How to get customers to write positive reviews

Review sites are increasingly used by consumers to validate their purchase decisions, and the latest data affirms their growing influence. Recent research from Cone Inc. found that 87 percent of consumers say favorable reviews sway their purchase decisions. With numbers like that, you may be wondering how you can coax some accolades out of your customers.

Before you go down that road, though, think carefully about your approach. There’s a fine line between aggressively soliciting reviews from your customers and gently encouraging them to write about your product or service. The last thing you want to do is to jeopardize the credibility of those gushing reviews that have been posted by your customers. The key is to take a measured and careful tack. Here are some tips on how to nudge your customers to go online and sing your praises:

• Offer incentives, but proceed with caution. In no way do you want to suggest that you’re compensating your customers for their endorsement. Instead of giving discounts or freebies, consider offering them a chance to enter a drawing to win a prize. This way, there’s no semblance of an exchange; you’re simply tipping off potential reviewers to a contest that’s open to everyone.

• Monitor the sites where customers rate and review your business. Make your business profile visible on these sites and regularly reach out to the reviewers, thanking them for their feedback. Simply engaging the community and raising awareness about your business can serve as a reminder to other customers that they haven’t given your product or service its due recommendation.
   
• Make it easy for customers to write a review, and promote the sites where you want them to go and extol your virtues. On your website and in your emails and newsletters, provide a link to these venues. Yelp offers downloadable “Find us on Yelp” banners that you can add to your website. From the same Yelp page, you can also print these banners and post them on your store window or service counter to remind your patrons to visit Yelp and give you the thumbs-up you deserve.
   
• Approach your regulars and Facebook fans for reviews; tell them you would love it if they’d share their experiences with others. Satisfied customers are usually happy to oblige; others will do it to be helpful. In fact, a study commissioned by Bazaarvoice found that a desire to help others was the reason 90 percent of consumers write reviews.

•  In the end, however you nudge your customers for their endorsement, you can’t go wrong by asking nicely and using a little discretion.