10 ways to increase and improve your customer reviews

Testimonials  and product reviews can be one of your greatest sales tools. Over 70% of consumers say they look at product reviews before making a purchase and nearly 63% indicate they are more likely to buy from a site that has product ratings and reviews. Social proof can reassure hesitant shoppers, provide additional context and reduce returns by ensuring buyers are satisfied with their purchase.

Ready to instill trust in your business, create meaningful social proof and build your brand love? Here are 10 tips to help you go above and beyond with product reviews and customer testimonials.

1. Put your reviews front and center. Consider placing a couple reviews right on your homepage. If you have reviews for specific items, publish them on each product page. You can even add an entirely new page dedicated to housing awesome testimonials with a link in your top nav. Just make sure you get them on your site in a way that works for your product. We love how Primal Pit Paste shows off their raving fans on a special section of their website.

2. Get on the same sites as your customers. Being social and accessible is the best way to get honest feedback. Make your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts easily accessible from your store so customers can reach out with comments and questions. If you have a brick-and-mortar business, like Milk + Honey Spa, you’ll also want to have a profile on Yelp and Google Places.

3. Follow up with buyers. Consider sending an email to customers after they make a purchase. You’re most likely to get a review when the purchase is still top of mind. Check out Bigcommerce app partner Yotpo to automate this process, which makes it easy for you but more importantly makes it easy for your customers. Remove as much friction as possible between your request and their ability to submit a review.

4. Ask the right questions. To do this, you need to know the type of answers you want before you start asking for them. What is your target audience interested in? What are their biggest concerns when making a purchase? What are pain points in your industry? Aligning with these questions will help you get meaningful and relevant testimonials.

5. Contact those who leave you glowing reviews. If you notice a glowing review on Yelp or a pretty tagged pic on Instagram, say thanks! Man Crates does a great job of following up and socializing their positive reviews. You can also ask for permission to share their shoutout on your site or social media channels.

6. Contact those who leave you negative reviews. Ignoring these won’t make them go away. Try to respond to negative reviews, especially if you think the reviewer is justified in their complaint or other customers have complained about the same issue. Take this opportunity to learn from your clients and improve your business.

7. Run a contest. This is an effective way to market your business with a little help from your current customers. We shared some social contest ideas in our recent post on social promotions that can impact your bottom line, but keeping things simple is always a good idea. Ask customers to add a hashtag on Instagram or post a quick note on your Facebook page. Lensbaby regularly runs Facebook contests asking fans to submit photos, like the heart bokeh image at the top of this post, that show off what their unique lenses can do.

8. Reward those who review. For example, you could provide every client who gives you a review a 10% off coupon. And you don’t even need to let them know this is coming their way. The surprise factor will add an extra bit of “wow” to their experience.

9. Include the customer’s name and picture when you post the testimonial. This can be a nice way to thank your customers, and it also adds a level of credibility to their review. Consider adding the source of the review, like Yelp, to encourage other customers to send in their own feedback.

10. Give your customers a reason to review you. It may be something as simple as writing a personalized thank you note, but that gesture will go a long way in making your customers feel warm and fuzzy. Delush Polish does such a great job at going the extra mile that customers actually share the packaging on Instagram.

Do you have your own tips for improving and increasing customer testimonials? Share your advice in the comments, we’d love to hear about it!

Feature image by Mark Mathosian on Flickr