By What is reputation management? It’s the art of keeping an eye on what your client’s customers are saying about them. This includes monitoring reviews and responding to them. It also means helping your clients get more positive reviews.
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Take a look at these seven ideas to get more customers to leave reviews, and improve your clients’ online brands.
1. Ask customers for positive reviews for company clients by email
Nearly 70 percent of customers will leave a review. All your client needs to do is ask (Forbes).
Your client can ask for reviews in store or on the phone. They may even have signs at the cash register that remind customers to leave reviews. If they offer printed receipts, the paper may have a review reminder on it.
Better yet? Send a follow-up email. Your client can collect emails during their billing process. From there, you can follow up via automated email, asking about the customer’s satisfaction. If the process is all online, then email can be one of the most effective ways to get positive reviews for a company.
Pro tip: In the email, always open with a question: Are you enjoying the product? Is everything to your liking? How are you finding your purchase? Then ask for a review. You’ll have a higher success rate.
2. Be on the same sites as customers
Customers are more likely to leave positive reviews for a company on sites like Yelp. They may feel that their reviews are more likely to help other people like themselves.
Make sure your clients are on these sites as well, since it may be where their customers are reviewing them. If it feels overwhelming to manage several sites, reputation management software can help.
Respond to reviews
Responding to reviews can help build rapport with customers.
White-label reputation management software can help you here too. It can notify you when you have new reviews to respond to.
Work with your client to create standard responses. Ensure they match the brand’s voice and image. You should also create a policy for how to respond to negative reviews.
Responding the right way can boost your client’s reputation.
3. Give people a reason to review your clients
You can generate more reviews by rewarding customers.
Offering a sample, gift card, or a small discount as a thank you for leaving a review are good examples. These rewards are more likely to net you positive reviews.
A contest can be another great way to garner more reviews. Simply ask customers to review and tell them that by doing so, they’ll be entered in a draw for prizes. These prizes can be anything, from a small gift card to a pricey gift basket.
Make sure that the incentive is only contingent on leaving a review. Your client should also ensure that they’re encouraging honest reviews (Federal Trade Commission).
4. Thank customers who give positive reviews
If you want to send customers a thank-you sample, gift card, or discount, you can do it this way as well—without telling customers they’ll be rewarded. This is a delightful surprise for people who take the time to review. Connecting with customers is powerful.
This is a great option for any business owner who believes rewards or contest prizes might be out of reach. A simple thank-you email or card goes a long way. You can even ask customers to post the card or package on their social media to get more content and more mentions for your client.
Leverage social media
You can also create a promotion with your clients that allows for “social media reviews.” If the customer reviews or posts a picture, then your client can offer them a discount or something for free. A restaurant, for example, might offer a free appetizer or free dessert. At a retail store, you might offer a gift or a 10-percent-off discount.
5. Put positive reviews for company clients front and center
Let customers know you appreciate their time by making reviews front and center on the client’s website. If you can, include the reviewer’s name and picture with their quote.
If you have a B2B client, you might want to include the reviewer’s position or company.
You might also want to include a feed of reviews from Yelp or Google to help those reviewers get noticed as well. This also builds trust with new clients coming to the website. Highlighting reviewers on the website is a good way of thanking them for taking the time. You can also cross-promote great reviewers on social media. If someone leaves a positive review on another site, excerpt it and promote it on the client’s social accounts. Be sure to tag the reviewer.
If the reviewer posts their review or part of it on social media, interact with the post. This can help build your client’s reputation and get them in front of a new audience.
6. Build review reminders in to the website
You can include review reminders in an email workflow, but you can also do it on your client’s website. A pop-up might ask a customer to provide a review, especially if they have just completed a purchase.
No matter which methods you choose, remember the goal is to make it easy for customers to provide reviews.
7. Reduce friction wherever possible
We’ve highlighted the need to make reviewing easy a few times already. Clicking a link is easier than needing to remember to bring your receipt to your computer and type in a URL.
No matter what, make sure you provide many review opportunities. Someone might scan a QR code in store to open the survey. You can also send a follow-up email or remind a customer when they log in to an app or website.
Be sure to let customers choose which platform to review on. Alternatively, you can ask them to provide their review via email and you’ll post it online for them. Always make it clear how easy leaving a review is. In an email or a website reminder, you might give an estimate of time, such as “it will only take a minute.”
Finally, offer white-label reputation management software for your clients. This can make reputation management easier for their team too.
Manage reviews the right way
Getting positive reviews for company clients can be tough, because most customers aren’t inclined to review without prompting. In fact, most happy customers don’t say anything at all.
Capitalize on your clients’ satisfied customers by using any (or all) of these methods. Thanking customers and highlighting them on social media can be as effective as offering a discount.
