We get it, you’ve spent a lot of time and energy building up a store of reviews for your PRODUCTS! But now, not only has your competition grown stronger and more nuanced, but with the influx of customer feedback opportunities on sites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter and more… the risk is that your re-reviews could lag behind those. What does the orange emoji mean?
Here are 10 tips to help you maintain or even grow your PRODUCT REVIEWS in this new digital world:
1. Educate Your Customers
Ask for reviews and tell customers how important they are to your business. Prominently display a link to your review site on your home page, product pages, checkout pages, registration pages and more! Show them how easy it is to leave a review by providing links or buttons that visitors can click on directly.
2. Make Review Requests Fun
Promote the review process in an entertaining way. Offer discounts for those who leave a review or give out random gifts for left reviews. Create contests where people can win prizes or gift cards if they become top reviewers. The more fun you make it, the better results you will get.
3. Use Multiple Optimization Techniques
You’ve got a whole arsenal of marketing tools at your disposal. Use them all! Don’t just ask your customers to leave their comments, ask them to write a review too. Don’t just ask them if they’d like to earn free shipping by leaving a review, ask them if they’d like to earn free shipping AND receive an additional $100 discount on their next purchase as well.
4. Encourage Re-Reviews
You know you have a loyal fan-base when they are happy with the service that you provide. Take the time to reach out to your past customers and ask them if they would consider updating their reviews with a 5-star rating so that your product gets even more recognition. Give your customers many opportunities to leave re-reviews and not only will you build more reviews (and more positive reviews) but you will also build stronger relationships with your customers.
5. Ask Customers to Leave Feedback
People love to share their opinions. As customers leave their feedback, ask them to share it on social media. We all want our friends and family to know what we think of something! Show your customers that you value their feedback and that you care what they think. Ask them to leave feedback on the detail page of an order or in the comment section below a post or review. You can also ask them to leave comments on the products they purchased or left reviews of!
6. Create Confident Customer Reviews
Make your customers feel comfortable leaving reviews and suggest ways for them to do so in a way that reflects their confidence and credibility. If people feel confident, they will write stronger reviews and more often. If they’re not confident, they might be hesitant because there may be perceived risks as well as benefits to leaving a review/comment or even purchasing from you at all.
7. Thank Your Review-Writing Customers
Send email feedback to your review-writing customers offering them the opportunity to leave a review on PRODUCT REVIEWS. This is an excellent way to build trust and as a result, will help strengthen the reviews left by your original customers! Don’t forget to show your reviewers the same appreciation you’d want them to show you. Personalized thank you emails and notes are a great way to build even more rapport with your customers and encourage them to continue leaving reviews for you!
8. Turn Leaving Reviews into A Team Effort
The more people involved in leaving reviews, the higher the likelihood that at least one of them will actually follow through. Have contests or give out gifts for those who leave reviews, as well as for commenters, referring friends/family and others! Get customers involved in helping each other out on social media by retweeting reviews or responding to questions about their shopping experience with your company!
9. Give Customers More Reasons to Leave a Review
The stronger your offer, the more likely people are going to take you up on it. If you can generate more reasons for them to leave a review, the faster you’ll grow your reviews over time! If you offer cheap shipping or free shipping, make sure you ask them how they’d like to redeem the coupon. Ask them why they left the review if it was negative or ask them why they left a positive review if it was. Share their comments and see how much your customers love your company!
10. Reward Your Top Review-Good People
The more reviews a customer leaves, the more likely they are to leave higher quality reviews. A large percentage of your customers will be leaving reviews on sites like Amazon, Yelp and others. Make sure you reward those who leave the best reviews with special offers, discounts, coupons and more! The more quality reviews that are given, the more trust your customers will have in you and a stronger relationship is built between customer and company.
Follow these 10 tips to help you build up your PRODUCT REVIEWS and better serve your customers!
