5 Tips To Get More Online Customer Reviews

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This info is from the article with my comments inserted in BOLD
There are basically four ways to get an online customer review:
  1. Via phone - Placed online by ???
  2. Via email - Placed online by ???
  3. Via a Website - the only honest way
  4. Via transcription from a hand-written review - Placed online by ???
Some tips for asking customer reviews:
  1. Don’t offer incentives. A percentage of your customers will do it for free. If you offer to pay your top brand ambassadors, it’s possible they will get turned off, which could hurt your business by dampening the enthusiasm of these mavens.
  2. Make it easy for customers. Don’t send them a link to review you on Google unless they have a Gmail address. Or TA, B&B.com etc. without knowing they are members???
  3. Don’t ask people for Yelp reviews. This almost always backfires. You may get a few positive reviews in the short term, but if your customers are not active Yelpers, Yelp’s SPAM filters will eventually toast their reviews. You’ll end up with no reviews and potentially some angry customers who wonder why their work of review art disappeared. If they aren't active users they won't know their work was deleted.
  4. Do it promptly. Don’t wait. People are most likely to give you feedback right away. The longer you go from the time of service to the time of request, the likelihood of getting reviews drops precipitously. According to Ted Paff, CEO of CustomerLobby, a review service, “Comment card reviews solicited at the time of service can see completion rates of 80-90%” vs. much lower rates for other forms of review solicitation.
  5. If you have the customer’s email address, follow up your initial request three days later with a reminder email containing links of where to for review submissions. Reminder emails can account for a huge percentage of review conversions. As we know guests love to get all this email
    angry_smile.gif
 
This info is from the article with my comments inserted in BOLD
There are basically four ways to get an online customer review:
  1. Via phone - Placed online by ???
  2. Via email - Placed online by ???
  3. Via a Website - the only honest way
  4. Via transcription from a hand-written review - Placed online by ???
Some tips for asking customer reviews:
  1. Don’t offer incentives. A percentage of your customers will do it for free. If you offer to pay your top brand ambassadors, it’s possible they will get turned off, which could hurt your business by dampening the enthusiasm of these mavens.
  2. Make it easy for customers. Don’t send them a link to review you on Google unless they have a Gmail address. Or TA, B&B.com etc. without knowing they are members???
  3. Don’t ask people for Yelp reviews. This almost always backfires. You may get a few positive reviews in the short term, but if your customers are not active Yelpers, Yelp’s SPAM filters will eventually toast their reviews. You’ll end up with no reviews and potentially some angry customers who wonder why their work of review art disappeared. If they aren't active users they won't know their work was deleted.
  4. Do it promptly. Don’t wait. People are most likely to give you feedback right away. The longer you go from the time of service to the time of request, the likelihood of getting reviews drops precipitously. According to Ted Paff, CEO of CustomerLobby, a review service, “Comment card reviews solicited at the time of service can see completion rates of 80-90%” vs. much lower rates for other forms of review solicitation.
  5. If you have the customer’s email address, follow up your initial request three days later with a reminder email containing links of where to for review submissions. Reminder emails can account for a huge percentage of review conversions. As we know guests love to get all this email
    angry_smile.gif
.
My thoughts inserted within (( ))...
copperhead said:
This info is from the article with my comments inserted in BOLD
There are basically four ways to get an online customer review:
  1. Via phone - Placed online by ??? ((I assume he means you phone them and ask THEM to place it online, at TA or where ever. They'll quickly learn they have to become a user to post a review))
  2. Via email - Placed online by ??? ((same as above))
  3. Via a Website - the only honest way ((I've been asked via e-mail to post a review and didn't consider it at all dishonest))
  4. Via transcription from a hand-written review - Placed online by ??? ((same as above))
Some tips for asking customer reviews:
Make it easy for customers. Don’t send them a link to review you on Google unless they have a Gmail address. Or TA, B&B.com etc. without knowing they are members??? ((Yes, same for them, I'd say, but they can easily become a TA member. Not so easy to switch to Gmail just to post a review.))
Don’t ask people for Yelp reviews. This almost always backfires. You may get a few positive reviews in the short term, but if your customers are not active Yelpers, Yelp’s SPAM filters will eventually toast their reviews. You’ll end up with no reviews and potentially some angry customers who wonder why their work of review art disappeared. If they aren't active users they won't know their work was deleted. ((excellent point...why would they become angry customers if they can't know their review went to the spam filter))
If you have the customer’s email address, follow up your initial request three days later with a reminder email containing links of where to for review submissions. Reminder emails can account for a huge percentage of review conversions. As we know guests love to get all this email
angry_smile.gif
((another excellent point!))
 
"If most of your business is done in person then give them a comment card. If it’s over the phone, you may have to do it via mail. Try stapling a comment card with return postage to your invoice."
"transcription from a hand written rewiew" - which means that the merchant would post the review after receiving it via mail
This would not work for TA or other review sites that you must register to post and that track IP addresses. You may get away with posting 1 or 2 but in the long run this method would backfire.
 
I had a guest last week that forwarded me the review they did last year. He did this when he book this year. Wow!!! That was so great. He said he did that so we would remember them a little better. It work too. I will remember them next time for sure. I even gave him $10 off his room because it impressed me so much. Not much but every little bit helps. I wish every one would do that. It was remarkable.
 
For what it's worth.....my top four tips are:-
1) The ideal time to catch people with a review request email is when they are back at work after their vacation, but not the first day back. First day back they've probably got hundreds of emails to process and yours will get put to one side and forgotten. This will probably happen as well if they get your email at home or whilst still on vacation.
2) Make sure your email contains a link which takes them straight to the review page, make it as simple for them as possible.
3) Personalize your email, don't make it look like you send the same old thing out to everyone.
4) Only ask people who are going to say nice things to post reviews.
 
For what it's worth.....my top four tips are:-
1) The ideal time to catch people with a review request email is when they are back at work after their vacation, but not the first day back. First day back they've probably got hundreds of emails to process and yours will get put to one side and forgotten. This will probably happen as well if they get your email at home or whilst still on vacation.
2) Make sure your email contains a link which takes them straight to the review page, make it as simple for them as possible.
3) Personalize your email, don't make it look like you send the same old thing out to everyone.
4) Only ask people who are going to say nice things to post reviews..
Id also add 5 - its not really worth emailing anyone over about 70 as they won't get it. your best bet is the 20-40 bracket as especially at the younger end they have a desparate need to tell everyone everything all the time.
 
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