There are a lot of factors that go into a customer's determination to make a purchase from your company.

When I'thou deciding whether or not to buy something, for example, I typically enquire my friends for recommendations and then do a lot of online inquiry of my options.

And since information technology'southward so fast and easy to make purchases online without ever connecting with a sales rep, the internet usually does the selling for you -- and that tin have a huge touch on on if a customer purchases from you or non.

The fact of the matter is, your company's best marketers and sales reps aren't your employees -- they're your existing customers.

Free Download: 45 Customer Referral Templates

Why Customer Reviews are Important

Client trust in businesses is fading. HubSpot Research establish that customers trust recommendations from friends and family unit over any blazon of online marketing and advertising your brand can create. And in the absence of trusted recommendations, according to BrightLocal, 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much equally personal recommendations -- the unmarried well-nigh trustworthy and credible source of "advertising" out there.

HubSpot Research also found that 60% of consumers believed customer reviews were either trustworthy or very trustworthy -- pregnant that businesses that can accumulate positive reviews had a skilful chance of them helping a customer make a buy decision.

The same BrightLocal survey found that positive client reviews make 73% of customers trust a business more, and 57% of customers visit a company's website later reading positive reviews. That also means that, in club for businesses to grow in today's competitive, online-first marketplace, they need happy customers sharing positive reviews of their experiences in order to even get visitors coming to their site for the first time.

The proficient news is, your customers are normally more than happy to aid yous out with this: The same survey found that, of the 74% of customers who were asked to provide feedback, 68% were willing to do information technology. And so don't be intimidated by the prospect of asking your customers for a favor -- considering all you have to do is ask, and they'll probable exist happy to help you lot out.

Good/Positive Customer Review Examples

i. HubSpot

A great client review volition be one that is detailed and specific. In this example, a HubSpot employee left a review on Glassdoor. They noted how long they'd been working at HubSpot, what they liked about it, and what they're most proud of in terms of company growth.

Additionally, a great way to continuously encourage positive customer reviews is to respond to your reviews. In the screenshot below, you'll encounter HubSpot's Chief People Officeholder responded to the review with gratitude and agreement.

Positive customer reviews: HubSpot Image Source

two. Amazing Lash Studio

Positive client reviews often phone call out amazing client service. This is a peachy example considering the customer discussed who they had been seeing at the Lash Studio, and why her customer service was so excellent.

Additionally, the client proclaims that she is a client for life, and her review indicates that she has gone from a client to an advocate considering of the swell client feel.

If yous become a detailed review that calls out your customer service, and then you're doing something right.

Positive customer review example: Lash studio Paradigm Source

3. Ashley Leavitt Photography

This is 1 of my favorite positive customer reviews because the customer felt so compelled by her experience that she updated a previous review.

The lensman provided an fantabulous customer experience in 2020, so the customer left a review. And then, she used her services again a year subsequently and left an even more detailed review citing why the experience was so positive.

Additionally, the best customer reviews will take photos. This user included several photos she got from her photoshoot, which helps potential customers determine whether they want to rent this photographer.

Positive customer review: Ashley Leavitt Photography Paradigm Source

Then, how exercise you get your customers to write glowing reviews that help shut deals? How practice you ensure a customer is satisfied and happy enough to enquire for the kind of positive reviews you need? Read on to adopt strategies that volition make generating positive client reviews a cinch.

1. Identify the right moments to inquire according to their buyer's journey.

Make sure you're soliciting customer reviews at the right moment in their journey with your business to go optimal results.

Concern relationships accept natural ebbs and flows, from times of sticker shock or buyer's remorse before a successful result to times of euphoria after their hurting/trouble is successfully resolved.

Think near it: If you lot ask for a review at the incorrect moment, it could result in a customer leaving a negative review that hundreds of more than people read when considering whether or not they want to buy from your business.

Ask for customer reviews at strategic moments along the customer journey, like:

  • Subsequently they experience or demonstrate success with your product or service
  • When they re-purchase or re-order
  • After they tag your brand in a mail on social media
  • If they are spending time on your website browsing other products or services
  • If they refer another customer to y'all

These are just a few examples of signs that your customer is satisfied enough that they would go out a positive review of your business organisation.

For example, Etsy asked me to review a recent buy approximately ane month afterward I received it. I ordered a party favor for a friend'south conjugal shower, and so i calendar month subsequently was the correct fourth dimension frame to brand sure I had fourth dimension to enjoy and use my product.

email from etsy asking for review on product

On the other manus, some products and services will work inside different time frames. For the ride-sharing app Lyft, I usually receive a prompt to review my experience with my ride and commuter immediately later the ride ends. For the linguistic communication-learning app Duolingo, I receive a prompt to review the app in the App Store after completing a lesson or achieving a milestone in the linguistic communication I'grand learning.

2. Choose a method that works for y'all at scale.

According to BigCommerce, 50 or more reviews per production can mean a iv.6% increase in conversion rates. The big takeaway here is that more than reviews mean more proof and, therefore, more trust in your brand. In improver, dated reviews inspire less confidence than recent ones.

To truly fuel your flywheel and benefit from testimonials as social proof, getting them should become a regular office of your process. Hither are some common avenues to help yous ask for reviews at scale:

  • Railroad train your team to ask for reviews after every successful projection or service
  • Incorporate requests for reviews as part of your email marketing automation campaigns
  • Employ NPS to identify promoters (your happiest customers) at calibration and have your service team foster relationships with them
  • Include review links after checkout or on give thanks-you pages as an optional final step

Whatever you choose, it should be consequent and ofttimes.

three. Ask the client in person.

If y'all work in a customer success manager or business relationship executive role and yous have shut relationships with the portfolio of customers you work with, don't hesitate to add a personal impact and enquire your customers to review their experiences in person.

If you're taking your customers out to coffee or lunch, or if you invite them to one of your company events, continue things conversational, and ask them how they're doing with your production or service. (Ideally, you'll know if they're achieving success or not based on your regular communications, so you'll ask customers that you know are achieving goals already.)

If your customers tell y'all they're seeing success, let them know that you value their opinion and their loyalty and that you'd appreciate them helping you lot get the word out to potential new customers. Remember the information from the kickoff of this mail service? About customers will leave you a review -- all you have to do is enquire.

iv. Leverage moments of client happiness.

If y'all've but made a major breakthrough for a client, or if you've received praise or positive feedback from them, you lot've simply come upward to a point of customer happiness. At these moments, they may not only be more than inclined to give you a review equally a way of providing reciprocity for expert work, merely they are also more than probable to requite you a skilful review.

5. Begin with an open-concluded question.

Don't start by coming out and request straight for a customer review.

Instead, start a conversation -- and use an open-ended question to kicking off the process.

By asking customers "How are you liking the production?" or "Are you ready to renew/purchase again?" or "How was your recent interaction with client support?" you tin showtime a conversation and estimate their level of satisfaction before actually asking for the review.

This is helpful in 2 means:

  • Y'all tin can source helpful customer feedback
  • You lot tin avoid the awkward mistake of asking a client for a review before learning they had a bad experience

Utilize the open-ended question to genuinely collect customer feedback -- and to sneakily make sure the customer is happy before offering them a reason to submit a review. There's nothing you lot tin can practise most negative reviews coming onto various sites, simply if there's a customer who needs a resolution, focus on that before you lot ask them to charge per unit your business.

An open up-ended question in an e-mail subject line -- as BioClarity did here -- prompted me to go ready to give an reply every bit a reply or in the form of a review:

bioclarity email asking for review with line: "how is your skin liking our nourishing Essentials Routine?"

half-dozen. Reduce the friction where you can.

If leaving a review becomes a hassle, your customer volition be less probable to do it. That means yous should brand it as piece of cake as possible, especially when asking for a testimonial over electronic mail. Here are some ideas:

  • Include multiple options and then that the customer can choose the platform they're most comfy on
  • Include a link directly to the page where they leave a review to minimize the number of clicks or steps they must accept
  • Requite them a prompt so they're never at a loss on what to write (east.chiliad. "Will you lot exit a review about your experience with your almost recent store visit?")

vii. Let them know how long it will accept.

One of the biggest points of friction that should exist chosen out is time. If the customer perceives that they don't have fourth dimension to fit in a review, they won't. Nevertheless, if y'all accost this objection beforehand during your enquire, you tin can modify their thinking while you have the momentum. For case, you might say or write "It will simply take ii minutes" every bit a side-note or mail-script to the request.

1. Create different spaces to leave reviews.

Before potential customers even make it to your website to learn nigh your business, make certain they can learn virtually y'all no thing where they're conducting online research about making a purchase.

There are a few typical third-political party review sites people consult to acquire more virtually a business organization or a product:

Yelp

BrightLocal constitute that Yelp and Facebook were consumers' well-nigh trusted sources of customer reviews in the U.S., so brand certain your business organization is registered and upwardly-to-date. You can learn how to claim your business (or add it, if your business is brand-new) using Yelp for Business Owners.

Brand sure you're regularly monitoring communications coming from this profile -- responsive business owners are highlighted with an boilerplate response time and response rate that could encourage readers to movement forward in the process towards becoming a new customer.

Yelp request a quote and response time and response rate

Facebook

You should also claim your concern' Facebook Page so potential customers can find you to larn more almost y'all without having to leave their social network. This is another site that rewards high levels of responsiveness, then make sure you assign someone to monitor incoming messages across the channels you're trying to optimize for new customer acquisition.

Facebook response rate notification

Google

Next, employ Google My Business concern to claim your business organization on the earth's biggest search engine, where potential customers might notice you if they're searching for information on Google, or searching for directions in Google Maps. (This is of particular importance to brick-and-mortar businesses trying to concenter human foot traffic -- learn more nigh local SEO in this blog mail service.) People besides leave reviews using Google, which appears in the search results for your business organization, as shown below if you lot Google "HubSpot."

HubSpot's Google My Business Card With Google Reviews

Amazon

If you're an Amazon seller, make sure to claim and customize your Amazon folio.

Amazon serves upwardly a lot of different results for unlike searches, so make certain your Amazon page tells your concern' story the same way your website does. If a shopper finds your brand over the course of an Amazon search, brand certain your Folio highlights production details, testimonials, and reviews.

Amazon Store Results Page With Product Listings and Corresponding Reviews

Epitome Source

Better Concern Agency

For businesses in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, y'all tin register with the Better Business Bureau -- another highly trusted source of client reviews. By claiming your business concern on the BBB, you can admission more candid customer reviews and become accredited on the site -- which lends greater brownie and trustworthiness to yous if customers are deciding between options using these reviews and ratings.

HubSpot's Better Business Bureau Page With A+ Rating

At that place are too manufacture-specific review sites you should claim if they're popular within your business's vertical -- such as TripAdvisor and Oyster in the travel and hospitality industries, G2Crowd, and Finances Online in the software industries, and OpenTable and HappyCow in the eating place industries. Brand sure your contact data, website, hours, and cardinal offerings are bachelor on these more than niche sites, too.

2. Optimize your content.

Your customer reviews might exist coming in unsolicited from happy -- or unhappy -- customers on third-party sites.

Only once people are already on your site, brand sure it'due south easy for them to leave reviews there, besides.

Optimize your website, blog posts, social profiles, and emails to provide quick and easy avenues through which to write reviews past:

  • Setting upwardly website badges to chop-chop and easily direct visitors to your Yelp, Facebook, and Amazon pages to read and leave reviews
  • Optimize your website for mobile devices for people who come up to your website when they're browsing social or conducting searches on their telephone
  • If you're request for client reviews via email, keep the asks short and sweetness.

Hither'south a review asking I received from a bout company in Charleston. It wisely included a link to diverse ways to review the company on the actual receipt of my purchase shortly after taking the bout. (For those curious, I highly recommend the haunted graveyard tour if you're always in Charleston, SC.)

Bulldog Tours Email With Buttons to Request Reviews on Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google

iii. Create incentives.

Your time is valuable, and so is your customers', so make sure you're giving customers a reason to leave a review.

Offer incentives to brand your customers want to write a review -- such as discount or coupon codes, archway into a contest for an even bigger prize, or gift cards for coffee, online shopping, or cold hard cash.

g2crowd "have a coffee on us" incentive for testimonial

A review asking (with a caffeinated incentive) from G2 Crowd

4. Meet customers where they are.

Don't email your customers to inquire them to leave you a positive review on Yelp.

Instead, brand sure your requests match upward with the avenue where you desire your customer to write a review. If you're sending out an email asking for a client review, brand certain the email links to exactly where they can leave their feedback. If you want reviews on your Facebook Folio, ship the request via Messenger. And if y'all have to enquire for a client review cross-platform, make the request equally integrated equally possible -- for example, by linking to your Yelp page in your email signature, or asking customers to review their buy from your Amazon shop in a follow-up email mail-purchase.

Here's a review request I received from a 3rd-party Amazon seller -- along with some helpful tips for how best to employ the product I had recently purchased:

litter mat request for review along with tips for using the product effectively

5. Reply to every review -- even negative ones.

Nobody's perfect, and mistakes sometimes happen that result in a customer leaving a scathing one-star review on your website, on Facebook, or on Yelp.

When you get a one-star review, though, brand sure to take the time to respond thoughtfully, without existence defensive, to come up to a resolution. It's the right thing to exercise if yous work in customer service, and it could actually assistance your business in the long run.

Harvard Business Review found that businesses responding to negative reviews online actually resulted in amend ratings overall. Your customers are human beings too, and the value of empathetic and compassionate customer service strikes a chord and really leads to an uptick in total reviews, particularly positive ones.

Here'due south an example of how HubSpot responds to reviews on our Glassdoor page. Although non technically "customers," showing prospective employees that HubSpot responds to feedback and takes information technology seriously helps our employment make, too.

hubspot glassdoor review response to neutral rating with negative feedback

6. Share positive customer reviews y'all've already received.

When you start receiving positive reviews from your customers, keep the momentum going by highlighting and sharing them so other customers are inspired to do the aforementioned.

On Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Glassdoor, and many other reviews sites, business owners (and site visitors) can mark sure reviews every bit helpful, which is like upvoting and moves reviews further up on the site so more people tin can read them. Make sure to periodically do this to positive reviews then your company'south page highlights the foam of the crop.

You could also share positive reviews on your make'due south social media channels to open up up the option to your audition there. You lot could reshare positive Facebook reviews in a post on your page, or you could format positive reviews as quotes for Instagram to post for your followers.

Social proof is a powerful marketing tactic -- it ways that, if customers see other people like them sharing reviews, they're more likely to do the same by following the crowd. Then make sure that, in addition to asking for new client reviews, you're promoting the positive ones you receive beyond your brand'southward channels for promotion.

seven. Requite your customers a positive review first.

If you want customers to get out you a review, you lot could leave them i get-go to get the ball rolling.

This may not e'er be possible (depending on your industry or product), just in a lot of cases, yous can become customers to reciprocate your positive words.

If your product or service allows customer profiles to be reviewed -- Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, VRBO, and TurnKey are examples -- so leave them a positive review if yous'd like them to review you in return. Of form, if they were bad customers, you don't have to do that, but if you desire to garner more reviews, taking the first footstep could prompt them to leave you lot 1 in return.

Another proficient option is recommending your customer on LinkedIn. If y'all're in an account direction part and you piece of work with individuals over a long flow of time, you could leave them a recommendation or endorsement on LinkedIn. Those become a long way for their own personal branding and might compel them to reciprocate on their own past leaving your business organization a positive review. And if they give thanks y'all for the endorsement, you could politely ask them for a specific review on a different platform during that exchange.

Customer: Thanks for endorsing me on LinkedIn! I appreciate it.

Business Representative: You lot're welcome! I've enjoyed working with yous over the terminal few months and wanted to make certain other people know how skilled you are at web blueprint. If you've enjoyed working with me besides, I'd appreciate a review of our product on G2 Crowd if you're up for information technology.

I but recommend this strategy if you've built a relationship with the private over the course of working together. If an unknown person starts endorsing the customer for random skills on LinkedIn, that might seem creepy, and probable won't effect in them reciprocating.

viii. Host an event.

To create opportunities to inquire for reviews in-person as details in the previous strategy, and to create the weather condition where customers are more likely to go out positive reviews, host a remarkable user briefing or industry event to create more value for your customers beyond simply the products or services you sell.

By creating an engaging and useful feel for customers, where they can network with a community of people like them, get access to new production releases and discounts early, and meet their points of contact at your company, you'll increase their positive sentiment toward your business and engender the likelihood that they'll leave more reviews.

You could even make customer reviews a part of your post-result feedback procedure -- after customers complete a survey asking how they'd rate their experience, you could enquire them to share highlights of their experience at the upshot on a public review site.

1. Utilize social media.

While using social media to get together reviews isn't exactly clever, the place you lot enquire for them tin be unique. For instance, if you take a Facebook grouping or LinkedIn group, you could inquire those members to get out a review.

Chances are, that if they're in your social media group, so they similar your company and will provide a positive review if you enquire.

Additionally, you can utilize social media to promote your reviews. For example, one company I follow on Instagram, Bowmar Nutrition, responds and reposts reviews to their Stories every single day. As a follower, I know that if I leave a review on Instagram, information technology'll exist shared by the visitor. This provides an incentive because information technology helps develop a human relationship with your customers.

ii. Send a handwritten note and gift carte du jour.

It might seem a piddling old school, only if y'all're running a company, a handwritten note to your customers will go a long way. Your sales reps can write these if y'all're at a mid-size or larger visitor, or if you run a small business organisation, you can write them yourself. You might consider sending a gift carte du jour to your loyal and happy customers, simply thanking them for beingness a customer.

While you can't and shouldn't e'er purchase reviews, it's okay to ship your customers a nice thank you gift, whether they leave a review or not. Your notation could say something like, "We wanted to thank yous for being a customer with this gift menu! If you ever feel inclined, nosotros'd honey to get your honest feedback in the grade of a review."

three. Help your customers when they need it.

When times are tough, be there to aid your customers. For example, during the COVID-nineteen pandemic, HubSpot offered reduced prices for prospects and customers, increased limits for customers, and offered a six-calendar month advance on commissions from HubSpot to all Platinum, Diamond, and Elite Solutions Partners.

Again, we weren't doing these things just and so customers would exit skillful reviews, only and then we could actually help customers during an unprecedented fourth dimension. Many customers, new and one-time, were and then positively impacted, that they felt compelled to leave a positive review.

Helping your customers and putting them first will give you goodwill and then inspire positive reviews.

four. Give employees rewards for positive client reviews.

A calendar month ago, I went to an escape room with my family. After we escaped the room (with 5 minutes to spare, I might add), we were talking to our guide and asking him questions.

After our discussion, he told us his name once more and said that he'd really appreciate it if we left a review considering they get extra tips if a review calls them out specifically.

Offer your employees a reward for positive reviews gives them a reason to ask happy customers for a review. It likewise incentivizes customers. I wanted to help our guide because we had such a dandy feel, so my family and I all left split up reviews calling him out.

To begin implementing customer review cultivation at calibration, the best thing y'all tin do is incorporate it into your business equally a process. This starts with an agile strategy for customer service also as online reputation and testimonials. Start by building from templates and asking your existing customers for reviews.

Editor's notation: This post was originally published in December 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Free Resource: How to Reach & Engage Your Audience on Facebook

45 Free Customer Referral Templates

Originally published Aug 4, 2021 11:15:00 AM, updated January 12 2022