Why should you collect customer reviews?
Trust is the key to converting potential customers to paying customers.
Without trust in you, your company and your products or services, a potential customer will never move on to be an actual customer.
So how can you encourage new customers to trust what you say?
Social proof, in the form of reviews, is the best way to prove that your company can deliver what you promise, so collecting reviews from your existing, happy customers should be one of the most important post-sale activities you can develop.
But how you do this can have a major impact on the number of reviews you successfully collect…
How do you collect customer reviews?
There are a number of ways to collect customer reviews, from simply asking, through to have a managed system, but which is the best for you?
Option 1 – Asking for reviews – face to face.
This is the most basic system and is absolutely better than not doing anything.
When you complete a job and are finishing with the customer simply remind them that many new customers rely on reviews to make their decision, so ask them to leave a review on Google or Facebook.
Sounds great, but unfortunately this method is by far the least successful method for getting reviews as the customer will almost definitely forget once you have left, or if they do the effort to find where to leave a review and actually do as you asked will be too much (we are all busy and/or lazy).
Option 2 – Asking for reviews – by email.
This is better than option 1 as your customer will already be online checking their emails so that is one step closer to leaving a review but still, very few will follow through, as unless they are habitual reviewers, they probably won’t know where to go to leave a review.
Better than option 1 but only just.
Plus, for the extra effort on your part remembering to write an email, you haven’t really increased your chances of getting the review by much.
Option 3 – Asking for reviews – by email with links to review sites.
Similar to option 2, you have to remember to write the email to your customer but this time if you include a link to your Facebook page or Google My Business listing you are again taking one of the obstacles out of the way for your customer.
With this option, you will probably get some reviews filtering through. Great, but it could be better and you have no control over the content of the review or the rating.
Also, once you have the review, you will have to remember to copy it onto your website to help visitors to your site gain the all-important trust. A manual process but not the end of the world.
Option 4 – Asking for reviews – via listing websites.
Now, we are getting somewhere but this option has some drawbacks.
Yes, external websites like Checkatrade, Which Recommended or TrustPilot will take some of the work off your shoulders by automating some of the processes and again, you should see a jump in the number of reviews you get BUT …
The reviews will only show on those websites.
If you decide in the future to part company with these services, you lose your reviews. You are essentially tied into your relationship forever!
You still have to manually copy the reviews to your website or use their provided integration to show reviews on your website, yuck!
Also, new customers will only see your reviews if they find you on those companies websites.
Option 5 – Asking for reviews – with a dedicated review management system.
And so we now move onto the second-best option. Paying for a dedicated review system, but which one?
There a many third party review systems that each offer different levels of integration, flexibility and cost.
Some allow you to add reviews to your website, some focus on getting reviews into other systems and others allow you to interact with the review systems.
It’s a minefield but with so much choice, there will be one that fits your needs if you are willing to put in the time and effort to identify exactly what you need and test each system.
Option 6 – Letting someone else do all the hard work collecting reviews and adding them to your website.
And here is the winner 🙂
You don’t have time to do most of the options above each and every week.
You are busy running your business and doing the work, why add to your workload.
By letting someone else manage the system for you, all that saved effort and time can be put to work on more relevant pursuits.
And by letting an experienced marketer do the work for you using the right package, they can make sure you are getting as many reviews as you possibly can.
Now, what do you do with all the reviews you are getting?
By collecting reviews in your own system, they belong to you, not Facebook, Yelp, Trustpilot or any other company.
This means the reviews can be displayed where they matter, on your website.
You can also then post them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. or use them in promotional emails or leaflets.
Reviews can be filtered so only your favourites are shown or the most recent or only the reviews with more than 4 stars or a combination of the options.
Any existing reviews you have can be copied into the system and added to the list display
You also get the opportunity to respond to the reviews since 97% of consumers who read reviews, read the business responses to reviews!
Interested In Getting More Reviews?
I can provide a fully managed service all done for you for a low monthly fee.
Why Are Reviews So Important To New Customers?
Put simply it is because reviews create a feeling of Trust in your Company.
As I mentioned at the beginning, without trust in you, your company and your products or services, a potential customer unlikely to move on to be an actual customer.
So How Do Reviews Create Trust?
Recommendations and referrals from friends and family are the bedrock of building trust but with the massive increase in choice and options available to consumers, social proof is becoming as important as personal recommendations.
Social proof, in the form of reviews and testimonials, is the best way to prove that your company can deliver what you promise, so collecting reviews from your existing, happy customers should be one of the most important post-sale activities you can develop.
But how you do this can have a major impact on the number of reviews you successfully collect…
The forgotten benefit of reviews
Not only do reviews allow you to collect and display social proof of how great your service is, done correctly, they can also allow customers to give you feedback on where you might not be providing the service they expect.
It is inevitable that some of your customers sometimes have a problem with your service or product but normally they will not be forthcoming in communicating these minor niggles.
By asking for a review you also have the opportunity to ask for feedback.
When asking for the review, adding a short sentence asking them to let you know directly if there was anything they were not happy about you to get valuable feedback that not only highlights any issues you may not have been aware of but also allowing you to fix their problem BEFORE leaving a review.
Customers respond particularly well when you listen to their feedback and take action as it enforces the trust that you are interested in providing the best service you can.
Customers who have had a problem, been given the opportunity to discuss the problem and then have that problem fixed will often become your biggest fans.
Since most companies never follow-up after the job is complete and fewer still take action to make sure their customers are totally happy with the product or service, doing this will put you above almost all of your competition and makes a lasting impression on your customers.
Lastly, if you are still not sure why you should be getting reviews from your customers, here are a few eye-opening stats
- 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation
- 90% of consumers used the internet to find a local business in the last year, with 33% looking every day
- 82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, with 52% of 18-54-year-olds saying they ‘always’ read reviews
- The average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business
- Only 53% of people would consider using a business with less than 4 stars
- The average consumer spends 13 minutes and 45 seconds reading reviews before making a decision
- Among consumers that read reviews, 97% read businesses’ responses to reviews
- 67% of consumers have now been asked to leave a review for a local business – with 24% of these being offered a discount, gift or cash in return.
Sources – Qualtrics.com 20 Online Review Stats to Know in 2019 and Brightlocal’s 2019 Local Consumer Review Survey
Interested In Getting More Reviews?
I can provide a fully managed service all done for you for a low monthly fee.
