Tips for User Friendly Reviews
Customer reviews in both online and offline business marketing efforts are very important. In most cases, consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Now that is a powerful marketing tool! While customer reviews are great, they can make business owners a bit weary. There is always a fear of negative feedback as well as obtaining relevant and positive reviews. To make things a bit easier, we’ve compiled a few tips to generate user reviews.
Ask Brand Fans
We get the thumbs up through social media channels such as Facebook, on email and via word of mouth and that’s wonderful, but it’s also okay to ask these people to make their reviews known on your online review platform. You can also ask them if you can use their testimonials on your website and other marketing tools.
Follow Up Post-Service/Purchase
You should never miss an opportunity to follow up with a customer/client who has purchased a product or used a service from your company. A friendly follow-up email asking how a customer/client’s experience went will go a long way in making a positive impact.
Establish a Presence on Major Review Sites
Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo Local, Merchant Circle, Citysearch, etc. are trusted review sites and ones that your company should have its presence known on. Create a profile, keep it updated, and respond to user complaints. Through this method, you can also gain higher visibility, attract more users, and hopefully more positive reviews.
Make it Channel Friendly
Make sure that customers visiting your site, regardless of device, can easily access and enter their reviews.
Create User Profiles
If a customer has to create a user profile to leave a review, they tend to give more accurate reviews than if anonymous and are usually more helpful because their name is behind it.
Publish Reviews for the Public
Reviews are written for others to see. Those who previously read reviews on your site and were encouraged to make a purchase or use your services are more likely to come back and review their experiences.
Offer Multiple Ways to Review a Product/Service
Not all of us are web savvy geniuses. If someone isn’t comfortable writing a review online, then chances are they won’t bother. However, if your company offers the option of multiple choice questions or rate the product/service on a scale of 1-10, people may be more inclined to leave their opinion. Offering multiple ways for people to say the same thing is a great way to secure reviews.
Offer Trial Periods
One way to garner reviews is to offer a trial period for a service. Don’t make it a condition that they have to review your product at the end, but offer the service and hope your quality offering brings them back to review it.
Work with a Review Aggregator
There are companies out there that will help your business generate reviews. These companies can help you send your follow-up emails, work with social media profiles, and offer customers a follow-up coupon to your business. Just make sure to do your homework before partnering with one of these companies and make sure that it will be a beneficial relationship.