Reviews on your website build customer trust and increase sales. We’d all rather buy from companies and products that are well-recommended.
How do you get more reviews? Just ask.
Send a reminder email asking for reviews after each order. Take a look at this great example that Costco sent me:
- Give a clear call to action: “Write a review!”
- Show the benefit: “Reviews help us provide you and all Costco members with better products and service.”
- Make it easy: Instructions are right in the email.
(Disclosure: Costco is a client and their reviews are powered by Bazaarvoice, where I’m an advisor.)
I have started doing this. I now want to publish what people say on my website. Do you think it adds any more credibility if I was to publish details other than the review i.e. Reviewers name, location, date? The reason I raise this is that I want the review form to be minimalist to lessen the chance of people hitting the Back button on their browser when confronted with multiple fields which is what I do.
Cheers
Tom
Andy
Great post. It’s hard to remember that customer generated reviews are not standard practice yet. We’ve found that reviews are great for customer engagement, help prospective buyers make great purchase decisions and help us as an organization provide better product for our customers. For example, poor reviews of a product set off flags for the buying team to investigate the item for improvement. Even great reviews can provide insights for us. For example, we sold a dress that customers loved, however the reviews identified that it was cut too long for the average consumer. That was an easy fix for a loved product. Our customer satisfaction for that item went up and our returns on the item went down. A win for all!
Tom: How about making those fields optional if you are concerned about abandonment. I do feel having a username (doesn’t have to be their real name) helps add credibility to the review. Location can provide other readers with some insights depending upon what type of products you are having consumers review. As for date, can you have your system generate that based upon when the review was submitted?
All the best
Paula Drum
General Manager, Gettington.com
Thanks Paula – I have added an optional Name field as there is no username to capture. Location is probably not significant for what I do and date I can pick up from the database.
I have also tweaked the wording I am using based on this post so thanks Andy.
Regards
Tom Morgan
Principal, Jungle Property