How to Get New Online Reviews (and why it's important)

 

It boils down to trust. In a time when customers are more wary than ever of fake news and paid influencers, they’re turning to everyday people to answer their questions about a product or service. If you think about it, this isn't much different than how people would find out information before making a purchase in the past. They would ask their neighbors, co-workers, friends and family about a product or service to see if they would recommend it. The difference is that now, you don't have to ask anyone, the reviews are already there!

Do people actually read and trust online reviews? Yes! According to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey, 97 percent of millennials read online reviews before selecting a business. Only six percent of people ages 35-54 say they do not trust online reviews.

 

Marketing channels like social media, display marketing, and email bear the burden of convincing a customer to spend money with you. Online reviews, on the other hand, are referenced when the customer is ready to buy. They act as the final push to close the next sale. 

 

Reviews don't only have to be positive to convert a sale, they have to be current and plentiful. Today’s customers take note of when the reviews were left and how many there are before they trust their accuracy. According to BrightLocal, customers, on average, said they require a product or service to have at least 40 reviews before they trust the accuracy of its star rating.

 

On top of that, 40 percent of customers only considered reviews from the last two weeks and 85 percent of customers will disregard reviews more than three months old altogether. As you can see, it’s critical to capture reviews regularly.

 

Now you know why online reviews are crucial to your business’ success, but before we show you how to get more reviews, let’s go over some tactics to avoid.

 

Not only will savvy customers be able to see they’re not real people leaving these purchased reviews, but the Federal Trade Commission has been cracking down on fake reviews in recent years. One of the bigger FTC crackdowns, “Operation Clean Turf,” fined 19 companies $3.5 million for commissioning fake reviews. So don't buy them!

 

Google specifically doesn’t allow review gating—using a software to filter out negative reviews or ensuring a customer had a good experience before asking them for an online review. Yelp has the same policy and we've actually had one of our client's lose ALL of their Yelp reviews after using a review gating service. We believe that Yelp was detecting new reviews coming from a specific business IP address that was known to survey people for a positive experience before presenting them with a review link. So Yelp took down all the reviews for that business which were mostly 5-stars. They lost all their reviews, even ones that were there before using the gating service. So don't gate your reviews, just provide great service and ask everyone for a review!

 

Facebook, Google, and Yelp specifically prohibit incentivized recommendations. For example, in 2018 a Kentucky law firm gave out zoo passes as an incentive to leave online reviews. When the issue was reported in a Google My Business forum, all but one of the roughly 100 reviews ended up being removed. So don't reward people for giving online reviews, they'll probably give them anyway if you just ask. Then you can save the money you were planning to spend on those Starbucks gift cards or iPad contests. 

 

Google WANTS you to ask people for online reviews. They even provide a custom link to make it as easy as possible for people to give your business an online review on Google. You can find this link in your Google My Business profile. Need help with this step? Contact the DigitalTreehouse team to help create your business review short-link. Please note that YELP does NOT want you to ask for online reviews. So focus your efforts on your Google reviews and let Yelp occur naturally. 

The best way to ask for online reviews and actually get them is simply to ask for them face-to-face. Identify team members who spend time with the customers, whether an hour on the showroom floor or five minutes at the checkout desk, and train them on the importance of reviews and how to ask for a review. If needed, create PDF print-outs or simple cards with instructions on how to leave an online review for your business. Your team members can then hand these out as needed or send information via the strategies below. Need a custom PDF or card designed to ask for reviews? The Treehouse design team can do that for you. 

The next most effective method for generating online reviews is to send a SMS message, especially for service industry firms. SMS messages usually have much higher open rates than other messaging options, so linking directly to the review platform from the customer’s phone is a surefire way to increase completed reviews if your customer communications allow for SMS messaging. At the DigitalTreehouse, we like to create custom review request messages for all our clients. We want to avoid canned requests by creating something that makes the most sense for a specific business. Here is an example of a review request message we created for one of our clients who creates beautiful wall murals:

Asking for a review via email after engaging with a customer is so commonplace nowadays that customers actually expect it. Being one of the most common review generating approaches means your customers will more likely feel comfortable with it. Be sure to customize the email with your branding and include an order number or product or service name to remind your customer how they engaged with your business. You can use the same link and custom message that is mentioned above in the SMS text campaign. 

There are many ways to incorporate a review ask into your website such as adding it into the checkout process or displaying a button on the homepage. You can also combine strategies by making a full review page on your website with instructions and links to various review websites and refering people to this page via one of the strategies above. We definitely recommend focusing on Google reviews first until you have at least 40 or as many as your top competitor, whichever is the higher number. 

Online reviews will remain a major component in the customer’s decision making process and should be a staple in every company’s marketing strategy.

Our team at DigitalTreehouse has services to help with all of these types of review requesting, and we even have a service where we can call your customers to coach them through leaving an online review. If you’re interested in boosting your review presence, please reach out to us here.