There’s no question that customer feedback is powerful. While all comments about your local business can be insightful, high-quality online reviews with good recommendations from community members can be one of the best things for your business. Many satisfied customers never think to share their experiences, so learning how to ask for reviews is crucial to cultivating and maintaining a good online presence.
Customer review basics: A checklist for getting started
- Read what people are saying. This may uncover areas for improvement – changes you can implement before asking anyone else to rate or review your company online.
- Respond by thanking people for sharing their experiences and addressing any negative reviews. Customers will appreciate that your company is listening and adding this personal touch.
Strategies to ask for recommendations
- Encourage positive reviews, but don’t be pushy or awkward. No customer wants to feel forced to endorse your brand (in fact, being overly pushy can lead to bad reviews). Instead, you should ask kindly and naturally, without making the customer feel that leaving a review is expected of them. Lastly, be sure to show appreciation to all customers, whether they leave a review or not.
- Feel free to provide incentives. But it doesn’t have to be monetary. Research published in Harvard Business Review indicates that people are motivated to share reviews when they know their feedback will help others. Something along the lines of “Help us offer the best service for each and every guest by leaving us a review online!” can convey this message.
- Ask at the right time. Clients may rave about you in person, providing a natural moment for you or your employees to ask, “Do you mind sharing your feedback online on ‘x’ site?”
Ways to ask for positive reviews
- In person: As mentioned above, staff and owners can ask satisfied customers to do the favor when the moment is right, ideally after completing a successful (and happy) transaction.
- On your website: Nearly half of all small businesses don’t have a website. About one third say they use a company website to communicate with existing and future customers, according to a CNBC/Survey Monkey Small Business Survey. If your business doesn’t have a website, this is a missed opportunity to create your own online presence.
- Review sites: Highlight client testimonials and popular reviews, and ask customers to share their experiences on sites like Facebook and Google. Responding to your Google reviews improves your local SEO.
- Via Nextdoor Recommendation: Ask your customers to recommend your business on Nextdoor to make you more discoverable in your local neighborhood. Businesses with at least one recommendation will show up in the “Businesses” section, where Nextdoor members search for local products and services.
- Via social media: Once you start getting positive customer feedback, you can showcase your favorite review on social media. This demonstrates the social proof of your company. Ask other followers to do the same. Consider turning it into a contest, such as offering a free product sample to one lucky customer who leaves a review in the next week.
- Via email marketing/text message marketing: If you as an individual are regularly emailing or texting potential and current clients, you can leave links to your company’s online reviews in your email signature or ask for a review via text.