5 Practices that Garner More Customer Reviews for Your Business

 Ecommerce sales are reaching new and formidable heights every month. People love to shop online due to the convenience, sheer variety and competitive pricing. Online reviews from former customers and buyers have been a great tool in building that trust in shopping online.

Online reviews not only help potential customers to take the leap of faith it also increases credibility and increases brand’s popularity. Just like in brick and mortar stores, a strong word of mouth can do wonder, reviews are the virtual word of mouth. Bigcommerce SEO company developers know the importance of reviews, so they ensure that the correct steps are taken to encourage customers to write reviews.

Looking at the statistics it further solidifies the absolute importance of reviews for any online store’s success. More than 90% of the customers say that they read the reviews section of any new site before making the purchase, 63% of the customers say that they prefer a site that has its reviews good or bad out in the open, 76% says they trust online reviews just like family recommendations.

No matter how amazing your website is, how competitive your pricing is or how many coupon codes you offer, a customer doesn’t trust the brand like they trust their fellow buyers. Having reviews on the products give potential buyers a clear perspective and an idea of what to expect, resulting in lesser returns or dissatisfied customers, according to the ecommerce experts. 

An average customer reads at least 10 reviews before hitting that “Pay Now” button, so how do you convince a former customer to take out time to write a good review for your product or their experience. Let’s see 7 such fool proof ways.

1.  Become an Email Hoarder

Email addresses are very important to your online business, it’s your line of contact with potential, former or future customers. Make sure you ask for the email address in the most organic way, where the customer doesn’t feel forced or irritated that he/she just gives up the purchase altogether. Usually an incentive works best when asking for the email address.

Once you have amassed email addresses, contact them through the emails and ask them to write a review for the products they purchased or how their experience was. Send an email a week after the order has been delivered to ensure the customer would have the right thing to right.

2.  Make the Process Easy and Quick

Trust me, customers will have all the time in the world to write bad reviews without any provocation, but for a good review, the merchants have to make everything easy, quick and rewarding.

The most important thing is to make it easy and quick, otherwise the customer wouldn’t bother or may even unsubscribe from the email list. When you send an email, make sure to put the link of the page that lands them directly onto the review write page. Make sure it is mobile optimized!

3.  Be Omnipresent

It’s the era of social media so make sure your brand is present at all the prominent social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Being omnipresent in all these platforms will allow your customers to access you from anywhere they find convenient.

Many times, customers like to voice their opinions on social media, post stories, go live, add pictures, give first impressions and do unboxing for people. Make sure your account is active so that it can be tagged, shared and visited with just a click. Seeing the followers, subscribers and friends on social media is also a great medium to decipher the love of people for a brand.

4.  Reward the Customers who Write a Review

Value the time and effort of your customer who has written a review at your call. This reward should be different from the one you used for convincing them to write one. One of the best ways to encourage them to keep on buying and writing reviews is by enrolling a reward points system.

The more they purchase and review it the more points add up to their account which they can redeem at their suitability. This system of rewarding your customers would be very encouraging and heartening for the customers adding to the popularity of your brand.

5.  Don’t Forget the ones who Write a Negative Review

 Just like good reviews are absolutely pivotal to a brand's image, negative ones are equally if not more important. Be on a constant look out for bad reviews and see what caused them to feel this way.

Bad reviews will allow you to rectify your mistakes and improve the department you’re lacking. Contact the person who left a bad review, understand their issue and offer them a store credit or coupon code or free gift to incite them and make it up for their last experience.

Rundown

Post sales engagement is truly the correct way to enter your customer’s good books. Forgetting or ignoring your former customers and just focusing on acquiring new customers will not do your brand any good as in ecommerce it’s the unsaid truth that the second time purchase from a customer is when you start earning profits.