Customer reviews are one of the mainstays of customer confirmation and is paramount to getting found online. But how do you ask a customer for a review or testimonial for your product or services? Here are a few tips to get you started in requesting customer reviews and testimonials to hasten your business status online:
1. Simply Ask.
Amazingly this step is often overlooked. Sales people, at the end of the transaction often don’t want to bother the customer or just want to finish the sales and move on. However, asking for customer quotes or testimonials can be a way to build stronger relationships with the customer. A customer, especially a happy one, will be flattered. They will want to talk about their experience and often do by telling others about your business. Why not lead them to ask for a referral or testimonial online?
2. The key is to lead them to where to leave a referral.
Make sure it is easy, simple and quick for customers to provide the review. Provide links to sites you prefer they leave testimonials on. A good place to find sites that you want to promote reviews on is to find where your customer leads are coming from. Website Analytics (Google Analytics, Urchin…) are a great resource for this information under “Referring Sites” or better yet, ask your customers where they found you.
Don’t be afraid to give your customer guidance on what you are looking for. Tell them what you are looking for. “John, I am so thankful you are happy with our service. Would you mind giving us a review online?” Then hand a card to them outlining where and how to post a review. Clearly you would like them to indicate their name and company to the review, but it is OK if they’d like to remain nameless. An unidentified review is better than no review at all.
If the customer has practical feedback, give them an alternating path to provide that information rather than letting it go into a public review. You want to be sure to capture and address specific comments or concerns, so as to direct them to the appropriate person, email or site. Management of bad “press or reviews” can help your business grow.
3. Get easy one’s first.
Ask your happy customers for testimonials and reviews. They will be happy to assist and you can then get the ball rolling to integrate a process of asking into your sales process. Requesting past customers for reviews will let you see the value as well by demonstrating the return through more leads. A recent case is one of our clients at LuCorp Marketing said a majority of their leads come from Kudzu.com because of the testimonials posted. Through 8 reviews his company is number one on the Kudzu website for services his company provides. He gets leads all the time off the positive reviews on the Kudzu site.
4. Combine requests with an existing marketing program.
If there is a newsletter going out to all your current customers, you may want to include a message about reviewing your product or service. On your billing invoices you may want to add a thank you and “if you liked our services please consider reviewing us on….” But make this personal to the customer if at all possible.
5. TRY NOT TO BE IMPERSONAL.
Really try to take a personal and targeted approach. Determine who your most satisfied customer is, who you feel will give a review for your service or product. Be careful here though! Do not pay for reviews. The Federal Trade Commission is coming down hard on companies that pay for reviews in the future. The reviews will need to be transparent and follow a business trail. Be above board on all of this and you won’t have issues in the future!
The point is to ask and you shall receive. Many customers are happy to give their input. That’s why Yelp and Kudzu are such strong websites! People want to hear other’s experiences in this high-tech world!
There are many online review sites out there. In fact, it is hard to keep track of all of them. Here are a few of the top ones that you could use cultivate reviews on for your business:
- Google Local
- Yahoo Local
- Citysearch
- Yelp
- LinkedIn recommendation
- Kudzu
- Trip Advisor for Restaurants and Travel
§ AzCentral
§ Dr. Review sites: Healthcarereviews, doctortree.org, arizonadoctorsearch.com, bookofdoctors.com, drscore.com
§ Angieslist
§ BBB
§ Epinions
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