Online reviews of your company and its products are excellent tools for confidence in your company. Consider the following statistics: Customers are likely to spend 31% more on a company with outstanding customer reviews, according to 93 percent of consumers who say reading online reviews influenced their buying decisions. The value of good (and recent) customer reviews cannot be overstated, whether they appear on your website, your social media accounts, other sites where your interests are sold, or on common review sites like the BBB or Google My Business.

The challenge arises when attempting to obtain feedback for your company or products—only the most enthusiastic people leave unprompted reviews. The most passionate thoughts occur after a negative encounter. Getting positive feedback for your business should be a top priority for online entrepreneurs looking to stay ahead of the competition. Continue reading to discover the most effective methods for generating ratings for your company as part of your reputation management plan.

Ways to Increase Ecommerce Reviews Directly

Getting the first new feedback can be difficult; but, after you've experimented a little to see what works, you'll find it easy to find ways to streamline the process. Here are a few methods for obtaining feedback directly.

1. Ask friends & family to leave positive reviews

If you're just getting started and don't yet have clients who can leave feedback, consider asking friends and family for help. We don't recommend asking them to write glowing reviews before they've tried your products—some rating sites penalize false thoughts, and some fake reviews are apparent to consumers anyway. Allow a few people close to you to go through the entire purchasing process—ordering from your website, having the item shipped, and using the article—and then writing an insightful review about their experience. If you're only starting and haven't yet had any clients, who would you leave a review for? It is also a perfect way to identify and resolve any problems with your method early on. Recognize the link when reacting to their study—it could go a long way toward demonstrating how "true" your brand is.

2. Email customers soon after every purchase

After your customer receives their order, you can expect to contact them within a specific time frame to inquire about their experience. It is also an excellent opportunity to request that they reconsider their order. There are numerous Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools available to help you automate this process. Your eCommerce vendor might even integrate with a few or have features built-in that can handle this for you. Consider how long it can take for consumers to use the product and shape an opinion about its worth—an item that can be checked immediately upon receipt can benefit from a review request email earlier than an item that takes a month to produce results can be seen.

3. Encourage customer service to ask happy customers for reviews

The simplest and most powerful way to create feedback for your company is to ask for them when there is already a line of communication open. Inform the Customer Service team that driving online feedback is a company priority. After each good contact, have your representatives ask the customer to leave a rating for your company or product. This one-on-one, personalized approach is guaranteed to generate more feedback than any impersonal process. You can also incentivize the team to get customers to leave feedback by offering cash prizes for each rating a team member obtains or having monthly contests to see who can drive the most miles.

4. Use third-party User-Generated Content (UGC) software

Using third-party services such as Bazaarvoice, Reevoo, or PowerRatings is another excellent way to increase feedback. Some of these sites allow you to submit your items to a group of reviewers who will write an impartial review about their experience. These third-party results are accurate, validated reviews written by actual consumers who have purchased goods or services from the web, directly raising the number of reviews.

5. Hire social influencers to review your products

People can now not only communicate with one another from anywhere in the world thanks to social media, but they can also become their profitable online brands. Though influencers benefit tremendously from the arrangement, they often introduce their followers to brands and products they endorse (or that pay for their support). Although we recommend going for the big names because they can have the most visibility, smaller influencers can also be helpful. Someone with a lesser-known name may get much more traction and effort from you—think tens of thousands of followers rather than hundreds of thousands or millions. If you go high, however, be prepared to make the process as quick and smooth as possible, as the time of more famous influencers is more valuable.

In Conclusion

Soliciting eCommerce feedback can seem to be a challenging task. There are, however, tactics with varying degrees of participation that can improve the chances of gaining more feedback for your company or goods. The more time you spend on a review plan, the greater the overall ROI you are likely to see.