6 (Plus 1) Proven Ways to Get More Customer Reviews and Ratings

Customer reviews

Photo by henry perks on Unsplash

Are you ignoring customer reviews and ratings? That’s a big mistake. Why, you ask? Because customer reviews is a powerful marketing tool. It is also an effective way to acquire more loyal customers. Here are 5 reasons why proactively getting 5-star reviews can help your business.

Customer review, if used effectively, can increase the number of daily visitors and ultimately your revenue. It helps prospective customer trust your brand and boosts their expectations about your products/services.

Seeing how important customer reviews and ratings are, it is in your best interest to find out how to get more of them. Fortunately, I have done that for you. In this post, you will learn 6 proven ways to get more customer reviews and ratings for your business.

Here they come…

1. Ask And You Shall Receive

This is one of the easiest ways to get customer reviews. Sadly, however, many business owners do not do enough of it. A study by BrightLocal showed that 68% of customers responded to requests for reviews. And that percentage came out of 74% of customers that were asked.

Customers are more motivated to leave reviews when they have had a great experience with your brand. You could send them an email or a text message asking them to share their experience online.

Provide one or more review platforms for them to leave their reviews on. Sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp and Google are perfect for this.

But there’s one more thing…

According to marketingland.com you are 7 to 8 times more likely to get review when you ask a customer in person. Sending out email or mobile requests for reviews is good but asking in person is better. So whenever you find that your customers are having a great time, walk up to them and ask them to rate your business.

2. Make It Easy For Them

We all like things that are easy to do. Our brains are designed to protect us from harm both physically and mentally. This is the reason why we avoid tasks that are difficult. Your customers are humans, too. They also do not like difficult tasks.

And so, your customers will avoid leaving you a review if the process is long or confusing. For example, if there are too many links to follow or too many tabs to fill.

To make this process easy, provide a link that takes them straight to your preferred review site. You could also tell your customers that the link provided leads straight to the review site. When they see how easy it is, they would be more than happy to do it.

3. Timing Is Everything

When you do things at the right time you are bound to get the results you want. This applies to customer reviews, too. There is a proper time to ask your customers for reviews. When is the right time, you ask?

There are a few sign that tell when you can ask for a review. Here’s a list of them:

  • When they are having a great time.
  • When they visit regularly.
  • When they stick around longer than your average visitor.
  • When they finish their meal or make substantial purchases.
  • When they verbally compliment your products/services.
  • When they leave a generous tip.

Customers who exhibit any of these signs are the best to ask for reviews. Have your staff watch for customers like these and to approach them for reviews (politely).

4. Hang Out Where They Hang Out

While it is more effective to ask for reviews in person, you may not always get the chance. This is why you must go where your customers go and hang out with them. And, what better place to do this than social media.

Most of your customers are on one social media platform or the other. As a business it is crucial to have social media pages on all the top social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are a great start. But you could also hang out with them on LinkedIn, Tik Tok, and Pinterest.

When you find the online space where your customers the most, post content regularly. Keeping your customers engaged through helpful content will build their trust in and loyalty to your brand. A customer who trusts your brand is more likely to leave a positive review.

5. Offer A Reward

Not a bribe. You can reward customers who leave you a comment about their experience with your business. You should do this after they have dropped the review, not before. Most customers will frown at the idea of being bribed to write a review. Plus, people these days have a knack for spotting phony reviews.

So make sure happy customers are rewarded for leaving reviews after they have left one. This triggers the reward centre of their brains and would make them eager to leave more reviews.

6. Provide A Great Experience

I may have jumped the gun here. By that I mean this point should have been the first on the list. It is a no-brainer that providing a great experience is crucial to getting reviews. Positive ones. Customers are more likely to write a review when they have had a good time with your brand.

You should be focused on being the best at what you do. Provide quality products and services. Treat your customers with respect, respond to their concerns, and make amends where necessary. Your customers will thank you for it, with reviews.

Businesses that have thousands of reviews online apply these 6 methods. They are battle-tested and will work for any kind of business. Wi-Fi analytics and marketing tools can make these 6 methods easy to apply.

For example, Wi-Fi analytics can help you know which customers stay the longest when they visit and how often they do. As mentioned earlier, these customers are the perfect targets to ask for reviews.

With Wi-Fi analytics & marketing platforms like SpotOn Wi-Fi you can easily get across to these customers to request for reviews. You can also offer them rewards after they have left their reviews using our platform.

Bonus:

  1. Respond Promptly To Customer Feedback

This may seem a bit odd many as a way to get more customer reviews, but I assure you, it’s not.

Today I watched a YouTube video and in the comments section a viewer said something interesting. She expressed how particularly delighted she was that the YouTuber responded to all comments under his video, including hers.

This made her feel like she was a part of the family. It also made her feel heard; which ultimately meant that there was somebody on the other side. Furthermore, she expressed her annoyance with a similar YouTube channel who never responded to comments.

Where am I getting with this?

Your customers love it when you respond to their feedback, both positive and negative. More importantly, other customers feel encouraged to leave a review when they see you respond to other customers’ reviews.

You see how that works?

The trick to this is to respond quickly. Not only will your customers appreciate your response, they’d be delighted at the speed of the response. It shows them you are actively listening to them.

But how can you respond quickly to reviews or feedback when you don’t even know when the customer will leave one?

The answer is SpotOn Wi-Fi Reviews.

This tool is designed to help you manage your customer reviews more efficiently. It will alert you as soon as a customer leaves a review, not a moment later. Being promptly notified about a customer’s feedback will help you respond quickly to them.

Additionally, this tool will analyze the content of the reviews and tell you how the customers felt when they wrote it.

Want to learn more about this tool? Contact us here.

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