In today’s digital world, the online presence of any business is a priority. With the phenomenon of businesses only getting negative reviews, we are here to show you how you can, in turn, receive glowing reviews.

Considering bad reviews on Google could cause you to lose 70 percent of potential clients, it is a huge issue that it’s easier for people to leave bad reviews as opposed to positive reviews.

A recent study done by Zendesk found that 90% claimed positive online reviews influence their buying decision and that 86% said their decision was influenced by a negative review.

With the trend of customers impacting the customer experience it has many business owners thinking there is nothing they can do and that it’s out of their hands completely. However, that isn’t the case.

The act of asking for reviews puts the power back in your hands to change the outcome of your businesses’ online identity. Here are some different approaches you can use depending on the type of interactions you have with your customers.

Ask your most loyal customers

People who are fans of your brand should be at the top of your list to ask for a review. If you’ve worked with a customer for a long period of time, or have worked with friends and family members, reach out to them first and ask for their time to post a review.

This step is by far the easiest and it will allow you to start seeing reviews now.

Ask in person

This traditional way of asking for a review is still the most effective. It works especially well if you’ve spent a decent amount of time with the customer.

For example, let’s say you have a salesperson talking to the customer for an hour, getting to know their needs and help them with what they are looking for. At the end of the transaction the sales person has created a mini-bond with the customer, and it is here that there is no better time or position to ask for a review.

If a customer seems happy with your services and with the product it is always wise to ask them to write a review online for you.

Don’t forget to make sure they know how long the process will take and express your heartfelt gratitude for their review and reiterate the importance of their feedback.

Create initiatives within the workplace

To see a significant progress you also have to get your team involved. By creating in-house initiatives you will be creating a drive within your employees to get customers to post reviews.

To do this provide bonuses and awards for either employees or locations that are able to get the most online reviews. Also, train key employees on how to ask for reviews.

Make sure that management is aware of the importance of reviews and are communicating their importance to other employees. It’s a group effort to receive reviews, and everyone needs to be on board.

Personalized email

Asking for reviews via email is not the most effective way, and often times takes a lot of trial and error but can reap reviews for your business nonetheless.

You could use an email blast which sends the same email to a bulk contact list, but the most effective way is to tailor emails with a personal touch.

Since email is a bit tricky to obtain a review, here are some tips to make your request easier for both you and the customer.

Have the email come from a personal email address. To really capture that it’s a personal email, and not a mass email, having it sent from John@yourcompany.com instead of info@yourcompany.com gives the customer a sense of priority and importance.
Write the email as a personal request. Include the person’s name, and tailor the copy to sound like a casual and well thought out email as opposed to the junk email a lot of customers receive from companies.
Include a call-to-action link/button at the end of the email. This button is the star of the show in your email. It’s most effective if this button can be seen as soon as the customer opens the email. Don’t have a lot of copy that weighs down the email text.
Remove any social media links in the footer of the email. This may seem counterintuitive, but the call-to-action button is the most important subject in the email, and it’s your singular goal for users to click on it.
Create a lot of tests to see what works best. Test different subject lines, email copy, and if plain-text performs better than HTML.

With email, it is a lot of trial and error but works best if you didn’t work face to face with a customer. Allow yourself to conduct multiple tests and find out what works best.