How to Get Customer Reviews For Your Small Business

Customer reviews are crucial in shaping a small business’s reputation and attracting new customers. However, many small business owners are not utilizing or storing customer reviews. Here are our strategies for getting customer reviews so you can use them in your marketing efforts. 

How to Get Customer Reviews

You must have a system to get customer reviews, especially as your business grows. 

People love to see proof that others liked your product or service, so collecting reviews is worthwhile.

Almost half of consumers surveyed said they trusted online reviews highly. Bright Local reports, “46% of consumers feel that online business reviews are as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends or family (down from 49% in 2021).”

When collecting customer reviews, consider getting them in various formats, such as video or text.

Not sure how to get customer reviews?

Here are five ways you can get customer reviews:

1. Offer an incentive
2. Send out emails
3. Allow reviews on your website
4. Send out surveys 
5. Set up a Google business profile

Let’s get into some details. 

Offer an incentive

You can offer an incentive for your customers to leave you a review. 

For example, testimonials or reviews are a great asset to use in your marketing if you’re about to launch a course or an ebook.

However, you may wonder how you’ll get these precious reviews since you have yet to launch.

You can reach out to members of your target audience and offer a discount on your course or give them the course for free in exchange for their honest review. You can then add those reviews to your sales page and emails. 

In addition, whether you’re service-based or product based, you can also:

• Offer discounts on the next purchase in exchange for a review
• Give out free samples 
• Run a contest where you pick a lucky reviewer to award a prize

Avoid offering incentives explicitly tied to positive reviews, as this can be seen as manipulating feedback. Instead, emphasize that you value all honest feedback and are interested in hearing about their genuine experiences. 

Send out emails

If you’re just starting your business, you can manually email each person who purchases from you and ask them to leave a review. 

However, as you grow, you will want to automate the process.

You can use email marketing software (EMS) to email your customers a few days after a purchase, asking for honest reviews. 

HubSpot says you can lead with an open-ended question, such as asking whether or not they want to repurchase or review the product. 

Another option is to include a link in the invoice sent to your customer’s emails. The link would go to your review page, where customers can leave a review. 

So, will you get responses?

Bright Local says, “34% of consumers said they would be likely to leave a review if requested to do so by email.”

Allow reviews on your website

Another great way to collect customer reviews for your small business is by allowing them to leave reviews on your website. 

You can allow a star rating or a comment box under each product or service. Encourage your customers to leave their reviews. You may have to offer incentives at first, but the more people leave reviews, the more comfortable your customers will be in leaving reviews. 

Another option is creating a mobile-friendly landing page on your website to collect reviews. You can send your customers the link to the page via email or social media and wait for them to leave their reviews. 

Send out surveys 

Another option is creating a survey (we love using Jotform) and sending it to your customers. Surveys are a great way to discover what people love or dislike about your product o service. 

If you get a positive comment from your survey, you can follow up for a more detailed review. On the other hand, if you get a negative comment, consider reaching out to fix the problem if you can. 

Set up a Google business profile

You can sign up for and set up your Google Business Profile. 

Doing that can boost your local SEO. In addition, people are allowed to leave reviews, both stars and a comment. 

When people in your area are searching for the products or services you offer, you’ll pop up in their search results.

As a matter of fact, Bright Local says, “98% of consumers used the internet to find information about local businesses in 2022, up from 90% in 2019.”

Bright Local also says, “In 2022, 87% of people used Google to research local businesses (up from 81% in 2021).”

Setting up your Google Business page is just the first step; remember to maintain it. You can do that by responding to comments. 

If you get positive reviews, more and more people will reach out to you. Remember to thank them for leaving a positive comment.

However, if you get negative reviews, apologize and offer to fix the problem. Doing that will also make you look great in the eyes of potential customers. 

Bright Local says, “54% of consumers would feel positive about using a business when the owner responds to reviews.”

Conclusion

Customer reviews can be a great marketing tool for your small business. The truth is consumers do rely on reviews before they make a purchase. There are many ways you can collect these reviews. We recommend utilizing the ones that work best for your business. Remember to thank everyone who leaves a review. A little gratitude goes a long way.