How to Get Customers to Review Your Business Online

When it comes to converting casual browsers into eager buyers, 1 tactic can help prompt shoppers to action: client reviews.

In fact, according to Global Web Index, almost half of consumers in Due north America use online client reviews when they are actively searching for more than information nearly a brand, product, or service. And 31.2% of consumers in North America say they trust what online reviews say about products.

People trust their peers more than they trust businesses. That's why encouraging client reviews is vital to the success of your retail business.

Merely how exactly practice you encourage customers to leave reviews? Here, we'll tackle the ins and outs of customer reviews, including how to get them, the different types of reviews, and real-life examples.

Allow's dive in.

Why are customer reviews important?

Real customer reviews tin can persuade a new, on-the-fence buyer to take activeness and make their own purchase.

Potential shoppers can gather more than information that is relevant to them by browsing customer reviews from like-minded consumers or other shoppers in situations similar to their own.

Modcloth, for example, doesn't merely let customers to write reviews. It encourages shoppers to share details about the product and nearly themselves, so other customers can better understand how a specific garment may fit them past finding and reading a review from someone with a similar shape and weight to their own.

Detailed reviews like this that announced on your website can even help with SEO, because Google sees everything.

Customer reviews and SEO

When information technology pertains to SEO, Google always puts the customer first. Your customer is Google's user. Google takes cues from what its users want, believe, and trust. For this reason, if your customers leave reviews (good or bad), Google uses this as a signal to rank your website. Good reviews will help y'all rank college on the first page, while bad reviews may hurt your rankings.

How practiced reviews can impact your SEO

Obviously, skilful reviews are the type of reviews y'all desire. They can positively impact SEO in the following ways:

Increasing your click-through charge per unit. People are more likely to click on a link to your site that's associated with positive reviews.

Improving your rankings for targeted keywords. User-generated content (UGC) tin help SEO, making reviews a perfect style to generate genuine, authentic quality content for your concern. And that's the type of content Google likes to crawl. Considering that the content is related to your make, it'll probably include keywords relevant to your business organisation. Google loves this blazon of content because information technology provides a transparent picture of your retail business then it can be positioned better for relevant searches.

Edifice social media engagement. While social media is not a directly ranking cistron, it can help with SEO, because posts exercise show up in search results. Quality content is of import for SEO, and customer reviews are a perfect example of authentic content. Integrating customer reviews into your social media strategy will encourage more than people to talk about you lot, resulting in better search effect rankings.

Decreasing website bounce rates. If shoppers can read online reviews and acquire more well-nigh your business from existing customers, chances are they'll spend more time on your website, and hopefully convert.

How bad reviews can bear on your SEO

Getting a few bad reviews is inevitable. You can't delight everyone. Simply the style you handle them can result in turning a negative state of affairs into a positive one, and they tin still positively bear on SEO. Here'southward how:

Increasing your business brownie. If all of your reviews are perfect, prospective customers might consider them spammy. In fact, 67% of buyers adopt to encounter a mix of positive and negative customer reviews. It helps them determine if the business concern is trustworthy. So a few negative reviews can accept a positive impact on your SEO.

Providing opportunities to improve. Your feelings might be hurt at commencement, but in one case y'all rationalize the situation, bad reviews are a great resource to help y'all better sympathize your customers and amend your business and your SEO. By responding to negative reviews, you're proving to both your customers and Google that there is a human being working to improve.

Creating opportunities to respond. The argent lining with bad reviews is that they give you the chance to respond and proactively manage your online presence and reputation. Responding to reviews (good or bad) is crucial to SEO.

Customer reviews build social proof

Client reviews can also play into social proof. Human beings tend to look to groups or communities to validate their decisions.

A customer might be interested in a product but hesitant to buy. Customer reviews can provide the "social proof" he or she needs to validate their initial interest and make the decision to purchase, since they tin can see how other shoppers enjoy the products.

When a customer writes a review, that story tin can human activity equally disarming feedback from an unbiased source in a way your production description lonely merely can't do. No matter how detailed and honest you lot are, you lot conspicuously have a vested interest in presenting your products in the best light. You're a retailer who wants to turn a turn a profit, after all.

This data from Invesp agrees with the claim that customer reviews impact sales and conversions:

ninety% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business concern.
88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Customers are probable to spend 31% more on a business with "first-class" reviews.

And if you're however a little on the fence nearly allowing—much less encouraging—customer reviews for fear of giving a few sour grapes a stage, consider that fifty-fifty negative reviews can be valuable for your business concern. In fact, co-ordinate to this study from BrightLocal:

lxx% of consumers are more than probable to use a business that responds to negative reviews.

Now that you empathise how powerful and compelling client reviews can be, cheque out these 10 strategies to encourage the people who buy from you lot to leave their own review (because 70% of consumers volition go out a review for a business if they're asked to!).

Put customer reviews on autopilot

With Shopify, yous can collect contact details both online and in-store, create always-on electronic mail campaigns, and take the transmission work out soliciting customer reviews. Connect with local shoppers on Facebook, Instagram, and Google, build customer profiles to fuel your memory marketing email campaigns, and more.

How to get client reviews

Now that you lot empathize the importance of customer reviews, it's time to devise a plan to get them. Here are a few strategies to get you lot started:

i. Start by asking for customer reviews

Don't presume your shoppers, even the most loyal ones, will have the initiative to write a review for you lot. I of the best ways to encourage customer reviews is to simply enquire your customers. As we mentioned before, 70% of customers will leave a review when asked. So, you lot'll likely exist pleasantly surprised by how willing they are to assist.

Observe polite and unique ways to ask shoppers to write reviews for products they buy. You don't just have to ask for a review. Your actual inquire could exist worded in a variety of personable, friendly ways, depending on your brand'south voice:

Leave feedback
Share your thoughts
Tell the states about your experience
How did you like your buy?

Your arroyo and channel are of import factors to consider when asking for customer reviews. Here are a few ideas:

Asking for reviews in person. You may desire to save asking for a review in person for echo customers, as you know they've already had the run a risk to apply your products. The next fourth dimension a loyal customer comes into your store, you can strike up a conversation at checkout and kindly ask them to leave a review. Display your business cards at the counter then you can give them to shoppers. This way they'll know where to find yous online to write a review.

Asking for reviews over SMS. If SMS is part of your retail marketing strategy, information technology's the perfect channel to ask for customer feedback. You tin create an automated text message that gets sent one to two weeks afterward the customer receives their society. Be sure to include a direct link to the product they bought and so it's piece of cake for them to exit a review using their smartphone.

Request for reviews via email. You lot can besides create automated post-buy emails that are personalized to each customer, and trigger them one to two weeks subsequently a shopper receives their purchase. In this e-mail you can say something like:

Hullo [Name],

Nosotros hope you're enjoying your [insert product proper name]! We'd dear it if you could leave a

review on our website to help other shoppers make a pick.

Here's a link [add together hyperlink] to the production(due south) you purchased.

Thanks again for your business organization!

Thanks,

[Your concern name]

In improver to post-purchase emails, incorporate customer review campaigns in your email marketing strategy. For example, once a month or once a quarter you tin can ship a general electronic mail entrada to everyone who has purchased from your store in the past and include details about where and how they tin can get out client reviews.

If there are options to leave reviews on your website or your Google Business listing, or to send testimonials to y'all via email, make it known and make information technology easy to practise.

Asking for reviews upon order commitment. For online orders, you can include a postcard in the package asking for a review. This style, the customer is reminded to get online and write a review about their experience with your business concern and the products they purchased.

Asking for reviews via social media. One time you lot've received a few testimonials or quotes, yous can mail them on Instagram. This can assistance encourage more than people to ship in reviews to exist featured, either via direct message or electronic mail. Do this by including a brief note in the caption that says something like, "Practice you want to share your review also and be featured? Send us an email at [insert e-mail address] or a direct message here."

Another way to ask for reviews via social media is to respond to posts that people tag

your business in and enquire them if you can share their content and caption nearly your business on your profile. You tin also send them a straight message asking if they could take a few minutes to write an online review and include a link to the product folio so the procedure is quick and easy.

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two. Create an automatic customer review process that scales

A surefire mode to get more customer reviews is to create a review process that helps you automate asking for reviews and scales with your business organization.

Make getting testimonials and reviews a regular part of your concern operations and process to help build social proof. More reviews equal more proof and can build more trust in your retail business. Information technology'due south also of import to consistently get new reviews, as outdated ones don't encourage new shoppers to convert to paying customers as much.

Here are a few ways to contain request for reviews into your daily business practices:

Train your sales and client service staff to e'er inquire for client feedback.
Regularly remind loyal customers to leave reviews.
Integrate asking for reviews into your email and SMS automation campaigns.
Add review links to thanks pages or society confirmation emails.
Include iii to five testimonial posts per calendar month in your social media strategy to encourage other customers to leave reviews.

Virtually importantly, whatsoever strategy you choose for getting client reviews, exist consistent and suit information technology if necessary.

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three. Reduce friction for reviews

Include a system for reviews inside your ecommerce site. Y'all tin can browse unlike retailers' online stores to see how they ready their reviews, but consider including a star-rating system (since consumers feel that's the most important measure out).

Amazon's customer review system may set up the standard for retailers. It includes a star organisation, forth with written reviews, and a search functionality that allows shoppers to read various types of reviews.

Amazon besides includes easy-to-find Write a Review buttons.

You can include your own calls to action on product pages, within your confirmation pages and emails, or in receipts and invoices. Along with making it easy to leave reviews for specific products, make the folio where customers tin do so piece of cake to find.

4. Use the correct Shopify product review app

In that location's an abundance of Shopify apps you can use to add production review functions to your ecommerce site.

Hither are a few to get y'all started:

Product Reviews
Stamped.io Product Reviews
Loox Product Reviews & Photos
Judge.me Production Reviews

5. Follow up on your requests for customer reviews

Customers volition likely leave reviews weeks or even months afterwards they made the initial purchase.

With Shopify, your customers' contact data—whether they bought from yous in-store or online—is readily available in 1 centralized identify, rather than existence stored on multiple platforms. Consider using that contact list and Shopify POS' built-in electronic mail marketing tools to create an ever-on email campaign and solicit reviews from customers a few days subsequently they receive their production.

six. Claim your business online and on social media

Customers can leave reviews in more places than but your own website. Yous want to make it easy for happy customers to write reviews when they have positive experiences with your brand.

Be sure to set your concern upwardly on tertiary-party sites that encourage positive consumer reviews.

Commencement with the following:

Google My Business organization
Yelp
Facebook
Other search engines, like Bing and Yahoo

You tin can too use manufacture-specific directories that are relevant to your business concern. These might include places like Angi, Citysearch, Trustpilot, or Tripadvisor.

vii. Offer incentives in exchange for reviews

You tin can encourage customers to write reviews by rewarding them for doing so. Incentivizing your shoppers this manner makes sense and information technology's fair—after all, it takes time and endeavour to write a review, so receiving some sort of reward for doing so is likely to add to the overall positive experience they had with your make.

You can offer coupons or disbelieve codes to encourage buyers to share their feedback publicly. Or host periodic drawings and giveaways and choose a winner from the puddle of customers who submitted reviews in a certain timeframe.

Rewarding customers for writing reviews is an acceptable do. Buying reviews is something to avoid. Your offer should simply be for writing a review, not for writing a review with an angle or spin you requested.

8. Meet them where they are (a.k.a. get mobile)

You tin can further encourage customers to get out reviews if you brand those reviews easy to write on mobile. Merely make sure the review you desire them to write lines up with what's realistic for pollex-based typing.

Creating a place for customers to answer and leave a star rating, for example, is an like shooting fish in a barrel job to perform on a smartphone.

You can also get creative and expect to gather not but written reviews but also data points from surveys. This will allow you to write web copy you tin can utilise to set alongside client reviews, while still making information technology easy to get out feedback on mobile.

Hither's an example. Say you send out a three-question, yes-or-no answer survey:

Are you satisfied with your product?
Would yous recommend this to a friend?
Would you buy this once more?

You tin can so tally responses and include the data on your product's sales folio, like Naked Wines does:

It's not a written review—but it can supplement longer-form feedback provided past other customers. (Plus, yous can include a field to ask for comments, which can and so exist published every bit customer reviews.)

9. Educate customers on why reviews are important

Take time to explain why customer reviews are of import to your business organization. You can do this in the mail-buy email follow-upwards y'all send to customers. Tell them how getting reviews tin help yous build trust and abound your concern, and chances are they'll be on board to support y'all.

x. Make writing reviews simple with templates

We've all been there. You want to write a review, just you're short on fourth dimension and don't actually know what to say. Providing your customers with a template they can plug a few words into or even a few points to spark ideas can help encourage them to follow through with leaving a review.

You could include a few ideas in a follow-upward electronic mail like this:

Hi [Name],

Thanks for your contempo purchase! We hope you lot love your new [insert product name].

If you lot enjoyed your shopping experience with usa, we were on time, and the quality of the trade is satisfactory, could you lot spare a few minutes to let us know?

Please share your feedback with u.s.a. past writing a review hither: [insert link].

Cheers,

[Insert your name/concern proper name]

Examples of customer reviews

There are many dissimilar formats for customer reviews. Whether you lot're collecting reviews on your website, via peer review sites like Google or Yelp, or sharing customer testimonials on social media, all these strategies will increase your chances of converting more customers.

Making it easy for your customers to write and share reviews will assistance you lot succeed. Hither are a few examples of the types of customer reviews you can focus on.

Quotes and testimonials

1 of the most popular forms of customer review is quotes or testimonials from customers. They're nigh usually seen on a company website, normally on the homepage. But many brands besides post client testimonials on social media or share them via email marketing to gain the trust of prospective customers and encourage more than existing customers to give feedback.

Here'southward an example of a testimonial quote nearly iii-quarters of the way down Thinx'southward homepage:

These curt quotes about how your products benefit people will help requite your retail business credibility. It helps dorsum up your messaging, making information technology sound more believable considering someone besides you is saying it.

Testimonials crave footling effort from y'all and your customers, making them 1 of the easiest types of client reviews to manage. All you need to do is ask your customers to share their shopping experience via email, social media, SMS, or in person. Then information technology's up to yous to add the quotes to your website and share them through social media.

Online production reviews

Online production reviews help motility prospective customers through the online ownership process. Many consumers also utilize online product reviews to practise research most items before making an in-shop buy.

Different client testimonials, online product reviews are listed directly on the respective product page and often include stars for ranking. You lot tin can use one of the customer review Shopify apps to add product review functionalities to your online store.

Here's an example of an online product review on i of TITOV's product pages:

TITOV is an intimates brand that offers a limited pick of made-to-guild lingerie in a wide range of sizes. Information technology uses online product reviews to build trust and assistance prospective customers choose products while they're shopping online.

We asked the CEO and founder, Masha Titova, for a few tips on getting online client reviews:

Ship cold emails and direct messages on social media asking customers to leave a review. Don't be shy.
Make it conversational, non robotic. When yous ask for a review, also ask if there's anything they desire to come across more of from your business.
Create an automated email period that triggers mail service-purchase asking for a product review.
Offer a complimentary gift in exchange for a review.

Nosotros did a gratis offer entrada and sent a 'surprise' to anyone who wrote a review, and information technology generated about 50 reviews in 24 hours.

Review sites like Google and Facebook

Peer review sites similar Facebook reviews, Yelp, and Google reviews are a great way to build trust in your make and, as we mentioned before, they can positively impact your SEO. This makes information technology easier for people to notice your business concern online.

According to GWI research:

81% of US consumers say being able to easily find a local retailer through searching online is important to them.

As a brick-and-mortar establishment, optimizing your online presence for local search is crucial to increasing awareness and foot traffic for your business concern.

You can beginning past creating a Google My Business (GMB) listing. It's free and makes it easier to connect with local customers on Google Search and Maps. Y'all can create a listing that displays more than than just reviews, too. List store information like contact details, a link to your website, store hours, a map, photos, videos, coupons, and more.

Hither's an instance of Google reviews on Reigning Champ's GMB list:

Reviews on peer-to-peer sites like Facebook and Google can happen organically, making the review process easier for small businesses. But you don't have as much command over these types of reviews. Bad reviews can have a big impact on your business, merely some negative feedback likewise makes the reviews seem more authentic to prospective customers. Also, with review sites, you can't edit, delete, or deny reviews, so people don't worry about whether they're real or not.

Peer-to-peer review sites are typically 1 of the first places a new customer goes to for research when they're considering making an order. That'southward why it's important to circular up a few positive reviews and always respond promptly to negative ones.

Social media

The more than places yous become customer reviews, the higher the chances are of prospective customers gaining trust in your brand and feeling comfortable plenty to consummate a purchase.

You can apply social media to promote quotes and testimonials or to collect reviews straight on the platform.

Hither's an example of a few customer reviews on TITOV's business Facebook page:

And hither's an example of a customer testimonial that TITOV posted to its Instagram page:

Repurposing client quotes and online production reviews as content on your Instagram feed helps build credibility. The key here is that real-life customers are aligning with your brand messaging and helping shoppers run across the value in your products.

Client interviews and stories

You may already know that storytelling in retail can assistance engage shoppers quicker. People buy from people, and telling a story is a dandy fashion to humanize your business organization. But it doesn't only need to be a story that's direct about your business or products. You tin besides tell stories most your customer through interviews on your blog, and these stories will serve as a class of customer reviews.

But how practise y'all get started with customer stories? Here are a few means:

Come upwardly with a listing of three to five questions to ask your customers.
Add the questions to a Google Course.
Send an e-mail campaign to past customers and include a link to the course.
Make sure to add a section where they can upload a picture and provide their social media handles.
Use their responses to create a Q&A-way blog article.
For each interview you tin can add together an introduction and conclusion.
Share the blog interview via social media and email marketing (be sure to tag people on social).

Examples of questions you can ask if you sell intimates

What are your acme three cocky-care tips?
When ownership lingerie for yourself exercise y'all opt for colors or neutrals?
What do you love almost about your new [insert product proper name]?
Quickfire questions:

Briefs or thongs?
Lace or cotton fiber?
Padded or soft bras?
Sexy or applied?

Client stories and interviews provide personal context to your retail business. Rather than getting bombarded with marketing letters from your company, prospective and existing customers get to read stories directly from people who have feel with your brand.

The benefits of client reviews for omnichannel selling

When information technology comes to omnichannel selling, encouraging client reviews is crucial to helping move the needle. Using online reviews for local SEO will not but assistance y'all sell more than online, it will also help you attract more local customers to your retail store.

Many in-store shoppers also inquiry products online before they buy in person. And then having a lot of customer reviews tin can help turn browsers into paying customers, no affair what channel they're shopping on.

Increment store pes traffic with customer reviews

Shopify POS comes with built-in tools to bring more shoppers to your store, specially via social proof. Manage your Google Merchant Center listing without leaving your point of sale, evidence each product's availability across all store locations, offering in-shop pickup, and more.

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Source: https://www.shopify.com/retail/how-to-encourage-customer-reviews-and-why-you-should