Reach for the (review) stars

Love them or hate them, reviews are relevant, powerful and…here to stay. According to Econsultancy, 63% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a site which has user reviews.

Human behaviour shows us that when people are unsure what to do, they look to the behaviour of others – especially their peers – to help them to make decisions. The upshot: reviews and testimonials can significantly improve your conversion rate and boost your sales. 

And while conversion and growth is our end game here, let’s not forget that feedback also provides valuable insight into the mind of your customer. Reviews can help shape your products and services, deepen a relationship between brand and consumer and provide on-pulse data on how your products and services are faring in the market. 

Convinced? Here’s how to encourage your customers to review your products:

Sounds obvious but as the saying goes, “if you don’t ask…” There is of course a balance between doing nothing at all and bombarding your customers with needy requests…somewhere around the ‘strategically placed calls-to-action’ mark should do it. 

As with other online touchpoints, think about places where it wouldn’t seem out of place to request a customer opinion. The customer journey doesn’t finish with a purchase; smart brands have strategies for retaining and up-selling to their customers as well as driving new customer sales through reviews and recommendations.

Displaying reviews where customers can see them is a visual reminder that you are a brand actively encouraging feedback, which can help persuade your customers to jump on the opinion sharing bandwagon.

Adding schema with star ratings to your website – either through a ratings partner like Trust Pilot or by adding the code to your website – will give additional visibility within the Search Engine results pages. This can have a positive impact on click-through rates & drive additional traffic to your website.

Keeping reviews visible on your website also lets your customers know that feedback matters to your business, which can help build trust in a brand. 

And on the subject of trust… in this instance, it really is important to share the good & the bad- though not necessarily the ugly! While you must always remove reviews which could be offensive, this is where the filtering should stop.  

We would always advocate transparency & honesty in a business. Customers expect to see negative as well as positive feedback. An artificially large number of glowing reviews could lose you some valuable trust points. 

You know that fuzzy, warm feeling, when your new (pair of jeans/speakers/photo book/spanner set – insert as appropriate) has arrived, transforming your life for the better & taking you to new levels of happiness!? Well…this is the moment to capture a review before the excitement of the new purchase wears off.

A simple email – sent at a time that takes into account the delivery times of your product – can wish your customer well with their new purchase & politely request a review. Again, this approach lets your customers know that their feedback is important to you while capturing the right moment can increase the chances of a response. 

It is possible to encourage reviews with a discount on next purchase or entry into a prize draw but the positioning is key – this is an incentive not a bribe for a review! 

If you’ve put time & effort into building an online community on Facebook or Twitter then chances are, you’ve amassed an army of followers who already have an interest in your brand. So why not post a link to your review page & ask them what they think of your product or service?

And if you have a great product or service that your customers enjoy, then it’s likely you also receive feedback by email, telephone or social media. This feedback doesn’t have to be submitted as a formal review to be used on your site: either use it as an anonymous testimonial on your site or, better still, seize the opportunity & ask the customer if they would be happy to leave an official review.