Every great marketer understands that word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective way to generate new business. When potential consumers or clients hear favorable feedback from others, it creates trust and impacts decision-making in ways that traditional advertising cannot.
Customer feedback is the new word of mouth. People seek them out, learn from them, and base their purchasing choices on them. Positive reviews may rapidly spread and lead to explosive sales, whilst bad evaluations can hinder income and force a corporation to back down.
Fortunately, earning outstanding customer ratings involves more than simply putting your goods and services out there and hoping for the best. There are strategies you may do to guarantee that your consumers are pleased and eager to offer good feedback.
Why Do People Read Online Reviews?
A person would typically search for an internet review for four reasons:
- Obtaining social proof from consumers who have already utilized the product or service
- to find out more about the goods they are purchasing
- To lessen the likelihood of making a poor purchase
- To have a better understanding of the product’s advantages and disadvantages
Naturally, the objective of every company is to get favorable feedback and utilize it to increase sales and expand their brand online. Here are seven strategies for obtaining positive customer feedback.
1. Request Feedback on Various Platforms
The first step in obtaining positive online reviews is to make it as simple as possible for people to write them. The more work it takes to write a review, the less likely it is that someone will take the time to provide the review you want. Social media and third-party review sites are excellent tools for spreading the word about your organization, product, or service.
Some of the most effective are as follows:
- TikTok
- My Business on Google
- Yelp
- Yellowpages
- Pilot’s Trust
- Glassdoor
- GoodFirms
There are also numerous specialist review sites (depending on your sector) that may be useful for obtaining positive consumer feedback. Trip Advisor in the tourism industry or OpenTable in the restaurant or café industry are two examples.
The idea for all of these platforms is to make things simple and to solicit feedback so that there is no mistake about what you want your visitors to accomplish.
2. Maximize the Use of Your Website
Your website is an excellent resource for obtaining client feedback. Your website and blog entries should be designed so that people can leave comments fast and effortlessly. You should also make it easy to access all of your social media platforms.
If you operate an ecommerce site, you should think about integrating live chat to get fast feedback from clients.Chatbots may also be used to answer questions and automate processes on platforms such as Messenger, Instagram, SMS, and email.
People’s “I want everything right now” mindset may be satisfied by these features. This adds value by shortening reaction times and improving customer service.
3. Request Feedback in Your Emails
If inbound marketing is part of your strategy, you will have an excellent platform to get client feedback.
Use email to nurture and convert customers at important stages in their journey. For example, following a purchase (select a period that works for your company), you may send an email asking for a review. Because individuals feel as though they are interacting with you one-on-one, you will get the most candid feedback imaginable. This will assist you in increasing sales or making required modifications if you find a bad trend in the answers.
If you don’t want to solicit feedback, try including a link to an online poll. Polls and surveys are simple to set up, and the data can be examined quickly. With a survey, you have complete control over the information gathered, allowing you to discover more about your clients.
4. Encourage and Reward Reviews
Consider adding incentives to the process if you aren’t obtaining the number of reviews you’d want or if you just enjoy the notion of rewarding your consumers.
People feel their time is precious, therefore offer them a cause to submit a review. Discounts, coupons, gift cards, or competitions should inspire consumers and may even increase your sales when they return to purchase.
When using this strategy, keep in mind that you must build a reward system that produces the desired outcomes for your firm. Incentives have been demonstrated to increase the positivity of reviews. However, you must also be open and guarantee that the evaluations are real and not prompted just by the “offer.”
5. Improve Your Timing – Learn When to Ask!
When you ask for feedback at the correct moment, you will get more out of the process and enhance your customer service. Timing is everything, whether it’s on social media, your website, or by email. The last thing you want to do is get under someone’s skin at the wrong time, resulting in a nasty review that others will notice.
This implies that you must comprehend and monitor your customer’s journey. Understand where and when people engage with your brand. This will assist you in mapping out the channels and places of contact that will have the most effect and promote engagement.
When is a good time to request a review?
- A product purchase
- Reordering a product
- Making use of a social media hashtag
- Comment on a blog or landing page
- An asset download, such as an ebook
- A customer recommendation
The aim is to contact them while they are feeling happy or content in order for them to convey that experience in the review.
6. Make Known Your Reviews
Promote your existing positive reviews! It’s pointless to keep them buried or saved in a database. It will not only inspire others to purchase from you, but it may also urge them to voice their own ideas.
Consider including reviews on the homepage of your website. Include any product pages and reviews that are directly related to the product. You may also include a ‘Testimonials’ page where all of your reviews can be readily accessed.
Consider including a ‘Tell us what you think’ form or function so that users can quickly contribute their own evaluations.
7. React to Reviews (Both Positive and Negative)
When it comes to client feedback, it’s critical to be proactive. If you’re searching for reviews, make sure you or someone on your marketing, sales, or customer care staff takes the time to read and reply to them.
Positive feedback is simple to reply to. A simple acknowledgement and thank you for taking the time to leave one should enough. Negative evaluations, on the other hand, need more time and attention.
Did you know that 94% of shoppers shun a company because of a negative review? According to Review Trackers, 45% of people are more willing to connect with a firm if it replies to unfavorable reviews.
So pay attention to what the reviewer says and answer with either a remedy or an opportunity to contact the firm to resolve the issue.
Conclusion
There is no perfect recipe for obtaining positive customer feedback, but if you use the strategies outlined above, you will be successful more often than not.
Customers believe what others say, thus it’s worthwhile to not only advertise your goods to others, but also learn more about your client base and products or services.
If you wish to prioritize reviews, assign the work to certain team members and give them ample time to complete it. Once the plan is in place, implement it and keep moving ahead until you have a multi-faceted procedure in place for obtaining feedback from a variety of venues.