How to Encourage Customers to Write Reviews for Your Business: {{ With Email & Message Templates }}

A lot of factors are at play to convince customers to purchase from your company. They tend to do a lot of online research and read tons of reviews till they feel convinced or satisfied that they are making the right decision.

The fact of the matter is — the best sales representatives of your company aren’t your employees, it’s your happy customers. Be it the B2B or B2C domain, five-star customer reviews have become an essential part of every business.

However, with ever-growing online purchases, getting people to write what they feel about your product or service gets a little tricker. More often than not, happy customers don’t have the necessary motivation to write reviews.

So, the question is how to encourage customers to write reviews? Before we get to know how to motivate your happy customers to write reviews, let’s understand why it matters:

Why Should You Care About Customer Reviews?

Customer reviews are becoming the most trustworthy and credible source of advertising these days. According to HubSpot research, customers don’t trust businesses anymore because of how they collect and use personal information.

The hard truth about this is that the majority of them turn to their friends or other customers rather than a salesperson or a marketer. This erosion of consumer trust makes organisations grapple with new customer acquisitions.

According to a 2021 Podium survey, reviews are 2X more important factors for consumers when choosing a local business than loyalty. Further, the report states that most consumers have read an online review in the past week while 23% have read it the previous day.

The report also states that 56% of consumers believe responses to reviews changed their opinion about the business. Thus, accumulating and responding to as many reviews as possible can help customers make prompt purchase decisions.

But the biggest issue that most businesses face is getting positive reviews from their happy customers. To resolve this and encourage customers, here are some clever ways to ask for reviews:

11 Proven Tactics on How to Encourage Customers to Write Reviews for Your Business

Reviews are an important ranking factor for your website as well as your Google Business Profile. Here we present eleven tactics proven to encourage customers to write reviews and turn them into sales machines:

Simply Ask Customers to Leave a Review

Sometimes, the direct approach is better when encouraging customers to write reviews online. It’s been found by research that 56% of people who had left a review, did so because the seller had asked them to.

Asking your customers directly after they have made a purchase or used your products to leave feedback is a simple and manageable solution. What’s more, it’s easy to implement with the help of plenty of review management platforms available.

Using them, you can simply send a compelling message or email to encourage customers to write reviews. Here’s a template you can use when writing a direct and compelling email:

The best time to do so is within the first couple of weeks of purchase. The initial days after the purchase are crucial as the customers have used your products and inspected them properly, and know the pros and cons.

The memories of using your products or service completion are still fresh in their minds. Thus, it makes sense to ask customers directly to leave a review. However, don’t act in desperation and send emails every day asking for a review.

Introduce a Proper Process for Asking a Review

Asking directly for a review doesn’t look bad on your part, however, it’s all about the approach of how to encourage customers to leave reviews. Figuring out the same, on the one hand, is an act of balancing where you need a system to motivate customers to write authentic and detailed reviews.
But on the other hand, you don’t want customers to go through a long and complicated process that deters them from leaving a review. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Craft a short and easy-to-follow process
• Includes simple and open-ended questions
• Make a habit of always including a review form or link
• Explain the benefits of writing a review
• Introduce an incentive when someone leaves a review

The goal here is to inspire customers with open-ended questions that they can answer with as many details as possible without taking too much time. But as mentioned, don’t be pushy and instead be polite with your review questions and reminders.

Use Tools to Automate Your Customer Review Process

Online reviews do a lot for your brand from improving your reputation to helping market your brand in new ways. However, most businesses may not have the necessary time or tools to dedicate for the review collection and management aspect.

To help you with that, a series of tools are available to automate your customer review process. These automation tools involve several steps that would work on their own once properly set up. They also offer you a landing page or custom review form link where customers can leave their reviews.

You can also set up request emails, SMS, or others to send and encourage customers to write reviews. Further, you can integrate your website or social media to upload and showcase customer testimonials and reviews.

You can also set up request emails, SMS, or others to send and encourage customers to write reviews. Further, you can integrate your website or social media to upload and showcase customer testimonials and reviews.Overall, the automation tools would streamline your review collection and management process. If you are using Shopify or WooCommerce, integration with review collection tools would become even more effortless and hassle-free.

Add a Bit of Personalisation

When sending a review request message, it’s vital to add a personal touch to make the request feel more genuine. Here are a few ways to add personalisation:

• Use the customer's name in the request email
• Mention a specific product or service they purchased
• Express gratitude for their business
• Explain how their review will help other customers make informed decisions

Here's an example of a personalised review request:

Here’s a template you can use to send personalised review request emails:

Explain What’s In It for Them

Positive reviews have several benefits for your business, but what about the customer? What benefits do they get when they write a review for your business?

For adequate response, you need to showcase how important the reviews are not only for your business but also for customers. Reviews offer several benefits that customers may see. These can include:

Helping Hands: Many customers enjoy the opportunity to share their experiences and help others make informed decisions about whether to buy from you or not.

Recognition: Some customers may feel valued and appreciated when their review is acknowledged by the company.

Discount or freebie: To make it more rewarding, you can offer a special deal or discount to customers who leave a review. This acts as a great incentive to encourage customers to write positive reviews.

Improving the business: You need to educate customers on how their reviews can help your businesses identify areas for improvement and make necessary changes to serve them better.

By highlighting these benefits, customers will be more likely to take the time to write a review and thus help you to improve your business and attract more customers.

Here’s a template you can use to showcase the benefits of writing reviews for your business:

Time Your Review Request Email

Timing is essential, especially when requesting reviews because asking the same at the wrong moment could result in customers leaving a negative review. First, capitalise on the strategic moments along the customer journey such as,

• When customers found success with your product or service
• When customers repurchase or re-order
• Follow you and tag you in their social posts
• Refer others for your products or services

Sending review request emails or SMSs at the right time is important because doing so increases the chances of them responding. Avoid sending emails on weekends or outside of normal business hours, as the recipient may not see it until it’s too late to respond.
Further, send reminder emails only when the recipient has yet to respond after a reasonable amount of time. It's good to keep in mind that different cultures have different working hours and time zones, so make sure to check this before sending your review request emails.

Make it as Easy to Leave a Review as Possible

Often you may wonder about the easiest way how to encourage customers to write reviews? It’s to make it as easy for customers to leave a review as possible.

Show your customers how easy it is for them to write genuine feedback. By making it easy, you can boost the number of reviews customers leave and improve the visibility of your products.

Here are some ways to make it easy for customers to leave a review for your products:

Include a link to your review page in your email or SMS and on your website.

Send a review request email within a week of the purchase.

Add a review section on the product pages of your website.

Lastly, use a third-party review management service that allows you to easily collect and display reviews on your website, as well as manage your responses.

Focus on the Happy Customers First

Happy and satisfied customers are key to your business's long-term success and growth. While negative feedback can hurt your business, positive reviews from happy customers can improve your business's reputation.

Asking happy customers first is a good strategy because they are more likely to leave a positive review, which can help boost your sales. Also, they are more likely to be repeat customers and become loyal to your brand.

When customers feel satisfied with your products or services and give you positive remarks, use this opportunity to invite them for a more detailed review. Further, you can also ask them how to enhance their experience and what more actions can be taken to improve your products.

Follow-Up On Your Past Review Requests

Sending follow-up emails to customers who were previously asked to leave a review can increase the likelihood of them actually doing so. These emails should also be personalised and remind customers of the positive experience they had with your business.

It's also a good idea to include a link to the review form, making it easy for the customer to leave a review. Also, this is the right time to introduce an incentive or reward to encourage customers to write a review.

However, don’t act out of desperation or be pushy with your follow-up emails. Send only one or two follow-ups after the initial review request email or SMS. Going overboard with your follow-up emails would surely turn off customers and make them abandon your brand completely.

Here’s a template you can use for sending follow-up emails:

Feature Your Past Customer Reviews on Social Media

Who doesn’t like fame and getting recognised by their favourite brand on social platforms? Featuring your past customer reviews while tagging them on social media does two things: 1. makes reviewers feel special and 2. ignites the desire in others to get featured.

It’s one of the clever ways to encourage customers to write a review even without the need to incentivise the process. The fame and recognition from your brand are compelling enough for them to get inspired and leave a review.

Seeing how well other customers are treated, it makes potential customers intrigued and would want to get the same treatment for themselves. Keeping the customers in the spotlight and appreciating them enough will encourage others to leave a positive review for your brand.

Handle Negative Reviews Aptly

It's crucial to not only request reviews from customers who had a positive experience but also from customers who had a negative experience. That way, you can address any issues with your product, support team or other aspect and make necessary modifications to improve the same.

Here’s how a plumbing company in Sydney, Australia is handling negative feedback:

Negative reviewers are the most vocal customers who provide you with details of what areas need improvement as seen above. Responding to negative reviews in polite and professional manners by providing more context to what led to that situation can turn the table around.
Here are a few templates you can use while responding to negative feedback:

1.  Dear [Reviewer Name],
   
   Thanks for sharing your experience. We’re sorry we were unable to match your expectations this time. We assure you that it was the rarest of instances and we’ll do better in the future.
   
   Please feel free to reach out to [CONTACT INFORMATION] with your specific concerns or suggestions that help us deliver better. We would love to serve you again if you give us another chance.
2. Hi [Reviewer Name]
   
   While we totally agree that it is quite frustrating, but we are sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. We believe it was an isolated instance and would appreciate it if you could give us a second chance.
   
   Please contact {company email} and allow us the opportunity to correct our mistake. We’ll take all the necessary steps to ensure that you get the 5-star experience we are known for.

Handling negative reviews aptly can turn customers with bad experiences into the most vocal and happy customers.

However, you want to be sure that the negative reviews left on your Google profile are bound by the Google review guidelines and do not violate them. If they do so, you can report the same and get negative reviews deleted from your profile.

Final Words

Online reviews are a fundamental part of growth for any digital business. Before engaging with your brand, most customers would want to see how your past customer rated and reviewed your product or services.

Thus, you need to find ways how to encourage customers to write reviews and make it an integral part of your marketing strategy. Doing so can help you with your search engine optimisation as businesses with higher positive reviews from customers rank higher.

Since we’re on the subject, how’d you review your own marketing strategy? Unless you are getting next-level results, you need an SEO agency that helps you with all your digital marketing requirements.

Contact us to consult with our expert SEO professionals to help you strategically implement  SEO that helps you generate notch-higher outcomes.