Reviews are a powerful thing. A consumer can be influenced more by a few sentences from a previous customer than by an entire website. One or even a half-star can be all that’s needed to convince a customer to choose your competitor over you. Additionally, reviews play an important role in local SEO rankings.
So how does a business get those sentences or that extra star? You must start by asking your customers for reviews. Let’s look at the different ways you can give your customers a little nudge to leave a review.
In-Person
Create opportunities for a review with conversation. In a perfect world, a customer may approach with unsolicited praise. This would set you up to express your appreciation for taking the time to give feedback. If the opportunity presents itself, seize it! Don’t be afraid to strike up the conversation to ask a customer for a review but also remember not to force it. Make sure to get a read on a customer as you would want only genuine responses.
Over the Phone
Those who own or operate a customer support-heavy business can find a lot of chances to ask clients for reviews over the phone. However, you should choose carefully who you ask. Asking a client for a review after a long or difficult issue is probably not the best idea. The best time to ask for a review is if you have a self-proclaimed satisfied customer (ideally if they express gratitude for your help).
Via Text
Text messaging has become one of the most popular forms of communication for a business. Consider setting up an automatic text after a service or purchase that politely requests a review.
Via Email
Emailing is still a great way to get in contact with your customers. Typically, consumers check their email before doing anything else online. This is why asking for reviews using email is a strong and most common approach. You can experiment by sending a blast email with an email script that works for everyone or try to make it personal by sending individual requests.
Social Media
Utilizing your social media platform for reviews is important. If you are going to do so, make sure Facebook is your top priority as it’s a top review site. Share your review link as a post or share a previous customer’s review to inspire others to give feedback.
There are multiple ways you can go about asking for reviews; however, the most effective method will vary depending on what your business may be. Therefore, it is best to have a variation in strategies in place to explore methods to see which suits your business best. Need help getting quality reviews? Let Hometown Marketing Group inc. help build your business reputation and ranking. Call us today to speak to one of our skill representatives.
