How to Encourage More Customers To Leave Reviews?

[Amy@ Filplastic- Racking]

We've been using Ekomi for about a year now, and although we do get a reasonably good response (about 10%), we'd like more reviews.

We've also recently added product reviews (as well as company reviews), and it's this that will prove really useful to to other potential buyers.

Ekomi sends them 2 emails over the course of a week I believe, inviting them to leave a review.

Has anyone got any advice or suggestions about how to encourage more reviews?We could offer a charity donation for every one submitted?

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks

 

[fisicx]

Don't use a third party review site. You send the email, make it personal and let them send you a review by return email or directly onto your site.

I rarely review products, not because the product is bad, it's just that I have more important things to do with my life. Emails from third parties asking for feedback just get junked - if you can't be bothered to make contact personally then I don't want to know.

 

[JPMiddleton]

I don't agree at all. You're then going to be manually adding the reviews to your site which can give the impression you have created them yourself.

So you offer loyalty points? If so, why not offer free points in return for a review - positive or negative.

 

[fisicx]

The problem is the third party provider - they just get ignored. You can really make submitted reviews look good with a bit of lateral thinking. Combine with testimonials and images and they make for a compelling story. Umpteen 5 star reviews from Ekomi are pointless.

 

[seoserviceprovider]

Making personal phone calls to customers is an approach that has worked well for me. Tell them how much you appreciate them and their support. Explain how important online reviews are for your services and how you would be honored for them to share their experiences for the world to see online.

 

[fisicx]

^^This.

The more personal you make it the better the response.

Amy, are you encouraging people to take pictures and post to facebook? Are you asking them for suggestions and improvements? Is your sales team following up orders to ask how they are getting on with the products?

 

[Laura Cioclea]

The more personal you make it the better the response.

Absolutely agree. Make it personal.
Try to start off with your best/happy customers. Ask them to leave an unbiased review and share their experience towards a product and your service.
When you get complaints - solve them asap and tell a customer that you would appreciate some feedback (depends on the case). As a rule, you can feel out whom you can ask for a review and whom it's better to skip.
Encourage customers to leave reviews. Try to test points and reward system for your business.
Use social media and spotlight people and their reviews.

 

[ecoleman]

Unfortunately most people simply ignore review request as they have more important stuff to do.
We send our own emails, they are very personal and they are sent to our website to leave a review of the products and the business as a whole.
I don't know exactly what our conversion rate is on reviews, but it is low.

Unfortunately the only people that will go out of their way to leave a review are those that want to leave a negative reviews. Those people will ump through hoops all day long to get their review online.

 

[cjd]

10% is a fabulous response rate. Just keep doing what you're doing.

 

[TradeSmart]

How about offering a small discount voucher for their next purchase if they leave a positive review within 48 hours of this purchase ?

Obviously you couldn't sustain that forever, but it's a nice way to build up a few reviews and also encourage repeat business.

 

[perpixon]

We found a couple of years ago people just loved to leave a review, i suppose it was a new(ish) way for them to have their say. Unfortunately the amount of people actually leaving a review has dramatically declined recently. I wondered why and then i had a look at how i treat review requests. I now hate them, particularly from 3rd parties (why should another company not the one i purchased form want to know what i thought about my experience and are they keeping data on my purchases), the request gets deleted. Having said that if i am absolutely over the moon with the service or product then i do sometimes leave feedback. But not via a third party request. I also think its much harder to really impress customers with service now as pretty much all purchases are sent out straight-away and reliably delivered, i can't remember when i last had a online purchase go wrong, a few years ago we received loads of emails saying wow i only ordered yesterday and i opened it with my breakfast etc. Now its just the norm, so i think its very hard to get lots of quality reviews and as everyone sends out loads of email reminders to do a review ithink people just cant be bothered anymore.

 

[amac]

I would make use of email to encourage reviews i.e when a customer makes a purchase, ask them to review the product and the buying experience.

 

[fisicx]

I would make use of email to encourage reviews i.e when a customer makes a purchase, ask them to review the product and the buying experience.

That's how Ekomi works already.

 

[amac]

That's how Ekomi works already.

Ok cool, I'll check that service out. I think you could also acheive similar results using your email marketing provider or hosted ecommerce platform.

 

[HazelC]

When you send confirmation of order attach link to leave review, do same when order is sent and again a week later if review still hasn't been left. These can be as part of 'caring' emails.

Maybe offer £1 off next order if you leave a review or enter reviewers in a box to win a larger prize? Things like that

 

[Mail Workshop]

Create a page with direct links to wherever you want people to leave reviews, for example:

https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/evaluate/www.mcdonalds.co.uk

 

[jasonwebb71]

I rarely respond to third-party review requests that I get sent. Once I've made the purchase and received the goods, I want to move on to other things.

One of the unfortunate things about e-commerce is that it almost works too efficiently. It's so easy for people to buy things, that they complete the whole process without giving it much thought, so they're not really inclined to want to say, "Wow, that was great service," as they expect nothing less anyway.

However, when something doesn't go right, that's when people feel the need to express themselves to anybody who will listen (like the people who give a blockbuster movie blu-ray a 1-star review because Amazon delivered it a day late). That's why I always take online reviews with a pinch of salt - The unhappy people leave a bad review, whilst the happy people just get on with their day without a second thought.

To answer your question though, I think you need to give them an incentive to post a review, since you're asking them to take time out from whatever they're doing. If Amazon offered me a £1 off voucher for every review that I left, then I'd probably be a bit more inclined to review that bird table disinfectant that I bought.

Regards

Jason