For businesses seeking to improve their reputation online, generating more customer reviews is an important strategy. In fact, it’s a vital part of doing business in a digitized marketplace—so savvy business owners and executives do well to prioritize this approach.
Modern consumers rely heavily on reviews when shopping, and certainly more than ever before. It’s an indispensable part of today’s customer experience, with up to 98% of shoppers reading reviews before making a purchase, whether online or in person. Furthermore, on average, these consumers read about 10 reviews before forming an opinion of trust. Therefore, having plenty of quality reviews on various platforms will undoubtedly drive business success.
This article examines the importance of online feedback, as well as five proven strategies for generating more customer reviews. It will also examine why having a good stock of reviews is only one facet of a profitable online reputation management program. Finally, we’ll explore how to get more out of the reviews a business already has.
The Impact of More Customer Reviews on Business Success
As stated, reading reviews is a key part of the customer journey. Here are a few additional statistics that demonstrate the importance of online reviews to modern consumers:
- About 7 in 10 consumers state that reviews at least “frequently” influence their purchase decisions.
- More than 70% “regularly” or “always” report reading reviews when doing their research on businesses they’re considering purchasing from.
- Most American shoppers say it’s rare for them to visit a new business at all without reading online reviews first.
Ultimately, reading reviews is an essential part of any business’s sales funnel. Prospects will seek out customer feedback from a company—on a variety of platforms—before deciding to give the company a shot at a purchase.
Consequently, in order to attain any kind of success in the marketplace, businesses must generate more customer reviews on a regular basis to stay fresh, positive, and attractive to buyers. That way, new leads can find them, begin to trust them, and continue along the journey to conversion.
5 Proven Strategies to Generate More Customer Reviews
Since it’s such a critical need, how do businesses generate more customer reviews? The following five strategies have been used by companies in every industry and business model, and they’ve proven to boost the amount of feedback received online. Other businesses looking to succeed in the same way would do well to consider these methods for their own operations.
1 – Ask at the Right Time
Surprisingly, timing is one of the most important aspects of gaining more customer reviews. Successful businesses ask for reviews during moments when the customer is riding high from a recent purchase, or feeling satisfied after a positive interaction. Therefore, requesting a review at these key intervals will inspire more feedback.
For example, here are some moments that commonly yield reviews:
- Right after a positive interaction: Whenever the customer expresses satisfaction with a product or service, it’s a good time to ask for a review.
- After a successful purchase or delivery: The customer has just committed to and received a product or service, so it’s fresh in their mind.
- Following a customer support resolution: It’s almost always a good time to ask for a review when a customer’s problem has been solved.
- During repeat transactions or renewals: Loyal customers are great candidates for reviews, especially if they’ve been looking forward to another purchase.
- At the end of a loyalty program milestone: Ask for feedback when a customer reaches a reward tier, as they’ve just received something for “free” and will be more amenable.
- When customers refer others: If someone refers a friend or loved one, they’ve already engaged more than is common. Therefore, they’re more likely to leave a review.
It’s also wise to consider whether the customer has time to provide feedback. For example, it might be less effective for an airline to ask for a review right when a customer is running for their gate. Requesting once they’ve made it to their destination might be a better option.
2 – Make It Easy
After the ask, it’s vital that the process of providing feedback is as easy as possible for the customer. If it’s too complicated, they might give up before they reach the end, leaving the business with an incomplete comment that isn’t good for anything.
One way to optimize the feedback process is to provide direct links, QR codes, or in-app redirects. That way, users don’t have to go far to leave a comment. Another method is to keep the review process simplified. While some companies only use open-ended questions, and others simply have a five-star ranking system and nothing else, the most successful ones have a combination of both. This facilitates both qualitative and quantitative data collection—and it gives users the ability to provide quick answers to basic questions while maintaining the flexibility to provide unique commentary.
For example, consider this template for a customer survey:
- Customer Sentiment: On a scale from highly satisfied to extremely unsatisfied, how would you rate the following areas?
- Overall service
- Quality of the product
- Interactions with employees
- Unique Feedback: Please describe the best part of your experience in your own words.
- Referral: On a scale of one to five, with five being the most, how likely is it that you will refer this company to friends and family?
By keeping it short and simple, yet open-ended on key aspects, a survey like this would be a great start for collecting and generating more customer reviews.
3 – Leverage Multiple Platforms
Although everyone has their own favorite site for reading reviews, from a business perspective, it’s important to maintain a presence on a wide range of digital spaces. This avoids siloing feedback in a single platform that may at any point cause issues or even cease to exist. Furthermore, at least 62% of consumers check two to three sites before making a decision to visit or purchase. With more customer reviews from a variety of sources, a business can boost their reputation online.
It’s also important to note that not all reviews have to be digital. Google, Yelp, Facebook, and industry-specific sites are all beneficial. However, these reviews—and those collected over the phone or in person—can also be reused to improve reputation by providing quotes and testimonials in other marketing materials or on a website. To take it even further, the data gathered from surveys can also provide valuable insight into a business’s operations. These benefits are too worthwhile to pull from only a single platform.
4 – Show Appreciation & Provide Incentives
It may seem simple, but responding to feedback online is a powerful strategy with a great return on investment (ROI). That’s because, according to the numbers, at least 70% of customers say they’re more likely to leave a review when the business account is responsive to feedback. Plus, 88% of consumers report being more likely to buy from a company that replies to online reviews. Even a simple statement thanking them for their input can be inspirational.
Ultimately, businesses do best when they respond to all reviews, both positive and negative—provided the responses are positive, solution-seeking, timely, and on brand. However, at least a moderate level of responsiveness can go a long way.
Providing incentives can also help businesses generate more customer reviews—although there is a delicate balance to be struck for this strategy. Be careful to steer clear of buying feedback outright. However, giving out coupons for a small percentage off a subsequent purchase is very incentivizing.
5 – Train Employees for More Customer Reviews
All these strategies on their own can help garner more customer reviews. However, the next step is to empower employees with the tools and tactics they need to request and gather feedback. Here are some simple examples:
- Provide comprehensive onboarding and continual training.
- Give them the tools they need to help customers fill out reviews quickly and easily.
- For customer service representatives, include a request for feedback on the script for the end of a call.
By utilizing the full potential of engaged staff members, businesses can gain much more in the way of feedback—and double down on the success of every other strategy.
Why More Customer Reviews Alone Won’t Solve Reputation Issues
While the methods described here are well-known ways to start collecting more customer reviews, this is only one facet of a wider program of reputation management—and the business model at large. If an organization forgets the purpose behind the strategy, then the strategy could lose its power and become a waste of resources.
So let’s take a step back. Having more reviews by sheer number doesn’t guarantee a better brand reputation. Today’s consumers rely heavily on reviews, but they’re also extremely cautious about them. More than half of consumers would only consider shopping at a business with a star rating of four or higher (on a five-star scale). It follows, then, that unless most of a business’s new reviews are driving the average in a positive direction, more does not equal better.
Furthermore, 75% of consumers say they’re concerned about fake online reviews, with 83% of those who read reviews indicating that they would steer clear of a business if they discovered it had engaged in the practice of posting fake or compensated reviews. That means businesses are wise to avoid anything that might indicate they bought or simulated their slew of new reviews.
Ultimately, the task of gathering more feedback is really a threefold mission, with each goal leading into the next:
- More reviews means gaining better insight into the customer experience.
- Insight leads to the ability to make improvements to daily operations.
- Better daily operations leads to an overall boost to the business’s reputation.
It’s important to ensure that each step of this chain is prioritized and utilized in order to leverage the full power of all these strategies. Otherwise, the ROI is simply not optimized.
More Customer Reviews Means Better Business
With this in mind, it’s clear that generating more customer reviews can do wonders for a business’s appeal, credibility, and overall success. But while reviews are a key part of the puzzle, that’s not the whole picture. Collecting more feedback must be paired with intentional action, thoughtful responses, and a proactive strategy for reputation management in order to get the biggest return on investment.
The process of building and protecting a business’s reputation is ongoing—and one of its cornerstones is customer feedback. It also includes monitoring what’s being said, responding in a professional and timely manner, and making continuous improvements based on the insights gleaned. When done right, review generation becomes more than just a numbers game. It becomes a valuable tool for business growth, customer satisfaction, and brand trust.
