We cannot stress enough the importance of client reviews. A short and simple review can have more impact on your conversions than a blurb of copy on your landing page. It’s the reason why star ratings are valuable. A one-star or half-star difference might be all the reason your customer needs to prefer your competition. You may read more about why customer reviews are important.

Unfortunately, these ratings and reviews aren’t always automatic. You need to be proactive in requesting your clients for honest and positive reviews. But since asking can get awkward, we’ve shared some clever ways to ask for reviews.

Why Client Reviews are Important

Reviews are simply what customers say about your products, services, or business as a whole. They carry a lot of weight with potential customers than what businesses say. Today, potential customers trust online reviews just like they do personal recommendations. It’s the reason influencer marketing has grown over the past couple of years.

Reviews are useful to both businesses and customers. Customers gain insight from past buyers’ opinions informed by their first-hand experience of the service and product. Positive reviews boost a business’s reputation, and negative reviews point to areas that require improvement.

Generally, reviews help build trust and help potential customers choose the business to work with. A business with poor or no reviews leaves a lot of money on the table.

Below is a guide on how to ask for a client review.

How to Request for Client reviews

There are numerous avenues as there are modes of communication within the business and marketing options you can use. These include:

In-person

Requesting for a review in person is the most effective method to get the happy company reviews and the most intimidating. It’s a perfect method for entrepreneurs who’ve built strong relationships with their customers and have regular contact.

You can either wait for the customer to shower you with praise and make your request or initiate a conversation. Then depending on the reply, you can decide if the time is ripe to make your request.

In response to praise, the conversation can flow as follows:

Customer: (praising your business)

You: I’m glad to hear you love our products/services. We work hard to [do what they are praising you for]. We appreciate your business and taking the time to provide positive feedback.

Customer: My pleasure. Thank you for the great service/product.

You: We live for such positive comments. It helps us work even harder and makes potential customers confident in choosing us.

When you’re the one reaching out, use these questions to drive the customer into sharing their experience with you:

• How did you like your experience at our store?
• Is this your first time using product X?
• Did you get what you were expecting?
• How do you like the product?

Over the phone

If your business offers phone customer support, you’ll have many opportunities to request reviews over the phone. Be careful who you approach for a review. A customer you’ve just helped resolve a long and difficult problem isn’t ideal.

A satisfied customer, preferably one who has voiced their appreciation for your service, is a good candidate to request reviews.

Example:

We are happy to have served you. We appreciate your business and would be thankful to share your experience on [online review platform]. Your review will help build trust with others knowing they have our support should issues arise.

Alternatively, you can make your request through a text:

Hi [Customer’s name], thank you for choosing us. We’d love it if you spared some time to review us on [enter review site]. Click here: [link to review site]. Thank you for your time.

Through your website

Most entrepreneurs get good results from their testimonial or review pages on their sites. Potential clients visit these pages first before deciding on buying from you. You can have a call to action on different places on the website leading customers to the landing page to leave a review.

Via Email

Asking for reviews via email is still a good strategy, especially if you’re doing email marketing through a content strategy agency. You can include the review platform link in the email to make the process easier for the customer. You can opt to send:

• An email blast
• Personalized emails – this is only for a few loyal customers you intend to build a lasting relationship with.
• Email to your employees – you can involve employees in your process. Inform them of its importance and request that they send emails to happy customers asking for reviews.

Example of an email blast:

Dear [name]

Thank you for choosing our product. We hope it surpassed your expectations. If yes, do you mind leaving a review at [enter review platform link]? This encourages us to continue producing excellent products and spreads the good word to potential clients.

Thank you for being our customer.

Remember to keep the emails short as people are busy, and you want them to spend more time leaving a review.

Via social media

Social media platforms are a great avenue for requesting reviews. If your social profiles are active and customers engage your brand, they are likely to offer reviews. But be wary of negative reviews as they can spread like wildfire – even faster than positive reviews.

Via thank you pages

The customer might not review the product or service immediately after a purchase, but they can review the buying experience. How easy it was to navigate the site, complete a purchase or interact with your sales team.

A review at this stage is important since the experience and process are still fresh. And if it’s a customer’s second, third or fourth purchase, they may leave positive feedback.

On the thank you page, you can write:

Thank you for buying from us. If you love the product, take a few minutes to leave a review here [provide a link to the review platform].

On receipts and invoices

Unlike with thank you pages, you need a customer’s email to send an invoice. You can add a call to action to the invoice or receipt requesting them to leave a review. Craft something similar to the thank your page message.

Conclusion

Although there are many different ways to request reviews, the most effective way is different for every business. You can have the different options described above in place and experiment on which yields the best results. Considering the importance of reviews, marketing agencies help to optimize work with them.

Just remember, good reviews aren’t selfish or forced. Moreover, you should respond to both positive and negative reviews.

Bio:

Tim Absalikov is the Acting CEO of Lasting Trend. Tim is an expert in technical optimization. He has a deep understanding of SEO, SEM, UX and UI considerations, shopping campaigns, PLA, RLSA, dynamic retargeting, works with E-Commerce and Web Analytics.