1. Automate the process of gathering reviews
As a jack of all trades, juggling among dozens of marketing tasks and managing a marketing budget across multiple channels can be a real challenge for an eCommerce marketer. That is why doing manual outreach to customers by asking them for reviews is a bad idea.
Over time your targets for customer reviews can increase drastically as your business grows, making it almost impossible for a human being to handle review collection. Automating the process is your lifeboat.
Consider using a custom add-on solution for your eCommerce store – a plugin or a custom tool that will help you reach out to customers at the right moment and simplify the process of leaving a review for your clients.
2. Make reviews look authentic by collecting pictures
Product photos your clients make can be more effective at generating new sales than professional product photos on your product pages.
Let’s take a look at some of the examples of how online stores are using User Generated Content (UGC).
Where’s the proof? According to Photoslurp, user generated photos are five times more likely to convert customers compared to the non-user generated content.
Let’s take a look at some of the examples of how online stores are using UGC.
For example, the Etsy marketplace for handcraft offers customers the option of adding photos while submitting their text reviews.
3. Incentivize customers with a referral program
While getting fake reviews by paying for them can only deteriorate your online reputation, you can consider creating the right incentives to reward your loyal customers for their effort.
Some brands offer promo codes in exchange for leaving a review. Let’s face it – this looks like a bribe. When trying to please you with a positive review to get a discount, a client will probably sound unnatural when writing a review and your future customers can find such reviews suspicious.
This doesn’t mean you should abstain from sending promo codes as a sincere “thank you” for a job well done. Just do it after the customer has rated your brand! This way, you will get your brand promoters to speak their mind while sharing a positive review.
Create a wow effect by giving a promo code after a customer reviews your product. Make them your ambassadors, but don’t buy reviews or pay for them!
You can also provide an incentive differently. For instance, if you build and sell online courses, you can reach out to your students personally after they finish certain lessons to make them aware of the program.
Or, you can announce your referral program while asking for a review and get your customers to enter it.
Check out how Casper, the online store selling mattresses, does it in their email below.
4. Ask for reviews in a post-purchase email
Collect product reviews with emails and use automated campaigns to reach customers at a time when they have already experienced the value from using the product.
Check out how Patagonia is using their post-purchase emails to rate the shopping experience.
For example, you could send such emails after a customer receives a product – it can be a week or two after purchase. Also, depending on the time needed to experience the product value you can modify the period.
For instance, if you are selling mattresses, you would probably send the emails a few weeks after the purchase or as long as it takes to evaluate a “sleeping experience”.
5. Use NPS score to spot happy customers
The tips I have mentioned earlier in the article can help you get more reviews. However, apart from positive reviews, you run the risk of getting negative ones as well. The universal truth therefore applies – you can’t please everyone.
While putting in effort by reminding customers to leave their reviews, you can get negative ones from the buyers who like to outpour their negativity online or those who believe no brand deserves a five-star rating.
How can you filter through and ask for the reviews from those who are your brand advocates?
Before sending an email campaign with a request to leave a review, run an Net Promoter Score survey.You can easily do this by having a chatbot software on your website to help you collect feedback data.
Filter the users who rate your store as good or excellent.
Check out how Taylor & Hart, a London jeweler, are using this technique to find out what customers are content with their purchases.
By getting your customers to rate their shopping experiences in the range from 0 to 10, you can identify promoters, detractors, and passives.
Who are promoters, detractors, and passives (NPS score)?
Promoters give you a score from 9 to 10 and are your brand advocates.
Detractors respond with a score from 0 to 6 and are not content with your service.
Passives give a score of 7 to 8 and neither dislike or are arduously in love with your brand, but somehow happy with their experience.
Protip: here’s a list of the top NPS softwares you can use to rate your customers.
Once you have identified your promoters, you should be reaching out to them straight away and asking them to give you a review. They will most likely leave a five-plus rating that will help you increase the average score fast.
Later on, you can move to passives who will also give you a positive review – however, you might be expecting an average grade of between 4 and 5.
6. Ask for a review at the right time
Finally, while nailing everything around generating more positive reviews, one thing should not skip your attention – the right timing.
If you ask for a review too early – just after the purchase, your customer might not want to give you one or won’t be ready for it as they haven’t seen their product yet.
If you set your campaign for a later time, you might miss the moment when your customer could clearly describe their experience. Memories fade fast and you have to get the reviews when clients still remember the purchase.
What is the right time to ask for a review?
There is no universal factor to define it. However, think about it by evaluating the time a customer needs to first receive your product, try it on or put it in use, and experience the value.