Whether you run a B2B or B2C business, reviews are important for every business. Especially the positive reviews, but at the same time, it is difficult to gather positive customer reviews. On the contrary, those who had a negative experience with you are eager to leave a reply.
A few lines of a review can influence a customer. 93% of customers stated that they read online reviews to influence their purchasing decision. In fact 84% of people trust online reviews just like a personal recommendation. You also have to ensure that your reviews are latest and up-to-date. 77% of people do not trust reviews older than three months.
In this article, we’ll learn why customer reviews are important and ways to get more positive reviews. Also, we’ll learn how to ask for reviews on social media.
Why are Customer Reviews Important?
Customer reviews are personal opinions on a brand’s product and service that customers write to express their experience with you. It helps others understand the quality of your product. Many people read these reviews to learn about your services before making a purchase.
Customer reviews are important because they enhance seo, especially if it is a local business. The larger volume of reviews lets you dominate more space in SERP and helps in building an online presence.
It also helps in building trust and credibility and influencing customer purchasing decisions. Nowadays, customers are turned into self-guided researchers; they rely more on the opinions and experiences of other customers when evaluating whether to buy from a business or not. Customer proof plays a crucial role in influencing buying decisions.
Customer reviews also provide you with an opportunity to further enhance your weak points and highlight your unique selling proposition.
Ways to get Reviews from Customers
There are many ways to gather reviews from customers, such as
- Ask Customers: The best way to gather customer reviews is to simply ask them for a review. Customers generally are happy to share their experience with other people. You can ask customers for a review by sending an email, or you can reach out to them on social media. You can give your customers a small card-sized handout with a QR code that will direct them to your Google My Business page. It will direct them to the page where they can write a review for your business.
- Process: Before asking the customers for reviews, you should have a process in place for making the ask. At the end of each high-performing or great video project, you can ask clients to leave reviews. At the end of the deal, customers have made a great customer relationship with the business, hence they are happy to provide a review. You can automate the process of asking for reviews. You can send follow-ups to remind the customer.
- Personalize: Try to personalize your conversation with them. A personalized language helps in building a relationship and rapport between the customer and the business. If someone is planning to leave a review from a mobile app, then make sure your website is optimized for mobile. For best results, you must respond to customer reviews.
- Multiple Platform: Make sure your company account is available on all popular platforms and industry-specific review sites. By having reviews on different sites, you make it easy for customers to leave a review. You can also use short surveys to aggregate customer reviews. Your survey should be short and simple. It can be a combination of two to three multiple-choice questions and an open-ended question.
- Targeted Campaign: The Best review will come from someone who has used your business and its services. You can create targeted email campaigns to encourage satisfied customers to leave a review. Reach out to people who have purchased the same product multiple times, engaged with your business positively on social media, signed up for loyalty programs, etc.
- Incentivize Reviews: It is a bad practice to buy reviews, but incentivizing customers to provide honest reviews can be a winning situation. You can offer loyalty points or a discount on future purchases, etc.
How to Measure the Performance of Reviews
Here are some of the ways to measure the performance of reviews
- Review Volume: Track the number of reviews received over time.
- Review Sentiment: Analyse the sentiment of reviews to understand the overall customer satisfaction.
- Review Rating: Monitor the average rating to understand the overall review performance.
- Net Promoter Score: Calculate the NPS based on reviews to measure customer loyalty.
- Conversion Rate: It measures the impact of reviews on the conversion rate.
- Engagement Metrics: Track likes, shares, and comments on reviews to understand how relevant it is.
A large volume of reviews is essential for your business to boost its reputation, ranking, and eventually its revenue. It plays a fundamental role in growing your business. Before building a relationship or buying from you, customers like to see others’ experiences with your business. Hence, it is important to encourage others to leave more reviews. It also helps in enhancing your seo, especially if you are a local business. To manage reviews across multiple platforms, you must use a review management software or tool such as Lumia 360. It lets you filter, manage, and analyze your reviews and provide suggestions to improve your reviews and strategy. Having more positive reviews builds credibility and trust. To know more about review management software, email info@lumia360.com or call 514-668-5599.
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Read Also: Responding to Negative Reviews: Best Practices and Examples
