How & Why get good customer reviews?

As figures are the best indicator to explain a phenomenon, let’s start by giving some figures on the customer review system. According to a study published in 2020 by IFOP, 87% of French people refer to the opinions of other customers before making a purchase decision. The same study states that, for 34% of respondents, customer reviews are a more important source of persuasion than advertising messages. So let’s face it, these figures leave no doubt about the importance of reviews, which reflect the experience of every customer. However, these reviews can only be collected through a well thought-out strategy.
Chapitre 1 : pourquoi obtenir de bons avis client ?
Pour une entreprise, les avis client sont d’une importance capitale en raison de plusieurs avantages. Nous en citons quelques-uns.
#1 Better understanding of customers
Through a detailed analysis of the customer reviews it receives, a company can better understand the overall expectations of its customers. Which products do they prefer? In which time slots do they make the most purchases? How often do they call customer service? These are all important questions at the heart of business plan, to which the company must respond appropriately. The result is better customer satisfaction and a significant gain in competitiveness vis-à-vis competitors.
#2 Continuous improvement
Thanks to customer reviews, a company can also identify areas for improvement. Indeed, these reviews often contain requests that arise during a contact with the customer service. They represent a real outlet, through which each consumer gives feedback, whether positive or not. It is therefore possible to use them to identify the means and strategies to be implemented in order to progress at different levels:
  • Quality of products/services ;
  • Delivery times ;
  • Processing times ;
  • Accessibility of customer service, etc.
#3 Credibility and social proof
Consumers are more likely to trust customer reviews because they represent real feedback. A company with a large number of positive reviews is therefore more likely to gain credibility with its target audience.
#4 Customer retention
When a company lets its customers express themselves through reviews (positive or negative), they develop a sense of belonging to the company. They feel listened to, appreciated and therefore more inclined to return.
#5 Better positioning on search engines
The content of customer reviews is indexed by search engines. It therefore contributes to improving the positioning of the company’s site on these engines. If the customer reviews contain relevant keywords and are well written, the site in question will generate more visits. Obviously, more traffic means better visibility and a greater chance of finding new customers.
#6 Very important marketing contribution
Positive customer reviews are considered a successful marketing campaign. They provide the company with a constant positive image, but above all, they are real! They contribute to the creation of continuous brand awareness, which benefits the brand in the long term.
Chapter 2: How to get good customer reviews?
Now that we know the importance of having good customer reviews, it is time to identify the different strategies for generating them. Strategies that can be developed by the company itself, or by a web agency to which it delegates the management of its e-reputation.
#1 Sign up for the most important review platforms
To ensure that a company has customer reviews, it must first be present on the main platforms where consumers usually go to express their feelings. Here is a non-exhaustive list of these sites that are widely used and generate an incredible amount of reviews every day:
  • Yelp
  • Google My Business
  • Trustpilot
  • Facebook
  • Foursquare
It is also possible to have reviews of your own website. Today, all CMS offer plugins to facilitate the management of customer reviews.
#2 Making it easy for customers
Leaving a review should be easy for all customers. For example, immediately after a consumer has ordered a product from a company, the company can email them a direct link to the customer review page.
#3 Rewarding customers
To collect reviews, a company can offer incentives. For example, it can offer its customers loyalty points or discounts in exchange for each genuine review. This has a double positive impact. Not only will the company be able to collect a very large base of customer reviews, but its image will also be improved. Customers will feel that their opinion counts in the eyes of the brand, which will increase their loyalty.
#4 Send an email
After each sale, Etsy sends the customer an SMS or e-mail asking them to leave a review. According to recent statistics, this approach has resulted in 25% of sales being reviewed. Such a strategy is not at all complicated to implement. All you need is a CRM that can automate the entire customer/company relationship. The key is to make a CRM software benchmark available on the market, in order to choose the one that best suits the company’s needs.
#5 Creating surveys
From time to time, a company may create satisfaction surveys that will be used to collect customer feedback. These surveys can be sent by e-mail, or presented directly on the company’s website. The most important thing is that they are compatible with mobile devices, which are nowadays an overly important source of internet traffic.
#6 Systematically thanking each commentator
After each review submitted, it is advisable to send a thank you message to the author. Again, with a CRM it is possible to automate this task and even personalise it. In this way, each consumer can receive a message on their behalf, thanking them for the time they took to leave a review. This is a very simple step, but the impact on the company’s reputation can be significant. It shows how much consideration the company has for its customers, and how much they will appreciate it.
Conclusion
To sum up, we can say that customer reviews are very important for a company. They allow it to :
  • Winning new customers ;
  • Gaining credibility ;
  • Building customer loyalty ;
  • Improve search engine positioning ;
  • Boost the results of your marketing campaigns…
From this, we deduce that e-reputation is a very important segment, to which significant organisational and IT resources must be allocated. In some cases, the services of a web or e-reputation agency are necessary.

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