How to Encourage Customer Reviews
Maintaining a positive business reputation has always been one of the most important aspects of a small business owner. Word of mouth is now made easier with a multitude of places for customers to review businesses. Google Reviews, Yelp, Yahoo!, Wedding Wire, and Angie’s List are where potential customers look and others leave reviews. Yes, people still ask friends and family for recommendations. Then it’s online they go to find the best in the business.
Here are four tips to help encourage customer reviews.
1. Make it Easy.
As a small business, it is difficult to always get customer reviews. The easier you make it, the more likely customers will take the time to write it. Have multiple places for customers to go. Provide links in emails, so all they have to do it click and write.
2. Are You Too Shy, Shy?
You have to be candid. Let customers know why you reviews are important to our business. You can use any of the following:
- I want to improve my business
- Your opinion matters to us
- My web people said I needed to
3. Ask Immediately.
This is important since the sooner you ask, the more likely people will write the review. Send an initial email asking for the review. Then if they haven’t written a review, then send a follow up email three days after the initial email. Be sure to include links!
4. Turning Frowns into Smiles.
The ultimate goals is to solicit positive customer reviews. However, there is the old adage “You can’t please everyone all the time.” Negative reviews are bound to happen. Be sure to address them by listening to what the unhappy customer has to say. How you handle these types of reviews are just as important as collecting negative one. Need tips on how to handle negative reviews? Read 5 Ways to Handle Negative Reviews.
Distillery Web Design and Marketing is a feature website builder, online marketer, and advertising specialty consulting group working with businesses in the Lebanon, Camdenton, Osage Beach, Springfield, and St. Robert areas of Missouri. Facebook, websites, online promotions, print media, radio promotions, online newsletters, graphic design and direct mail campaigns are our specialty. We know how to get the Internet, social networking and new media to work for you!