Marketers focus on email, content marketing, and other paid ad to help grow their customer base. While these tactics are undeniably important, they oft overlook the fact that your customers are far more persuasive sellers than marketers will ever be.

While 75% of consumers don't view advertisements as truthful, an incredible 90% volition believe a brand recommendation that comes from a trusted friend. This level of trust even extends to total strangers — particularly in the form of online reviews.

Co-ordinate to BrightLocal,

"Positive reviews make 91% of consumers more than likely to use a business, while 82% will be put off by negative reviews. The average consumer reads ten reviews before feeling able to trust a local business organisation."

Download Now: 20 Review Response Templates

It doesn't matter that customers don't know who wrote the review. Since it's information coming from a seemingly unbiased source, that'due south enough to make it far more than trustworthy than whatever of your paid advertisements.

But, to gain that trust — and those always-needed sales — yous need to start racking up the 3rd-party reviews. The more positive ones you can get, the meliorate off your company will be. So, read on for some tactics below that will help yous generate third-party reviews and grow your customer base.

half-dozen Tips for Generating Client Reviews

1. Create Profiles on Third-Party Review Sites.

While many ecommerce brands give customers the pick to leave reviews directly on their website, this isn't necessarily the first place a buyer will expect. More than probable than not, they'll become to Google, Facebook, or another third-political party site to check reviews for your business.

This ways the offset step to generating reviews is setting upwards your profile on each relevant platform. Google My Business and Facebook are great starting points, but exist sure to cheque out other platforms that are relevant to your business.

Third-party-review-tripadvisor

For example, ecommerce sellers that employ Amazon should merits their Amazon folio. Businesses associated with the travel and tourism industries should create a profile on TripAdvisor. Even registering with the Better Business Bureau can give you an boosted platform for collecting customer reviews. Consider each avenue where a customer might discover your business organization, and brand sure you have claimed your profile so you lot can collect and manage these reviews.

2. Start With Your Existing Customers.

Many brands create their review profiles after they've already established a customer base of operations. If your client service team is doing its task, y'all should already have enough of satisfied buyers who enjoyed their experience with your visitor.

The problem? These customers aren't automatically going to go aware of their ability to leave reviews for your business organization on third-party platforms. And then, to build a solid foundation of 3rd-party reviews, you'll need to accomplish out to your existing customers for help.

The proficient news is that y'all should already have contact data bachelor thanks to previous interactions. If you have a CRM, you tin log contact data when customers buy products from your websites or sign up for your email newsletter. Letting these customers know nigh your review profile will permit you to obtain more trustworthy, "verified" reviews. And, meliorate yet, these reviews tend to have higher ratings since they're coming from your loyal client base of operations.

As inquiry from the Spiegel Enquiry Center explains,

"The average star rating for reviews from verified buyers is iv.34 compared to iii.89 for reviews written past bearding consumers. In addition, reviews from verified buyers contain a high percentage of five-star ratings, while reviews from anonymous customers have a larger percentage of 1-star ratings. (This is consistent with the theory that people who are self-motivated to write a review have more extreme, and ofttimes more negative reviews)."

iii. Sign Up For Google Client Reviews.

As your customer base of operations grows, it'll be tricky to reach out to each customer individually to ask for a review. Thankfully, the world'south largest search engine helps you lot optimize this process through the Google Customer Reviews plan.

Co-ordinate to KlientBoost,

"To participate in Google Client Reviews, the survey opt-in module must exist added to all of your order confirmation pages. […] Integrating the survey lets your customers cull whether to leave a rating, and if they do, the review and relevant transaction information are automatically sent to Google. Once you've qualified for enough reviews, yous can also add the seller rating badge code to your site to show off your stats."

Google-Customer-Reviews

Once the module has been added to your website, the survey opt-in will automatically exist shown to users after they complete their checkout. If they opt in, Google will send an email with the survey attached.

The data collected from these surveys count toward your seller rating on Google — the "star" rating that appears in your PPC ads and general search results. You will also become a Google Customer Reviews badge that can be integrated with your site, giving potential customers a quick form of social proof.

4. Include Third-Party Review Links On Receipts.

Information technology's increasingly mutual for brick-and-mortar retailers to offer a survey on a customer's receipt. Typically these offers include a prize that'south given to the customer once they consummate the survey or write a review. While near ecommerce sites don't provide printed receipts, your brand tin can all the same leverage this strategy when sending your confirmation emails.

When customers place an club online, they expect to receive an email to confirm their purchase. While you can certainly link to a custom survey, you could as well use the space below the order confirmation to link to your third-party review profiles. A set of links with a short message like, "tell us most your feel!" or, "leave a review" is an easy, non-intrusive way to encourage customers to go out an online review.

5. Request Reviews Shortly After Conversion.

You tin can also build social proof by getting customers to opt into a survey immediately afterward a purchase. The easiest mode to do this is to send an email survey shortly later on a customer completes a transaction. In fact, research from Power Reviews indicates that every bit many equally 80% of reviews come from a post-conversion email.

While not everyone will respond to these unsolicited emails, you can make the ask easier by following a few basic guidelines. Enquiry from Review Trackers indicates that nigh online reviews are written between 2PM and 3PM, every bit well as 6PM and 7PM. Sending your email around these times increases the chance of getting a review posted to ane of your third-party profiles.

Follow-up-review-survey

You should make the review request equally like shooting fish in a barrel as possible for the consumer. Don't give them a long survey to fill out. Instead, remind them of the product they've purchased, and include links to relevant platforms where they can go out a review (such equally Amazon or TripAdvisor).

While you lot can certainly ask for a review shortly after completing a service-oriented task, y'all should expect a little longer later on ecommerce sales. Rather than reaching out immediately, requite the customer a week or so to use the product and so they can give you honest feedback when you ask for a review.

6. Deliver an Amazing Customer Feel.

It should come as no surprise that the best way to get customer reviews is to provide an amazing client experience. For ecommerce sellers, this means consistent product quality and meeting expectations for things like shipping and customer support. For service-oriented businesses, this means providing friendly, quality service during each client interaction.

Of course, your client service team's efforts shouldn't end when they finish their current job. AdEspresso recommends,

"Train your employees to ask more reviews. Many employees have pride in their work, but demand to be reminded to ask for reviews. If y'all tin can incentivize them to ask for more than reviews, everyone wins; have a contest, and whichever employee gets the most or best (or both!) customer reviews on social media can win a prize. Whoever has the well-nigh direct interaction and relationships with the customers should exist the ones to inquire."

No matter what you practice, your customer service squad is more often than not on the forepart lines of the consumer experience. Past helping them see that request for a review should be part of their normal workflow, you'll be more than probable to gain reviews from each interaction.

Why Customer Service Teams Should Care Virtually Tertiary-Party Reviews

Collecting customer feedback can be a great way to optimize your products and services. But, to make an immediate bear on on your customers, it helps to go your reviews published online. Past taking advantage of all the online platforms available to your business, you lot'll bolster all of your advertising efforts with essential social proof.

Read on for some more means to get client reviews.

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Originally published Jul 28, 2020 8:00:00 AM, updated Apr 08 2022