Getting customer reviews can be challenging. It is difficult for customers to make time out of their busy year to post a review.
At the same time, potential customers can have all the information they need to decide just by reading customer reviews on your listing page. So what’s a local business owner to do?
There are several reasons why your customers might not be leaving reviews. Start thinking of word of mouth and referrals as an asset rather than a liability—something you can cultivate. Follow these simple steps to encourage positive feedback for your business page.
Include a card with their purchase
Reviews are an essential part of selling online. The more reviews you have, the better your reputation and the less time you spend dealing with customer concerns. Unfortunately, some customers are reluctant to leave reviews for various reasons—maybe they don’t see the review box on the product page, or perhaps they aren’t sure how to leave a review.
To encourage customers to leave reviews, you can include a note in your packaging that tells them how simple it is. Because this note will come in addition to any other messages you might consist of with your packaging (ex: “Thank you for buying from us!”), it’s not necessary to add more than one sentence. Simply tell them that leaving a review is as easy as clicking on a link at the bottom of their receipt. Explain how many stars to fill in based on their experience. This way, you’re giving them instructions that are specific to your site and also providing them with a reminder about their positive experience with your business—which will hopefully translate into a positive review!
Include a message on your invoice
You’ve worked hard to get your business up and running, ready to start getting reviews. You don’t want to go overboard, or you’ll turn people off with the amount of spam they’re getting in their inboxes. Still, you’d like to encourage a few people to take the time to share their experience with your business online.
You can add a message to your traditional invoice (or, better yet, directly on your invoices!) that encourages customers to leave reviews online.
A few examples of such messages:
- “Review us on Yelp!”
- “Your feedback makes our business better!”
- “Help others find us by writing a review!”
The key is including a positive message that is specific and actionable: something like “Please rate us on Yelp” or “Please review us on Google Maps” doesn’t work as well because the recipients might not know what those things are or how to do them.
Signage
While you might be tempted to skip this step, a well-designed sign can make all the difference in encouraging people to review your business. The best way to build trust with potential customers is for them to see that other customers have already taken the time to write about their experiences.
A great way to achieve this is by using signage that includes a QR code or link that leads directly to your Google My Business page and allows users to leave feedback quickly and easily.
No matter how well you design your signage, you must include instructions on how people can use it. They might not bother at all if they don’t know how to use it!
Conversation
The conversation is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal. It’s how we communicate with one another, how we form relationships, and how we make decisions.
The conversation is key to encouraging your customers to leave reviews in the review world.
You know you should encourage your customers to leave reviews online, but you don’t know how or where to start. Here are some tips for creating a conversation about thoughts:
- Ask them if they would be willing to leave an online review for your business. This is a great way to start a conversation about thoughts, but only if you genuinely want their opinion on your business. If you ask them this question and don’t follow up with them later, they will feel like they wasted their time and might not be willing to help again.
- Ask them if they would be willing to share their experience on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Social media is another excellent way to encourage reviews from new customers because it allows them to share their experiences with friends who may also need your services!
Takeaways
As you can see, there are many ways to encourage your customers to leave reviews for your business. Using the strategies we outlined above, it’s really up to you to get the ball rolling on your review strategy. But remember, the most important thing is to be patient—don’t be afraid to experiment and try things out before scrapping them altogether! Visit us today.
