10 Effective Measures to Encourage Customer Reviews

The three R's: Recommendations, Reviews and Ratings are the key elements that play a significant part  in convincing the customers about the credibility of an e-commerce merchant. Consumer-driven reviews chip in with their crucial role of pulling steady traffic to an e-shop and also ensure higher conversion. Surveys reveal that more than 90% of the potential customers rely on recommendations of friends, relatives and acquaintances in social media and word-of-mouth is one of the strongest mode of advertising. In this age where promoting a business needs to be carried out effectively, the ways to stand out from the pack is via how you engage your customers, make use of the mental glues, the sales pitch and generate good vibes that can create a buzz about your online business.

Impact of Social Media

The phenomenon of social engagement has helped different brands to make their web presence felt and spread awareness among the different segments of the audience. Social sales is definitely gaining speed but at a  slower pace while the reviews and recommendations shared and exchanged in the different social networking platforms is aiding in building the brand image of the e-commerce merchants. Reviews and ratings are not only the potent guides for the prospective customers, making them to take a sagacious buying decision. These help in driving away insecurities from the minds of the customers, offering them the needed nudge to take the buying action. Social media acts as the platform where customers can come up with different views, express their opinions abut products, recommend products that have appeased them or left them dissatisfied. Interaction on a higher level can take place between retailers, customers, groups and communities which together build trust and expand the list of loyalists for the e-commerce merchants. 

The 10 Best Ways to persuade Customers to write Reviews:

• Deriving inspiration in the way Amazon, the giant online retailer, integrates the valuable feedback of the customers, can help. Such a format can work for your site too. Get inspired, bring in your own tweaks ad creativity to make it more unique and appealing to your target audience
• By incorporating Facebook's Open Graph, the customers are empowered with the ability to share reviews on this social networking site
• When choosing the product review solutions, ensure that the process of leaving reviews on your website proves to be a hassle-free process. The features enabling customers to offer reviews and ratings in a seamless way needs to be deftly incorporated in an e-commerce website
• Do not try to be a good boy always. You do not need to filter all out all the negative reviews as a subtle blend of both good reviews and some containing suggestions for improvement or some of the minor points where you need to brush things up, enable in fostering trust and credibility.  Nothing is perfect, so strike a balance of not being too good to be true or overtly flawed!
• Reading the mind of the target audience or their behavioral pattern is the key to your business success. You should be preparing your sales pitch and offering customer service in such a way that customers cannot help but leave a review on your site.
• Do not lure the customers with free gifts, free product samples or any discount coupons for encouraging them to write reviews. It is not about doing a favor in exchange of a gift. Some contests or any innovative ways that encourage customer participation should be used so that the customers willingly write reviews
• Effective use of email or the post-purchase marketing email campaigns is the perfect method  where asking for submitting a review from the customers can fructify
• The impact of video marketing in this era of business promotion is crucial. So a good compilation of the product reviews capsuled in the form of an interesting video can grab the attention of the target audience in a greater way
• Swearing by the norm of sharing of the links of the product reviews, important tips, suggestions can pay off in a big way for the e-commerce merchants
• Carry confidence in your arms and offer only top-quality products and immaculate services so that the willingness to leave a review increases manifold among the customers