Positive Reviews Are Arguably The Most Effective Way To Win More Customers.
Online reviews play a huge role in marketing business if you can get many positive reviews on various review sites including Google+, Yelp, and Trip advisor; you are likely to enjoy increased sales. You have to play a role in the generation of positive comments and reviews.
It is unethical to request positive reviews, but encouraging customers to give their feedback is not. Let them know you would like to hear their opinion without specifying you are looking for positive reviews. In the US alone, almost 70% of online shoppers will take time to read reviews before buying anything in both online and offline stores.
Reviews are important, and you cannot afford to overlook them. Yes, it is hard to ask for positive reviews, but there are cool ways to solicit rating without being a bother to customers. You cannot ignore the benefits of positive reviews and nothing can beat a spotless reputation online, except that it will never happen automatically. You must do something to get those bright stars. It is not a walk in the park to ask for five-star ratings from strangers who have just bought your products or services, while being careful not to be unethical. It’s a risk you have to take to minimize the harmful impact of negative feedback and comments. Here are some hacks to help you solicit positive reviews online in an ethical way:
Ask For a Review after Serving a Customer Successfully
No one can tell the perfect way to encourage rating from customers ethically. Trusted review sites such as the Yelp will filter any reviews they believe were solicited. However, this doesn’t prevent a business owner from letting their customers know that a review would be excellent. You can simply ask for a review without specifying you are looking a positive one. This will not influence the rating a buyer decides to leave. It helps especially when a business has many happy customers and will alleviate the problems caused by the angry ones.
Be polite and let it sound like your company is dedicated to improving customer services by reading the feedbacks left by their buyers. Don’t be pushy after delivering the product or service; nevertheless make sure you ask them as soon as possible to leave a review on a reputable review site like the Yelp as soon.
Check Your Reputation to Understand What Your Customers Care About
This requires you to hire a reputation management service to help you research and know your customers’ greatest concern. You can use the information to become better than before. Reputation management will also inform you what customers love about your business and what they do not like. Armed with such knowledge, you can improve dramatically on areas where customers feel they are not served properly. The buyers will notice the changes and be quick to leave positive reviews.
Respond To All Feedbacks and Especially the Bad Ones
Business owners are required to respond to every review that you get on various channels such as Google Places, Yelp, and Trip Advisor. By responding, you let other people know your company cares and takes comments from their customers seriously. It also encourages others to leave reviews after you have served them while those who had left negative reviews will acknowledge when the problem is addressed. By responding immediately, you can turn negative rating into a business opportunity.
Blog and Do an Outreach Campaign
Reach out to bloggers writing topics related to your products or services. They can write about your products and reach many people with positive information. However, associate yourself with high authority bloggers so that prospects can trust you quickly. If many people can believe the blogger, they are likely to leave you positive reviews after they buy from you.
Smile More Instead Of Frowning
It is common for customers to get angry and curse. They will leave you venomous reviews during that moment of range. However, it would help if you do not respond angrily. Be calm and react in a friendly manner and reach out to the customer. Cool them down with kind words. You can reply privately because some other customers might come up with the same problem expecting similar favors. Smiling will make the customer respond to their review and explain how you handled their issue. This becomes similar to a positive review.
Include a Link in the Email Signature
If you usually communicate with your customers through email, include a link to the targeted review websites in the email signature. Start with something like “Did we serve you as expected? If you liked our services or products, consider leaving us a review at (you insert the link here). If something went wrong, please give us a call now, and we solve it (provide a phone number)”
Include Everyone
You should seek reviews from everyone. Even those customers who enquired about your products but never bought; ask them to rate your services.
Always celebrate the positive reviews.
If your business has an offline store, print some of the positive reviews and hand them where other customers can see them. Responding to online reviews is easy and you can do it instantly. This assures your buyers that you are the right retailer for them. Your staff will also have a good reason to engage with the customers and serve as a reminder for other customers to leave a review.
Many positive reviews will increase your business. A study carried out by business researchers showed that more 87% of buyers admit being influenced by positive reviews when shopping. Also, more than 80% change their mind the moment they see negative reviews.
Ratings are not easy to influence despite being so important to business owners and marketers. However, please avoid unethical tactics when looking for positive feedback. Such tactics can backfire and ruin the reputation of your business. Always go for ethical ways and even though they may be slow, they are sure.
We Can Help You Get Stellar Online Reviews on Autopilot!
MyReviewEngine is a review management tool that will help you score five-star reviews faster and keep your online reputation as white as cotton. Every negative review, can potentially be turned into a business opportunity.
The review management software platform eases the process to attain five-star Google Business reviews by soliciting reviews automatically from your customers via email and text (SMS) and reminds them periodically. You can use it to monitor reviews posted about your business, auto-post good reviews to social media and your website, gauge customer sentiment and much more.