Automate The Process of Asking For Reviews and Testimonials

Reviews and testimonials are essential tools in building the trust of potential clients. Not only do they prove that your business is legit and you have worked with at least one client in the past, but they can also show the benefits people got from working with your business/buying your products. In short, a review or testimonial can be what is needed to help a reluctant client decide to purchase from your business. A 2017 study by Podium showed that 93% of customers read reviews before making a buying decision.

What Is the Best Way to Get a Testimonial or Review?

The best way to get a testimonial or review is to just ask for one. After you have finished working with a client or they have received their product, ask them if they mind leaving a review or testimonial. Provide them with the links to where they can leave a review or testimonial to increase the chance of them leaving a review.

There are a number of ways you can ask for a review.

Ask Your Client in Your Finalisation / Offboarding Call

More businesses are offering an offboarding process or follow up process to check clients are happy with the product or service they purchased and to help troubleshoot any issues. If you do so, ask your client if they can leave you a review or testimonial and send them a link after the call. Since you already have that rapport going, they are more likely to keep an eye out for the email with the link.

Include a Handwritten Note in the Package

Product-based businesses in a number of niches have seen a lot of success from including personal touches, like hand-written notes or sweets in their packaging. Whether you want to include a hand-written note or a printed card, you can still include something in your packaging to thank the customers for their business and ask them to share pictures or leave a review. Make sure the links are short and easy to remember to increase the chances of them leaving a review.

Send an Email Asking For a Review or Testimonial

Send an email a week or so after your client has received the product or service and ask them to leave a review or testimonial. Waiting for a week or more allows the customer time to experience the benefits of the product or service and to give a considered review. This email process can be automated very easily. To increase the chances of the customer opening this email, you could send a little bonus through email, like a PDF with 10 uses for the product or a video showing them the main features and how to use them. After explaining the bonus you have just sent, you can ask for a review or testimonial.

Ask For a Review or Testimonial When Sending the Final Product

For copywriters, designers, or any other service where you send the final product via email, you could ask for a review or testimonial when you send over the final product. You could add it to your delivery email template quite easily.

How to Ask For a Review or Testimonial

There is no need to overcomplicate the way you ask for a review or testimonial, nor do you need to beg for one. Try these easy templates:

1. Share your thoughts with our followers to help them determine if we’re the right fit for them. Click here to leave a review/testimonial.
2. Our business thrives on customer reviews. If you loved your BRAND NAME experience, please click here to leave a review.

Keep your brand voice when asking for a review or testimonial in order to keep the customer experience uniform.

What Should I Do With My Customer Reviews?

You have a whole bunch of customer reviews and testimonials, but what do you do with them? Well, if you sell a product, then your review form should be set up to post directly onto your product page. If you are a service-based business, then you may have your testimonials displayed in a widget on multiple pages on your website.

But, don’t stop there! You should share testimonials and reviews on social media, too, so that you build trust and credibility with followers who are still deciding if they want to work with you. A lot of businesses are seeing success in sharing testimonials in Instagram stories and creating a highlight so people can look up notable reviews. Some small businesses even post their favourite reviews and testimonials to their feed. You can do this across a range of social media channels in the form of a weekly testimonial round up or sharing some of your favourite reviews and testimonials on the final page of a slide deck or carousel. Make it easy for potential customers to access testimonials and reviews, no matter where they find you.

How to Automate the Process of Asking For Reviews

It is really easy to automate the process of asking for reviews by implementing it into your business system. Automatic email systems for customer purchases is the easiest way to do so. Set an email to send a certain number of days after a purchase or after you complete a service with a request for a review or testimonial. Your reviews will trickle in, and then you can schedule a review or testimonial share into your content plan on a weekly or fortnightly basis.