In today’s world, running an online business can be a difficult task to tackle. A lot of online business or online products will live or die by the customer review and if there’s one thing that many businesses will experience is that customers tend to complain far more often than they’ll leave a compliment.

Is that the fault of the company? Is it the fault of the product? We are living in an age of instant gratification and people will look online for services or products, do their research and make a choice based off of the information presented to them. In the United States, 55% of shoppers start their shopping journey online through giants like Amazon. Those that buy products, between 5 and 10% of them will actually leave a review. Furthermore, 20% of the sales for that particular product are driven by reviews and a third of all online shoppers say that they won’t buy a product that hasn’t been reviewed positively. These are some disturbing numbers, but let’s not forget another absurd statistic: if customers don’t see a few negative reviews, they’ll think the system is flawed. These statistics are from the same research that shows the optimum Amazon rating for products is between 4.2 and 4.4.

 It then becomes quite a massive task for smaller online retailers or products to compete with the likes of the giant companies and they’ll look for new and creative ways of asking a customer to review the product or service. So how do you go about doing that? We’ll tell you.

Ask in a Different Way

Perhaps one of the most underrated methodologies, you could ask your customers in a different way. Most people won’t feel compelled to write a review, especially if it’s positive, if the product or service does what it says on the box. This is why you should approach the customer in a different way. If you can, ask them in person. If you only have a few customers, there’s nothing wrong with a phone call, especially if you’re a small, family business. Failing that, there’s always a personalized email. Any of these methods can go a long way and even if they still aren’t interest, worst case scenario, you’ll get to know your customer and more likely, have a repeat customer.

Incentivize

While it may sound simple, incentivizing customers is a really effective way of asking customers to leave a review. Studies have shown that offering some kind of financial incentive is 18.5% more likely to end up with the customer leaving a review. It’s not a huge number, but it definitely helps with conversion rates. Not only with their online reviews do magic for your company, should you be open to the criticism, but it will also help you in keeping customers happy.

Make it Easy and Timely

This is perhaps one of the most important aspects. You’ll want to ensure that leaving a review is very easy for the customer. Make sure login details are remembered and head back to the product or service they purchased so they don’t need to go through the list. Timing also matters with this. You’ll want to wait until the customer uses whatever they’ve bought before they review it. Sending out a request for review before the parcel has even arrived at the client is just bad planning.

Mobile is the Key

Mobile is definitely the way of the future and it should come as no surprise that customers are more likely to respond to a review request on a mobile device. Phones and tablets have a far higher conversion rate than desktop, so it makes the most sense for you to ensure that your request for review is mobile friendly.

Respond to Reviews

More often than not, customers will be more interested in leaving a review, whether it’s positive or negative, if the company in question responds. It may seem like you’re opening up a can of worms at times, but there is no secret to a successful business here, you want to create an open and honest line of communication with your customers.

One may think that there is some sort of trick to keeping customers happy or getting more customers to your business but it’s relatively straight forward. You need to ensure that you as the business are open and honest with customers and clients, you offer the service you promise and you put yourself in line with expectations.  You’re asking a customer to take time out of their schedule to leave a review for something you’ve given to them, make sure it’s an experience they can do quickly and easily, and still get something positive out of it. 

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