When it comes to improving your overall brand awareness and boosting your sales, one of the most important things that you can ensure is that you have positive customer reviews. In fact, as various researches and studies show, 9 out of 10 customers read them before deciding whether or not they’ll make a purchase from a particular business.
After all, they can make people trust your brand more and commit to patronizing you for the foreseeable future when done correctly. However, it can be quite challenging and daunting for you to ask a customer to post one, especially from a customer that doesn’t know you too well or that hasn’t purchased goods from your business before.
Because of this, you might need some assistance that’ll help you determine what you must do. To make things easier and simpler for you, we’ve compiled a list of things that could help you – which is especially important since the holiday season is around the corner. Hence, here is a list of a few ideas and strategies that might help you ask and obtain testimonials from your patrons:
1. Asking at The Right Time is Crucial
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One of the first things that you must figure out is when is the right time to ask your patrons to leave reviews. For instance, asking them at a time when they aren’t particularly happy with your services will definitely backfire. Thus, you’ll have to study the client properly, and in return, you’ll know the right time of the day and time to ask them.
Now, keep in mind, you shouldn’t ask them during their working hours, mostly because they might be extremely busy with many other things, but they might also be stressed, which can cause them to dismiss your appeal. So, to ensure that you get the ones you require, find their soft spot and take advantage of it to boost your business.
2. You Should Choose The Right Medium
Every patron will have their medium that they respond to the most, This means that you’ll need to ask your patrons who have been communicating with you by email for a review via email. Also, a lot of individuals are used to social media nowadays, meaning that you’ll most likely be sending them a direct message that’ll help you obtain a positive evaluation.
Choosing a suitable medium will make it easier for you to talk with them, but it’ll also encourage them to respond quickly. You’ll also be capable of getting high-quality testimonials since they’re responding on a platform that they know very well. Just imagine asking someone more used to social media platforms to send them by email – it would be daunting for them, wouldn’t it?
3. Inform Them Where to Write it
Source: bbc.com
According to NewReputation, when you ask one of your patrons to send a review, you shouldn’t forget to give them a clear direction as to where they should write it. For instance, you could ask them to write it on your official website, social media account/pages, specific platforms meant for your industry, forums, third-party evaluation platforms, and so on.
Unfortunately, various firms forget to do this, which leads to a lot of confusion and stress, and your patrons will likely fail or they might not write them at all. Also, you should make sure that it’s easy for them to leave a testimonial by giving them a direct link in your message. The easier you make it for them to leave a testimonial, the faster you do it, and the response rate will be higher as well.
4. Running Giveaways And/or Contests is a Must
A wide range of businesses finds it extremely hard to get the attention of their customers for anything, including their online posts, videos, polls, and of course, writing a review. However, one of the simplest ways for you to get their attention is to run a giveaway or a contest on one or all of the social media platforms you use for your business.
Firstly, you should determine where you’ll want them to write it, for instance, on Instagram or YouTube. Then you should start the contest, and naturally, you should ensure that you give out prizes to the winner or several of them. You should make the competition easy to take part in.
Why? Well, 5-star testimonials will increase the chances of your sales going up by 270%! Additionally, there are also various benefits and advantages that you can gain from running an online giveaway and contest to get reviews for your company, and these benefits include the following things:
– Getting more people to trust your brand,
– Attracting prospective clients to learn more about the products you’re offering,
– Reaching a wider and new audience by using social media ads for promoting the contest you’re running,
– Engaging customers in activities that are fun, and more importantly, rewarding at the same time.
5. Asking For a Video Review is an Option as Well
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Last on our list of tips, but equally important as everything else we’ve mentioned is the fact that you should ask for video reviews as well. Why? Well, for starters, most people focus on posting text testimonials, however, there are so much more opportunities for you if they choose to post one in the form of a video.
For starters, a video testimonial will be even more effective than other formats out there, mostly because it’s more visually engaging. Hence, you could choose to ask a patron to submit a video review of their experience with your products and/or services, and in return, you can offer them a reward or a discount.
Keep in mind, you’ll want to make it flexible, especially since more individuals might choose to participate in it, hence, seriously consider making it an option to show their faces. You could also ensure that you transcribe them to text and put it on other platforms where you promote and sell your products.
Conclusion
Every single review about your brand and products posted on all the platforms you utilize for your business plays an important role in ensuring how successful your business is. If you get a negative review, always attend to the client, and together with them, solve the problem.
Since you now know what you can choose to do, you shouldn’t waste any more time. Instead, you should determine what you’ll do, and then, take advantage of all your positive reviews in order to build a better reputation, and more importantly, to build trust and increase your visibility.
