points out a mistake or bad experience accept the wrong on your part and respond to them courteously.
Provide compensation and offer an immediate solution to their problems so your business's integrity increases.
Never let negative feedback or an angry customer discourage you, take it as an opportunity to learn, improve and grow your business in a better way.
Pros:
- Makes the customer feel valued
- Allows the brand to reassess their business model and improvise
- Enables the business to launch more custoemr0centric products and services
- Enables online reputation management by resolving issues immediately
Cons:
- Customers can turn aggressive and anger you to respond likewise, damaging the brand's reputation
- No or an irrelevant response from your side can you lose potential clients
Provide a Seamless Customer Experience
Assist your customers whenever they need, especially when they are shopping in-store. Be present for them throughout their interaction with your brand. Market your product in a way to make your customers fall in love with your brand.
Exceed the customer's expectations and gain more positive reviews!
Final Thoughts
Your success lies in the customer's happiness and satisfaction. You can expand your online presence to the international marketplace and the customer reviews will help you establish your credibility.
Carefully curate a business model that involves smart strategies to seamlessly gain online reviews- mostly the positive ones. Leverage the feedback from the customers to increase your visibility and ranking on the search engines.
Turn the customer reviews into an intelligent marketing strategy and reap the benefits of a lucrative online marketplace. If you want to improve your online reputation, contact Osborne Digital Marketing today.
