At some point in time, if not many points, you’ve turned to the advice of fellow consumers about a purchase. Whether you wanted to know if a roofer was reliable, a shirt size met general standards, or that new version of your phone was worth ordering, you factored someone else’s opinion into your decision making.
It’s no surprise that your market does its research, too, before deciding to do business with your organization, and your customers and prospects do that by reading the reviews of others. In fact, according to Corey Wainwright, in her article, “A Marketer’s Guide to Accumulating Awesome Online Reviews,” “52% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations--provided they look authentic.”
Are you making the decision process easier for your prospects and customers? If you currently solicit feedback from existing clients, are you keeping that information to yourself or sharing it with your market?
Collecting and publicizing customer feedback not only provides others with insight into your capabilities and strengths, but it also helps you identify what you’re doing right and where you can improve.
How many reviews should you share? According to Wainwright, people typically look at 2-10 reviews when deciding which business to use, with the majority of people looking at just two or three. That doesn’t mean you should limit your reviews to just ten, however. Having a large number of reviews gives users “more confidence in the legitimacy of the star ratings and in the few reviews they do actually read,” Wainwright says.
If you don’t yet have a formal system for requesting reviews, the easiest way to do so is to set up a landing page with a simple form. All you need to ask for is name, email, and the written review.
Be sure to keep close tabs on submissions. Thank those who shared positive experiences, and respond to and look into those with any less-than-positive experiences. In those cases, you still have a chance to save the relationship and to show others that you’re sincerely invested in providing solutions they need.
That’s the real bonus of asking for reviews: you can address and resolve issues from unhappy customers before they share their complaints and criticisms with others.
Comments