How to get more reviews-Ultimate Guide
Are you wondering how to get more reviews for your business? If so, you’re not alone. In today’s digital age, reviews are more important than ever before. They help establish credibility, improve your reputation, and can even influence consumer purchasing decisions.
But getting more reviews isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve put together this comprehensive guide on how to get more reviews for your business. Whether you’re a small to medium size business or a major corporation, these techniques will help you increase the number of reviews you receive on the review pages of your choice.
So let’s dive in and learn how to get more reviews!
Why Reviews Are Important
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to get more reviews, it’s important to understand why reviews are so important in the first place. Here are just a few reasons why they matter:
- Reputation: Reviews help establish your business’s reputation and credibility. When potential customers see that other people have had positive experiences with your business their trust in you increases massively. Ultimately the main reason people do not buy from you at the price you offer is that they do not believe you will deliver the value, reviews help build this value and it shows as on average the businesses with the highest reviews charge up to 30% more for like-for-like services.
- Consumer purchasing decisions: Studies have shown that around 80% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family, especially when the business in question has a consistent stream of positive reviews.
- Local SEO: Reviews can also improve your local SEO (search engine optimization). When you have a lot of positive reviews, it can help increase your rankings in search results, making it more likely that people will find your business online, ultimately search engines are businesses as well and want to give the best match to a user search, that means trusted sources which reviews help demonstrate.
- Attracting new customers: Finally, Testimonials can be a powerful method for attracting new customers. When people see that your business has a lot of positive feedback, they’re more likely to want to try it out for themselves. It sounds obvious, yet so many business owners leave reviews to chance and are losing out on income. Not you though because you are here!
How to Ask for Feedback
Now that we’ve talked about why reviews are so important, let’s dive into how to get more of them. Asking for reviews is one of the easiest ways to increase your review count. Here are a few tips on how to do it effectively:
- Timing is everything: When you ask for a review can be just as important as how you ask. Consider timing your review requests to coincide with a customer’s purchase or visit to your business. This way, they’ll be more likely to have a fresh, positive experience at the front of their minds when leaving a review.
- Make it personal: Instead of sending a generic feedback request to all of your customers, try to make it more personal. Mention specific details about their experience with your business, and explain why their feedback is important to you. This will make them feel appreciated and more likely to leave a review.
- Offer incentives: If you really want to boost your review count, consider offering an incentive for people to leave a review. This could be a discount on their next purchase, a free gift, or even a chance to win a prize.
- Choose the right platforms: Different review platforms are popular in different industries. For example, if you own a restaurant, you’ll want to focus on getting reviews on platforms like Tripadvisor, Facebook, Google, and Yelp. On the other hand, if you own an online store, you may want to focus on getting reviews on platforms like Amazon and Trustpilot.
How to Make It Easy for Customers to Leave Reviews
One of the biggest challenges of getting more reviews is simply making it easy for customers to leave them. Here are a few ways to streamline the process:
- Provide links to review pages: Make it easy for customers to leave reviews by providing them with direct links to the review pages for your business. You can do this through email, on your website, or even in-store. The easier it is for customers to find the review page, the more likely they are to leave a review.
- Embed review widgets on your website: Another way to make it easy for customers to leave reviews is by embedding review widgets on your website. These widgets allow customers to leave a review right on your website, without having to navigate to a separate review page.
- Review takeaways: Such as review cards, stickers, posters, and more. Having physical review takeaways is often useful for customer-facing businesses, usually featuring a link and QR code they can be handed to customers while still on your premises and are a great way to introduce the request for online feedback. Free examples can be downloaded from the user dashboard if you register an account here at wowreviews.
- Use tools to streamline the process: There are also tools and resources available that can help streamline the review process. For example, our very own Rate Us tool was built from the ground up to make review collection simple for businesses, with one link to all of your business review pages, customer detail collection for easy-to-run incentives and review pre-screening, to ensure that only positive feedback is shared online, while negative feedback is intercepted allowing you to respond quickly and in private to resolve issues before they cause harm online, it is a highly effective way to gain an edge over others.
It’s not enough just to get more reviews – it’s also important to respond to the reviews you receive, both positive and negative. Here’s how to do it:
- Respond to positive reviews: When you receive a positive review, it’s important to thank the customer for their kind words and let them know how much you appreciate their business. This helps build a relationship with your customers and encourages them to continue supporting your business.
- Respond to negative reviews: When you receive a negative comment, it can be tempting to get defensive or ignore it altogether. But it’s important to remember that every customer’s feedback is valuable, and responding to negative reviews is an opportunity to address any issues and show that you care about your customers’ experiences. Be sure to apologize for any mistakes and offer to make it right. This can help turn a negative experience into a positive one and show other potential customers that you care about customer satisfaction. Again, users of our Rate Us tool can handle negative reviews collected via their link privately, protecting your review pages from negative feedback, while still allowing you to resolve issues with customers and learn where necessary.
Other Ways to Get More Reviews
While asking for reviews and making it easy for customers to leave them is a great start, there are other ways you can increase your review count as well.
Here are a few additional strategies to consider:
- Partner with influencers: Useful if you have a product or service that would appeal to a particular influencer’s audience. Consider partnering with them to promote your business and encourage their followers to leave reviews.
- Run review contests: Another way to get more reviews is by running review contests. For example, you could offer a prize to the customer who leaves the most helpful review, or to the customer who leaves the most overall. Users of our Rate Us tool in the UK can opt-in free of charge to our £2500 prize draw incentive, a powerful way to increase the conversion of customers leaving you reviews. The best part? The prize draw is paid for and administered by ourselves at no cost to you!
Conclusion
Getting more reviews is an important part of building and maintaining a successful business. By following the strategies outlined here, you can increase the reviews you receive and improve your reputation and credibility in the process. Don’t forget to consider using our Rate Us to streamline the process and protect your online reputation. Visit our homepage for full details. It is extremely easy to get started and takes only a couple of minutes to register.
Finally, whether you use our tool or not remember to ask for reviews. Make it easy for customers to leave them, and respond to both positive and negative reviews. Don’t forget to consider the other strategies discussed, such as competitions and influencer collaboration.
With a little bit of effort and by following the strategies discussed, this is exactly how to get more reviews! The sooner you start the faster you will see results.