8 Ways to Generate Positive Online Reviews

This is a bit easier if you maintain a customer-facing position in your company, but it’s the absolute gold standard when we’re talking about getting reviews.

Seriously, just asking “Hey, would you be willing to leave a review of our company on Google?” can be huge as you look to establish your company’s online reputation.

An even better question to ask is “Hey, would you be willing to share your experience with us so others can know what to expect from our company?” After they say they’re willing, let them know how they can leave a review on Google.

Now, we fully get this can be a bit nerve-wracking or a source of anxiety (especially considering the “fear of rejection” factor that comes into play), but the best way to overcome this is to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. After all, if you were pleased with a service or product, wouldn’t you be willing to leave a positive review?

The core consideration here is whether you have direct customer interaction. If you don’t, you should think about one of the following strategies.

If you don’t have a customer-facing role in your company, you may need to rely on your employees to ask for reviews on your behalf. When you do, you need to start by imparting the importance of this—maybe have them read this blog post!—and giving them training in best practices.

In addition to individual guidelines and tips for getting reviews, you should give some consideration to your system for asking.

If you don’t have robust guidelines, you could end up with a situation where multiple team members are asking the same customer. Depending on that customer, this could turn a potentially positive review into a non-review or negative one.

Planning in advance and proper training can not only prevent such problems, it can also lead to the results you hope to see.

You might think that sending automated emails to customers is gambling, since your email asking for a review could be delivered to the inbox of an unhappy customer—one who is most definitely not seeking to sing your praises online.

Here’s the deal, though:

When you create an automated email campaign, you can implement filters to weed out potentially unflattering reviews.

(If that sounds sketchy, it’s really the same basic thing as choosing which customers you would ask for reviews in-person.)

It’s important that your emails have optimal open and conversion-to-review rates. (In the event you aren’t sure what that takes, our team is well-versed in creating effective emails that reach target audiences and drive results.)

Sometimes, customers would willingly leave a review without even being asked…they just don’t know how. You can help them by having a webpage dedicated to this.

If you do, be very careful in your wording. It is better to have a page that is more educational in nature, one that gives the general message of “if you want to help others learn about our company, here are places where you can do so and the steps you will need to take once you’re there.”

The inherent risk with this approach—one that isn’t necessarily the case with other practices—is that doing so makes it just as easy for someone who wants to leave a negative review as it does for someone who leaves a positive one.

(That said, you can manage this risk to a certain degree with strategies like combining your “Online Reviews” landing page with a targeted email campaign.)

The amount of opportunity for discretion in choosing which customers to ask (and which are better left unasked) goes down the list. If you want the most amount of control, it’s best to do it yourself. We know that isn’t always practical, however.

We also know it can be tough asking employees to do this for you. As such, you might want to really consider the third and fourth options.

As your marketing company, we can manage your branding, communicate your messages, generate sales leads, etc. The actual customer experience, however, falls in your wheelhouse. If you make sure each one is pleasant and memorable—and you ask—positive reviews will follow.

(Admittedly, this seems obvious, but it’s still worth noting because some companies continue to miss the mark.)

Staying connected with customers has always been important. It’s just never been as easy as it is in the present.

Well, it takes time and effort, but the social media platforms and email capabilities we have now make forming and maintaining connections much easier than a hundred years ago when we had to write letters to every customer by hand or type them on a typewriter.

Connected customers are more likely to be happy customers. And happy customers are more likely to leave positive online reviews. So make sure your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts are being used effectively to cultivate those connections.

Consistent branding leads to customer loyalty. This happens as people develop certain expectations, and then your company delivers by meeting them.

What this means for your company is that you need to focus on your branding. The colors representing your brand need to be present in all marketing elements. People need to quickly recognize your brand’s voice. Your values should shine through in all communications.

When you do those things—even if they seem minor—it builds positive connections and associations between your business and customers. This is key for the online reviews you like reading.

It’s rather cliché to say that problems are just opportunities. The fact of the matter, though, is that sometimes clichés exist because they contain (at least) a grain of truth.

In this case, the problem—a negative review—is most definitely an opportunity. See, people consider reviews when deciding whether to buy a product or use a service, but they also consider how a company responds to those reviews.

If you respond to a negative comment in a negative way, it’s not going to end up good for you. “Two wrongs don’t make a right” (speaking of clichés…).

Even better than maintaining courtesy and professionalism in your response is to try and engage with the review to find out what went wrong and what can be done about it. Done correctly, this can even turn negative reviews into positive ones.

Now, there are definitely do’s and don’ts when it comes to this, and our team can guide you through them.