Feedback and social proof is critical for modern businesses to get ahead in an ever-competitive marketplace. The more 5-star reviews you have from satisfied clients, the more likely other prospective customers are to put their faith in you and spend their money.
Of course, it’s the getting the 5-star reviews that’s the tricky part. With that in mind, how can you encourage customers to leave positive feedback without hounding them or breaking the rules?
1. Ask them!
Satisfied clients? Smiles on faces? Why not ask them? There’s no harm in letting people know how important their feedback is and most people will happily oblige.
2. Automate with follow-up emails
Whenever you sell a product or deliver a service, make sure your customers receive a follow-up email with a nice big thank you and a polite request for feedback.
3. Make it easy to leave feedback
People are happy to oblige when it is easy enough so make sure they don’t have to jump through too many hoops to leave feedback.
If you are sending out an email, include links to the relevant pages. Otherwise, a QR code on the back of a menu, as an example.
4. Provide a world-class service
Of course, the simplest way to attract positive reviews is to simply provide a world-class service to your customers.
Go above and beyond to ensure that they receive everything they need and most people will happily take the time to leave glowing reviews for the world to see!
Take this agency that offers SEO services in Singapore as an example: with over 500+ legitimate 5-star reviews on Google, they clearly must be doing something right!
5. Engage with all reviews
Make sure that you take the time to respond to all of the reviews you receive (including the bad ones).
When people take the time out of their day to leave feedback, you should respond in kind by thanking them.
Not only is this good practice, but it signals to other customers that you appreciate feedback and it might encourage more people to do the same.
How not to ask for feedback from customers
Of course, there is a right and a wrong way to ask for feedback from your customers. It’s a very tight line to walk so approach with care:
- Don’t keep asking them: once you’ve asked for a review and perhaps sent a follow-up email as a reminder, leave it at that. If you keep asking your customers when they haven’t bothered, it will reflect poorly on you. In fact, some people might end up getting so frustrated that they end up leaving negative feedback.
- Don’t incentivise them: buying reviews or offering free products / discounts is a no-go! While it isn’t strictly illegal to do so, if Google catches on to the fact that you are incentivising people to leave positive feedback you will be penalised for it. For example, if you offer a 10% discount to customers who leave a 5-star review, Google does reserve the right to close your GMB page and your search engine visibility will take a big hit as a result.
- (The same applies with link-building; you shouldn’t be buying links in bulk or asking for links from irrelevant websites. Keep it organic)!
- Don’t ask people who haven’t used your products or services: you should only be asking people who have actively engaged with your business to leave a review.
Conclusion
Let’s have a quick recap:
- Ask your customers politely.
- Follow up with automated emails.
- Make it easy to leave feedback.
- Provide a top-quality service.
- Respond to all reviews.
- Don’t keep asking customers if they don’t respond.
- Do not incentivise your customers to leave feedback.
- And don’t ask people who aren’t customers of yours.
