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

When I'm deciding whether or not to buy something, for instance, I typically ask my friends for recommendations and so exercise a lot of online enquiry of my options.

And since information technology's so fast and easy to make purchases online without ever connecting with a sales rep, the internet ordinarily does the selling for you -- and that tin can accept a huge affect on if a client purchases from yous or non.

The fact of the matter is, your company'south 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

Customer trust in businesses is fading. HubSpot Research found that customers trust recommendations from friends and family unit over any type of online marketing and advert your make can create. And in the absence of trusted recommendations, according to BrightLocal, 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations -- the single about trustworthy and apparent source of "advertising" out there.

HubSpot Inquiry also establish that 60% of consumers believed client reviews were either trustworthy or very trustworthy -- meaning that businesses that can accumulate positive reviews had a expert chance of them helping a customer make a purchase determination.

The aforementioned BrightLocal survey plant that positive client reviews make 73% of customers trust a business concern more, and 57% of customers visit a company's website later on reading positive reviews. That likewise means that, in social club for businesses to grow in today'due south competitive, online-first market, they need happy customers sharing positive reviews of their experiences in gild to even become visitors coming to their site for the showtime fourth dimension.

The adept news is, your customers are usually more than happy to help you out with this: The same survey plant that, of the 74% of customers who were asked to provide feedback, 68% were willing to exercise information technology. And so don't be intimidated by the prospect of request your customers for a favor -- because all you have to do is ask, and they'll likely exist happy to help you out.

Good/Positive Customer Review Examples

one. HubSpot

A neat customer review will be one that is detailed and specific. In this instance, 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 style to continuously encourage positive client reviews is to respond to your reviews. In the screenshot below, you'll see HubSpot's Chief People Officeholder responded to the review with gratitude and agreement.

Positive customer reviews: HubSpot Prototype Source

two. Amazing Lash Studio

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

Additionally, the customer proclaims that she is a client for life, and her review indicates that she has gone from a client to an advocate because of the cracking customer experience.

If you get a detailed review that calls out your customer service, then you're doing something correct.

Positive customer review example: Lash studio Epitome Source

three. Ashley Leavitt Photography

This is one of my favorite positive customer reviews because the customer felt then compelled past her experience that she updated a previous review.

The photographer provided an splendid client experience in 2020, so the customer left a review. Then, she used her services again a year later and left an fifty-fifty more detailed review citing why the experience was so positive.

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

Positive customer review: Ashley Leavitt Photography Prototype Source

Then, how do y'all get your customers to write glowing reviews that aid close deals? How do yous ensure a customer is satisfied and happy enough to ask for the kind of positive reviews y'all demand? Read on to adopt strategies that will make generating positive customer reviews a sure-fire.

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

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

Business relationships have natural ebbs and flows, from times of sticker shock or heir-apparent's remorse before a successful upshot to times of euphoria afterward their pain/problem is successfully resolved.

Think almost it: If you ask for a review at the wrong moment, information technology could consequence 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 client reviews at strategic moments along the customer journeying, like:

  • After they feel or demonstrate success with your product or service
  • When they re-buy or re-social club
  • Subsequently they tag your make in a post on social media
  • If they are spending fourth dimension on your website browsing other products or services
  • If they refer another customer to you

These are merely a few examples of signs that your customer is satisfied plenty that they would leave a positive review of your business.

For example, Etsy asked me to review a recent purchase approximately i month after I received it. I ordered a party favor for a friend'southward bridal shower, then i calendar month later was the correct fourth dimension frame to brand sure I had time to relish and use my product.

email from etsy asking for review on product

On the other hand, some products and services will work inside different fourth dimension frames. For the ride-sharing app Lyft, I usually receive a prompt to review my experience with my ride and driver 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'g learning.

2. Choose a method that works for you at scale.

According to BigCommerce, 50 or more than reviews per product tin mean a 4.six% increase in conversion rates. The big takeaway here is that more than reviews mean more proof and, therefore, more than trust in your brand. In addition, dated reviews inspire less confidence than recent ones.

To truly fuel your flywheel and do good from testimonials as social proof, getting them should become a regular role of your process. Here are some common avenues to help y'all ask for reviews at scale:

  • Railroad train your team to ask for reviews after every successful projection or service
  • Contain requests for reviews as part of your email marketing automation campaigns
  • Employ NPS to identify promoters (your happiest customers) at scale and have your service team foster relationships with them
  • Include review links later on checkout or on thank-yous pages every bit an optional last step

Whatever you cull, information technology should be consequent and often.

3. Ask the customer in person.

If y'all piece of work in a customer success managing director or account executive role and y'all take shut relationships with the portfolio of customers you lot work with, don't hesitate to add together a personal impact and ask your customers to review their experiences in person.

If you're taking your customers out to coffee or lunch, or if y'all invite them to one of your company events, keep things conversational, and inquire them how they're doing with your product or service. (Ideally, you'll know if they're achieving success or non based on your regular communications, and so you'll ask customers that you know are achieving goals already.)

If your customers tell you lot they're seeing success, permit them know that you value their stance and their loyalty and that yous'd appreciate them helping you lot get the word out to potential new customers. Call back the data from the beginning of this post? Most customers will go out you a review -- all you take to exercise is inquire.

4. Leverage moments of customer happiness.

If you lot've just fabricated a major breakthrough for a customer, or if you've received praise or positive feedback from them, yous've just come to a point of customer happiness. At these moments, they may not simply be more inclined to give y'all a review as a way of providing reciprocity for skilful piece of work, but they are also more than likely to give yous a good review.

5. Begin with an open up-ended question.

Don't commencement by coming out and asking straight for a customer review.

Instead, start a conversation -- and use an open up-concluded question to kick off the process.

By request customers "How are you liking the product?" or "Are you ready to renew/purchase again?" or "How was your recent interaction with customer support?" y'all tin start a chat and gauge their level of satisfaction before actually asking for the review.

This is helpful in ii means:

  • You can source helpful client feedback
  • You can avoid the bad-mannered mistake of asking a customer for a review before learning they had a bad experience

Use the open-concluded question to genuinely collect customer feedback -- and to sneakily make certain the customer is happy before offering them a reason to submit a review. There's nada yous tin do about negative reviews coming onto various sites, only if there's a customer who needs a resolution, focus on that before you enquire them to rate your business.

An open-concluded question in an email subject line -- every bit BioClarity did hither -- prompted me to become ready to requite an answer as a answer 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 tin can.

If leaving a review becomes a hassle, your customer volition be less likely to do it. That means you should make it equally easy as possible, especially when request for a testimonial over email. Here are some ideas:

  • Include multiple options then that the customer can cull the platform they're nearly comfy on
  • Include a link direct to the page where they exit a review to minimize the number of clicks or steps they must take
  • Give them a prompt and so they're never at a loss on what to write (due east.yard. "Volition y'all leave a review nigh your experience with your most recent store visit?")

7. Let them know how long it will take.

One of the biggest points of friction that should be called out is time. If the client perceives that they don't take time to fit in a review, they won't. However, if you lot address this objection beforehand during your ask, y'all can change their thinking while you accept the momentum. For example, you might say or write "It will simply accept 2 minutes" equally a side-annotation or post-script to the request.

1. Create different spaces to exit reviews.

Before potential customers even make it to your website to acquire virtually your business, make certain they can learn near you no thing where they're conducting online research well-nigh making a purchase.

There are a few typical third-party review sites people consult to learn more about a business organisation or a product:

Yelp

BrightLocal found that Yelp and Facebook were consumers' most trusted sources of customer reviews in the U.S., so make sure your business concern is registered and upwards-to-date. You can learn how to claim your concern (or add information technology, if your business is brand-new) using Yelp for Business Owners.

Brand certain yous're regularly monitoring communications coming from this profile -- responsive concern owners are highlighted with an average response fourth dimension and response charge per unit that could encourage readers to motility forrad in the process towards condign a new customer.

Yelp request a quote and response time and response rate

Facebook

Yous should also claim your business organization' Facebook Page and then potential customers can find y'all to learn more than about you without having to leave their social network. This is some other site that rewards high levels of responsiveness, so make sure you assign someone to monitor incoming messages across the channels y'all're trying to optimize for new client conquering.

Facebook response rate notification

Google

Next, employ Google My Concern to claim your business on the world's biggest search engine, where potential customers might find you if they're searching for information on Google, or searching for directions in Google Maps. (This is of item importance to brick-and-mortar businesses trying to attract foot traffic -- learn more about local SEO in this blog post.) People too leave reviews using Google, which appears in the search results for your business, as shown below if you Google "HubSpot."

HubSpot's Google My Business Card With Google Reviews

Amazon

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

Amazon serves upwardly a lot of different results for different searches, then brand sure your Amazon page tells your business' story the same style your website does. If a shopper finds your make over the course of an Amazon search, make sure your Folio highlights product details, testimonials, and reviews.

Amazon Store Results Page With Product Listings and Corresponding Reviews

Image Source

Better Concern Bureau

For businesses in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, you lot can register with the Meliorate Business organization Bureau -- some other highly trusted source of customer reviews. By claiming your business on the BBB, yous tin can access more candid customer reviews and become accredited on the site -- which lends greater credibility and trustworthiness to you lot if customers are deciding between options using these reviews and ratings.

HubSpot's Better Business Bureau Page With A+ Rating

There are also industry-specific review sites yous should claim if they're pop inside your business organisation'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 eatery industries. Make sure your contact information, website, hours, and key offerings are available on these more than niche sites, too.

2. Optimize your content.

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

But in one case people are already on your site, make sure it's easy for them to leave reviews there, too.

Optimize your website, blog posts, social profiles, and emails to provide quick and like shooting fish in a barrel avenues through which to write reviews by:

  • Setting up website badges to rapidly 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 to your website when they're browsing social or conducting searches on their phone
  • If you're asking for customer reviews via electronic mail, keep the asks curt and sweet.

Here's a review asking I received from a tour visitor in Charleston. It wisely included a link to various ways to review the visitor on the bodily receipt of my purchase shortly after taking the bout. (For those curious, I highly recommend the haunted graveyard tour if y'all're always in Charleston, SC.)

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

iii. Create incentives.

Your fourth dimension is valuable, and so is your customers', and then brand certain you're giving customers a reason to leave a review.

Offering incentives to make 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 common cold difficult greenbacks.

g2crowd "have a coffee on us" incentive for testimonial

A review request (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 upwards with the avenue where you want your client to write a review. If you're sending out an electronic mail request for a customer review, make sure the e-mail links to exactly where they tin go out their feedback. If y'all want reviews on your Facebook Page, send the request via Messenger. And if yous have to ask for a customer review cross-platform, make the asking equally integrated as possible -- for example, by linking to your Yelp folio in your email signature, or asking customers to review their purchase from your Amazon store in a follow-upward electronic mail mail-purchase.

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

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

five. Respond to every review -- even negative ones.

Nobody's perfect, and mistakes sometimes happen that result in a client leaving a scathing 1-star review on your website, on Facebook, or on Yelp.

When you get a one-star review, though, make sure to take the time to respond thoughtfully, without existence defensive, to come to a resolution. It's the right matter to exercise if you 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 really resulted in better ratings overall. Your customers are homo beings besides, and the value of empathetic and compassionate customer service strikes a chord and actually leads to an uptick in total reviews, specially positive ones.

Hither's an example of how HubSpot responds to reviews on our Glassdoor page. Although not technically "customers," showing prospective employees that HubSpot responds to feedback and takes it seriously helps our employment brand, as well.

hubspot glassdoor review response to neutral rating with negative feedback

6. Share positive client reviews you've already received.

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

On Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Glassdoor, and many other reviews sites, business organization owners (and site visitors) can mark certain reviews every bit helpful, which is like upvoting and moves reviews farther upward on the site so more people can read them. Make sure to periodically practise this to positive reviews so your visitor's page highlights the cream of the crop.

You could also share positive reviews on your make's social media channels to open up the selection to your audience at that place. You 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 meet other people like them sharing reviews, they're more likely to practice the same by following the crowd. And so make certain that, in add-on to asking for new customer reviews, y'all're promoting the positive ones you receive across your brand's channels for promotion.

seven. Give your customers a positive review commencement.

If you desire customers to leave you lot a review, you could leave them one first to get the brawl rolling.

This may not e'er exist possible (depending on your manufacture or production), but in a lot of cases, you tin get 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 -- and then exit them a positive review if yous'd similar them to review you in return. Of course, if they were bad customers, you don't accept to do that, but if you lot want to garner more reviews, taking the starting time pace could prompt them to leave yous i in return.

Another good option is recommending your customer on LinkedIn. If yous're in an account management office and you lot work with individuals over a long menses of time, you lot could go out them a recommendation or endorsement on LinkedIn. Those go a long style for their own personal branding and might hogtie them to reciprocate on their own by leaving your business a positive review. And if they thank you for the endorsement, you could politely ask them for a specific review on a unlike platform during that commutation.

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

Concern Representative: You're welcome! I've enjoyed working with you over the last few months and wanted to brand sure other people know how skilled you are at web pattern. If you've enjoyed working with me as well, I'd appreciate a review of our product on G2 Crowd if you're up for it.

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

8. Host an event.

To create opportunities to ask for reviews in-person as details in the previous strategy, and to create the conditions where customers are more than likely to leave positive reviews, host a remarkable user conference or industry issue to create more than value for your customers beyond just the products or services yous sell.

By creating an engaging and useful experience for customers, where they can network with a community of people similar them, go access to new product releases and discounts early, and see their points of contact at your company, you'll increment their positive sentiment toward your business and engender the likelihood that they'll leave more reviews.

Y'all could fifty-fifty brand customer reviews a part of your post-event feedback process -- subsequently customers complete a survey asking how they'd rate their experience, yous could ask them to share highlights of their experience at the event on a public review site.

1. Use social media.

While using social media to gather reviews isn't exactly clever, the identify you ask for them can be unique. For instance, if you take a Facebook group or LinkedIn group, you could ask those members to leave a review.

Chances are, that if they're in your social media grouping, then they like your company and will provide a positive review if you ask.

Additionally, you lot tin can use social media to promote your reviews. For case, ane company I follow on Instagram, Bowmar Nutrition, responds and reposts reviews to their Stories every single twenty-four hours. As a follower, I know that if I leave a review on Instagram, it'll exist shared by the visitor. This provides an incentive because it helps develop a relationship with your customers.

2. Send a handwritten note and gift menu.

It might seem a little sometime school, but if you're running a company, a handwritten note to your customers will become a long way. Your sales reps can write these if yous're at a mid-size or larger company, or if you run a small business, y'all tin can write them yourself. You might consider sending a gift card 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'southward okay to send your customers a nice thank yous souvenir, whether they exit a review or not. Your note could say something like, "We wanted to give thanks you for being a customer with this souvenir card! If yous ever feel inclined, we'd honey to go your honest feedback in the form of a review."

3. Help your customers when they demand information technology.

When times are tough, be in that location to help your customers. For case, during the COVID-19 pandemic, HubSpot offered reduced prices for prospects and customers, increased limits for customers, and offered a half-dozen-month advance on commissions from HubSpot to all Platinum, Diamond, and Elite Solutions Partners.

Again, we weren't doing these things just so customers would leave practiced reviews, but and then nosotros could actually help customers during an unprecedented time. Many customers, new and old, were so positively impacted, that they felt compelled to go out a positive review.

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

4. Give employees rewards for positive customer reviews.

A month ago, I went to an escape room with my family unit. Later on nosotros escaped the room (with 5 minutes to spare, I might add), nosotros were talking to our guide and request him questions.

After our word, he told us his proper name once again and said that he'd really appreciate it if we left a review because 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 too incentivizes customers. I wanted to assistance our guide because we had such a great experience, and so my family and I all left separate reviews calling him out.

To begin implementing client review cultivation at calibration, the all-time affair you can exercise is incorporate it into your business as a process. This starts with an active strategy for customer service too every bit online reputation and testimonials. Start by edifice from templates and asking your existing customers for reviews.

Editor'south note: This mail 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