Customer reviews are significantly crucial for your business, maybe more so than you currently believe. Customer reviews serve as an invaluable reputation builder. Reading the words of a total stranger that the product or service they want to purchase is valuable, worth the cost, and worthy of the time spent writing the review tells the world an immense amount about you.
A regular flow of positive customer reviews also has a direct impact on how many customers you retain and how many you bring into your business every day. So learning how to ask customers for a review is a critical step in growing your online brand (and sales).
Positive customer reviews will help you, but you have to know how to ask for a review in ways that are motivating to your customer. If you don’t do this extra step, you’re relying purely on someone’s generosity to give you a review. And more often than not, we’re all very busy. You will get more customer reviews if you make it easy for someone to be generous in this special way. And that means, you have a simple way for someone to give you a review.
In this article, we will talk about how to ask for a review. We’ll also cover how to convert your review across different platforms or social networks to get the best results from your positive reviews. This is the work that will help your business to grow in the future.
Why You Need to Ask for Reviews
Asking for reviews is essential, and some people might feel intimated by reaching out and asking for information from customers after they’ve purchased or been serviced by your company. However, you need to ask for a review for several different reasons.
Did you know that “4 out of 5 Americans read reviews before making a purchase decision.” The question is why?
- They read for evidence, proof, certainty or clarity about the product/service
- They read to get a “sense” of the provider
- They read to set their expectations
- They read to see where your business has limitations or weakness
- They read for unbiased opinions
- They read to feel comfortable saying “yes” or “no”
- They read to confirm their decisions
And just as 4 out of 5 people read reviews, 94% say that a negative review convinced them to avoid a business. Reviews matter. A lot.
How To Ask For A Review Effectively
Strategies for asking for reviews can range from very general to very strategic. Here are some of the best practices by type of communication method for how to ask for a review.
In-Person
When you are chatting with a customer about their experience with your brand, it is the perfect time to request gently that they give you feedback. Here’s an example of what you could say:
Thank you so much for sharing that with me. We’d love to hear more about your experience. Would you feel comfortable sharing more about this with our customer support team? It can help us improve for the future and share this with potential customers interested in our buying experience.
This will help you gather their thoughts just as it helps them understand why their perspective matters, and make them feel valued. But, of course, it provides crucial information to your business team and potential customers, too!
Over the Phone
Asking for reviews over the phone is equally as simple. When speaking with a client or customer over the phone, ask them about their experiences, reflections and check to see if their experience aligned with their desired outcome. This valuable communication creates a direct point of contact between you and the customer.
When you decide to ask for a review, there are many ways that you can do this over the phone. One of the best ways that we have found is the following:
It was so great hearing about your experience, and I’m glad to hear that you were satisfied with our company’s service! We’d love for you to share this on our website with our customer support team. Would you be willing to fill out a short review on the website for us?
Asking like this will allow them to share their complete thoughts and reflect on some of the conversations you may have had together. So often, all a happy customer needs is a little nudge to share their views.
Asking Over Email
If you must ask over the email, you can also reflect some of the same languages that we’ve talked about for talking over the phone and in person. Over email, you can present a very similar case and request feedback politely and effectively.
Here’s an example of what you can say:
Thank you so much for your email, and it was great hearing about your experience! We love to hear from our customers, and we encourage them to share their thoughts with us so we can improve our work. Would you be willing to email your thoughts and experience with us at your earliest convenience? We would love to hear how we satisfied your expectations or how we can improve on this in the future.
An email like this offers your clients the incentive of time to consider their thoughts before responding. Often, some of the most meaningful feedback is offered in this way.
What If You Get A Bad Review?
The biggest trick in the book for how to ask a customer for a review is to simply ask. It’s not rude or an imposition to ask how you did or what a customer thought of your business. In fact, it’s the opposite. It shows you care.
In a world where so many businesses treat customers like a dime a dozen, asking for reviews and truly listening to the feedback is one smart way you can show how much you value your customers. Whether good or bad, the person who takes the time to offer a review has a reason for sharing their thoughts.
Keep in mind that even poor reviews are opportunities for growth and connection. You should respond to every review if you can, but perhaps most importantly, to ones that are critical. If someone has a suggestion, consider how it may help your business?
If someone is really offensive, they are showing their true colors and that says more about them than it does about you. Respond with generosity to make things better. Offer to communicate or speak on a phone call to see how you can fix what feels broken.
If the requests are unreasonable, offer the best solutions you can and remember, you can’t please everyone. If you really hear what’s underneath the criticism, there may be a bit of wisdom to help serve the next customer. That said, if the request is beyond the scope of what’s possible for your business, be honest with your boundaries and limitations. Reasonable people will understand.
And whenever possible, respond in the same review or comment section. This creates a line of evidence about how you tried to help. That goes a long way towards helping the person who read the negative review to understand what you did to rectify the negative feelings shared in the review.
We hope these tips helped you and offered a foundation for how to ask customers for a review. If you have other suggestions or questions, please comment down below and let us know if we can help you create a more substantial online presence for your brand.
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