Written by: Isaac Grant
Date:

Customer reviews are very important, as any respectable business will tell you. However, people are not always inclined to leave a review, regardless of their experiences. Be it positive or negative, a customer may not be properly motivated to leave a review. If you want to motivate people to review your business online, you will need to be mindful of the things that drive people to leave a review in the first place. At Verified Movers, we deal with customer reviews on an hourly basis and have prepared this article to explain how to entice your customers to leave them. We will show you five easy steps that you can incorporate so your clients have a greater chance of leaving a review.

motivate people to review your business online - making it easy

Some people need to spend a lot of time writing reviews. Make it as easy on them as possible!

Motivate people to review your business online in 5 steps

Here is what you need to know about motivating your customers to leave a review:

  • Presence is important
  • Leaving reviews needs to be easy
  • Do not hide negative reviews
  • Timing is everything
  • Offer an incentive

Depending on your business, there may be more things that you can do. However, these steps will guarantee an increase in your customer reviews if you incorporate them into your business practices. Whether you are offering moving tips or full-service relocations, these will help you expand your business. The first thing that you need to know is that:

Presence is important

It is very important that you have an active presence on all mainstream social media and online outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) because if you don’t, you might be alienating much of your customer base. People search these places for reviews and you need to show up in their searches. Establishing a strong online presence is the first thing that you may want to do. It serves a marketing purpose as well as providing your clients with an easy way to leave a review. This leads us to our next step.

Leaving reviews needs to be easy if you want to motivate people to review your business online

We can’t stress this enough. Leaving a review needs to be effortless, or a part of a seamless process. Most people do not leave a review because they have a preconception that it will take away some of their time. What you need to do is make it so your review process is as easy as it can be. Five-star rating systems and emojis are most commonly used these days by top movers in NYC and other businesses alike, due to their simplicity. But feel free to experiment and create something unique to your company. However, keep in mind to always make it easy for your customers to rate you.

social media apps on a phone

You need to have a presence in as many social media as possible.

Do not hide negative reviews

Another very important consideration. This is something that most companies fail to realize. After all, if your customers are saying bad things about you, it reflects on your company’s image poorly, right? The fact of the matter is that a company with all positive reviews is looked upon in an unfavorable light more than one with some negative reviews mixed in. No business is perfect, after all, and all pretense at perfection will reflect poorly on your company. Most people will become suspicious if all they see are negative reviews.

While positive reviews may be the proof of quality your future customers are looking for, negative reviews serve much the same purpose. They show transparency and honesty, something that most people respect in a business. Therefore, try not to overly moderate your review pages as that might have a severe negative impact both on your business and on future customers who might be wanting to leave a review.

Timing is everything

Oftentimes, what you do and what you say are far less important than when you do it. When asking for people to leave a review, you need to time it correctly. For example, most will simply ignore and close any post-checkout popup windows or be annoyed at you asking for a review immediately after purchase. The best thing to do is to wait for some time before asking your customers to leave a review. A good practice, for example, is to wait a few days after selling a product or providing a service and then send an e-mail to the customer. That way, your customers will appreciate you not “jumping the gun” and asking for a review straight away and be more inclined to leave a review of your company. And an appreciative customer is a lot more likely to leave a positive review.

hourglass with red sand

It is usually better to wait a bit before asking for a review.

Offer an incentive to motivate people to review your business online

To make matters clear off the proverbial bat, we are not suggesting paying for reviews in any shape or form. This can, actually, have severe negative repercussions that might ruin your business reputation. With that in mind, the incentives that you can offer can be worth money. Or you can provide a small service for the customers who leave a review, such as creating a moving checklist for them, free of charge. Of course, if you do decide to adopt incentives, you have to give them to all customers who leave a review, be it positive or negative. Another great suggestion for an incentive is a raffle or a contest that only those who left a review can participate in. That way, you can dole out a bigger prize to several contestants and market it accordingly.

Thank your customers for leaving reviews

Lastly, you always want to make sure that your customers feel appreciated when they leave a review. If they took some of their own time to leave a review for your company, it is the least you can do to reply to them. By communicating with your customers, you will project an image of a business that cares, which will reflect on your business operations in the long run. It does not take much time to reply to a review, after all, and the benefits can be amazing. Your customers can spread word of mouth about your services or products, further helping you motivate people to review your business online.Â