10 Clever Ways to Ask for Reviews
You can find review request templates here.
The importance of customer reviews is increasing as the eCommerce industry evolves and more and more businesses find themselves fighting for their piece of the cake. Collecting social proof and positive reviews is a concern of many online stores, which is why using clever ways to ask for reviews is a must.
Creating an engaging message and sending it at the right time and through the right channels requires research and a lot of testing for good results.
Depending on your branding, style, tone, buyer persona, products and many other aspects, the message will change.
Another fundamental factor to consider before creating review templates is making sure that your customers are using the designated communication channel. Investing time and resources into creating a short-but-fun SMS, an engaging and branded email, or a catchy social media message is pointless if the buyer isn’t going to read it!
Why you should ask for reviews ??
Positive reviews and social proof have been proven to have a positive impact on sales volume, especially for businesses with an online presence.
Reviews can be used to create products that are aligned with customers' needs and wishes and to perfect already-existing products to solve issues in the design or marketing strategy.
Online stores that take the feedback from their customers seriously normally experience a strengthened brand image, improved customer relationships and higher conversion rates.
Reviews are also part of the written content that will make your business rank higher or lower on the SERP. Although many of your buyers may land on your store by looking up your store name, some of your sales may be coming from organic search results, such as when a buyer is looking for a new pair of trainers or a bigger, softer mattress.
Reviews, positive or negative, include the specific keywords that are related to your brand and products. Including a review section on your home page and product pages can be used as a way to attract more customers in an effortless manner since this content will be created by users, instead of you.
When to ask for reviews ??
In order to have the biggest impact on your customers and make sure that your messages don’t get overseen and ignored, it’s important to send the review request at the perfect moment.
For this, you’ll need to determine the sweet spot for your products and brand. Some products can be evaluated in a matter of minutes or hours, while others may need days or weeks. For instance, compare the review of a piece of clothing with that of a new mattress. As you can imagine, one might take a bit longer to assess than the other.
10 Clever ways to ask for reviews ??
Asking for reviews in clever ways is a great way to stand out from your competitors and boost the number of reviews you successfully gather.
1. Through Google
One of the best ways to ask for reviews is to do it via Google. You can ask for Google reviews via email or through a simple link that can be sent in an SMS, social media platform, etc.
Obviously, this first strategy is particularly helpful to those retailers that combine eCommerce activities with the commercialization of products in a physical store.
However, Google business reviews can also be left when you operate just online. Simply register your business on Google My Business and establish the location of your store where your HQ is located.
2. Through Facebook
Online stores typically have an important presence on social media. Facebook is a popular social network that surpasses the number of users of other platforms in most countries.
This is why asking for reviews on Facebook is a smart move to make sure that your brand image on Facebook is as positive as it can be. To ask for a review on Facebook, enable reviews on your Facebook page, share your Facebook page on your website and/or opt for an active approach by sharing a link to your customers via email, SMS and social media platforms, especially via Facebook itself.
3. Through SMS
Online shoppers have been showing a clear preference for mobile commerce in recent years. This is why using all the benefits of the permanent connection we have with smartphones is key to obtaining more positive reviews.
Obviously, the popularity of social media platforms continues to increase, but let’s not forget about other ways of communication, such as SMS. Nowadays, receiving SMS messages is often something unexpected.
That’s why asking for feedback via SMS can have an important impact on the number of reviews you receive.
4. Through the physical experience
The delivery is the first physical contact a customer has with a brand. Once the buyer receives the order, it’s extremely important to make sure that the unboxing experience is as pleasant as possible.
Use this opportunity to surprise the customer and request a review by including a handwritten note or a beautiful card as a clever way to ask for reviews.
5. Ask for it organically
What do we mean by ‘organically’? Well, if your products are eligible for frequent purchases and you have returning buyers, you can assume they’re happy with you as a brand and satisfied with their previous purchases. If you have permission to do so, ask them to leave a review.
If, by any chance, you get contacted by a satisfied customer, don't hesitate to ask for a review.
This ‘organic’ approach to review requests is natural and won’t be seen as intrusive, which is sometimes the case with an SMS, email or social media message. Still, the chances of using the organic approach are lower, so we would recommend using this strategy in combination with others.
6. Provide a review template to your customers
One way of obtaining more reviews in a clever way is to provide a review template that your customer can adapt and modify or simply publish under their name.
This approach can be risky if used incorrectly, but if your target audience and business model allow you to offer a template, it’s definitely worth considering.
The following is an example of the fields to include in a product review template:
- Name
- Email address
- Which product would you like to review? (This can be a dropdown list)
- Quality (you can leave an empty field or add a 1-5 ranking system, emojis, or something similar… the world is your oyster!)
- Price
- Satisfaction level
- Overall, how would you rate the product? (Implement a start-system evaluation)
- Would you recommend the product to your friends? (Of course!, Maybe, No)
As an extra feature, you can leave an empty field to let the buyer express any other feelings or thoughts on your product or service.
7. Use the power of social media
Look for mentions, likes and comments regarding your brand or products and approach happy customers to get positive reviews.
This is probably easier said than done, but it’s an uncommon approach that could get the attention of your buyers and, if you manage to separate those happy buyers from upset customers, you’ll probably end up collecting a considerable number of positive reviews.
What’s important here is to contact happy customers and, even before that, to build an online presence on the social media channels that your buyers spend their time on. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or Youtube are some of the first examples that typically come to mind, but your job is to discover which platforms can be the most profitable for you, depending on your buyer persona and sector.
8. Encourage customers with incentives
One alternative way to ask for reviews is by giving incentives to reviewers. A discount on the next order, a free product or sample, or free shipping on the next purchase are some of the easiest and most clever ways to ask for reviews and receive a positive outcome.
The above are just some relatively easy and popular ideas, but if you set your imagination free, you’ll probably find original ways that are aligned with your branding and business actions to connect with the emotions of your customers and increase the chances of obtaining positive reviews.
Timing in these cases is vital since sending this request at the wrong time or to the wrong user can be perceived as a bribe.
9. Simply call them!
If you have access to your customers’ phone numbers and they’ve given you permission to contact them, reaching out in a more personal way can be a powerful technique for different types of retailers.
If you sell custom-made items, high-end products, pieces of furniture or appliances, receiving a call isn’t an usual practice. Take the liberty of contacting them and encourage engagement with your buyer thanks to a more human approach.
10. Use AI-powered software to filter out unhappy customers
One of the possible consequences of launching a review-request campaign is to start receiving negative feedback from customers. Let’s be honest — receiving negative feedback isn’t the worst thing, but when the number of negative reviews is high, it does have consequences.
To avoid them as much as possible, you can filter out those customers that experience a negative situation, to control, at least to some degree, who you’re sending this review request to.
Asking for reviews with Outvio: Segment your customers ??
Building on the last point, choosing the right audience to request feedback from is essential to obtaining positive reviews. Would you dare ask for a review from a customer whose order got lost?
In such a case, you would be getting reviewed for something that wasn’t fully in your hands, instead of your brand or products.
There are many ways you can reduce the number of negative reviews caused by these factors, such as by: a) working with couriers that offer a more professional service — this can be easily tracked on Outvio’s platform — and b) using AI-based software to separate customers with a seamless delivery experience from those who didn't. This is also possible with Outvio’s Review Booster.
These are just some of the many benefits of using Outvio. Sign up to discover more!
Conclusions ?
If you’re determined to start using the power of reviews and social proof to your benefit, asking for reviews in an original manner is one of the best decisions you can make.
After reading our 10 clever ways to ask for reviews, you’ve probably figured out which ones make the most sense for your business. Now it’s time to find out which channels your customers expect to find you on.
Then, adjust pre-made templates to your branding and marketing strategy and start requesting reviews regularly on the right channels, at the right time. You can find more on the topic here.