Getting reviews from your customers is such a necessary part of developing your online presence.

Building up a steady amount of online reviews for your business can not only help gain potential customers, but they can also solidify your presence online too.

Below are our top ways to get more feedback from your customers:

1. Simply ask for them!

It might seem too simple, but asking your customers for reviews is one of the best ways to encourage more feedback online.

One of the easiest ways to do so is to ask your customers either online or offline when they purchase a product or service from you.

Asking face-to-face in-store or in every email sent to your customers is a brilliant way of making sure where they can leave a review for your services.

Even asking on social media is a brilliant way to secure more reviews for your business too.

2. Create a process

Creating a process for asking your customers for reviews is one of the best ways to ensure that your reviews are consistent and fresh.

Certain ways of achieving this are:

• Ask after every video
• Pop an ask on social media posts
• Leave a review after a purchase (online or offline)
• Asking on your website

3. Make this automated!

Although there are definitely upsides to asking for reviews face-to-face in-store, sometimes this is not an option.

Automating this process is a quick and effective way of gaining more feedback for your business.

There are several ways you can do this:

• Pop-up forms and follow-up emails: These are fantastic automated processes for gaining more reviews as they are readily available and show after a purchase which means that the customer is more likely to leave a review.
• Email requests: Asking for requests over email is great for attaining new reviews. These shouldn’t be too often, once a month is enough.
• Online booking systems: If your business uses an online booking system, these can also be used to acquire new reviews. They can be created using an automated message asking to schedule their next appointment, then ask to leave a review.
• Review Acquisition services: Using these types of services gives a business dedicated review service. This will allow companies to automatically send an email to ask customers to leave a review.

4. Respond to previous reviews

Responding to previous reviews is a fantastic way to encourage new customers to leave feedback.

Replying to customer feedback can encourage new ones as well as show potential customers that you’re willing to resolve issues and thank them for their feedback. 

However, sometimes responding to reviews manually just isn’t an option. This is where Vicinus can help.

Vicinus’s machine learning-led sentiment analysis gathers location-specific consumer insights and assists with review auto-respond to build customer trust in business.

5. Personalise your ask

Much like detailed above, personalising your responses to reviews is integral to building a trusting customer experience. But you can also work to personalise the asking of customer feedback.

Casey Hill of Bonjoro recommends “sending a personal video to the customer, thanking them for supporting you, and asking if they would leave you a review. Personalization is a key lever in rapport-building and a great way to maximize reviews.”

6. Make writing a review as easy as possible

Making it easy for your customers to write a review for you is crucial to gaining more reviews.

Leaving easily-accessible links to your review sites or even just on your website can make the process simple for customers. This makes them more likely to leave a review for your business.