How to Encourage Users to Leave Reviews After Purchase

These days, your customers are more informed than ever. They have countless ways to learn all about your product, service, and brand before they even consider making a purchase.

While different customers do their research in unique ways, there’s one crucial element that can make or break your chances of selling with virtually every client: reviews.

Customer reviews left by happy clients are instant proof to your target audience that they’re dealing with a reputable and authentic company.

No marketing campaign or social media strategy will convince your audience of your value more than a series of positive testimonials. In fact, 88% of customers say that they’ve been influenced into making a purchase by customer reviews before.

The question is, how do you curate the reviews that are going to make your website more compelling?

Here are our top tips for encouraging customers to leave a review after a purchase.

Offer Incentives

Today’s consumers expect a buying experience that’s as convenient and quick as possible. They have the freedom to purchase products and services just by tapping a button on their smartphone.

Anything that detracts from the streamlined nature of eCommerce can send your customers in the opposite direction.

However, your audience may be willing to invest a little more time and effort into their interaction with your brand if they get something in return. If you want your customers to take time out of their day to write a review – make it worth their while.

You could give every customer who leaves a review free shipping on their next purchase or offer them a chance to be entered into a prize draw.

Some companies even give their audience extra points on loyalty schemes when they leave a review.

Get the Timing Right

Timing is essential with any customer interaction. If you want to make sure that you have the best chances of convincing your customer to buy something in the first place, you need to make sure that you’re sending the right messages to your leads at the ideal point in the purchasing journey.

Similarly, to boost your chances of getting a review, you need to ensure that you’re reaching your customers at just the right time.

Reach out too fast, and you risk asking for feedback before your audience has had a chance to test the product and generate an opinion. However, if you leave it too long to get in touch, your customer could lose interest in the product and your brand.

Ideally, you should be asking for a review a day or two after the product arrives for your customer. If it’s a complex product, give them a little while longer to figure it out.

Follow Up with personalized emails

On the off chance that you do reach your customer during a moment when they’re not ready to leave a review, you don’t want to miss your chances. Following up with another request a little while after your first request could be a great way to boost your chances of success.

Send a follow-up email thanking your customer for their purchase again and giving them another chance to leave a comment. Remind them of what they’re going to get in return for their time, and make sure that the message is personalized.

Don’t just send the same canned response to everyone. Reference the product your clients have purchased and use their name.

A personalized message strengthens the emotional connection between you and your customer, so they’re more likely to do something that’s going to “help you out”.

You could even personalize the experience further by getting in touch on the channel they prefer to use. For instance, why not send a notification on a smartphone app, or send a text instead of an email?

Make the Process Simple

Responding to your request for a review needs to be as quick and easy for your customers as possible. Even if you make the extra effort worth your customer’s while with a discount or an offer, they’ll still have a limit on how much time they’re willing to dedicate to your brand.

To simplify the process, make sure that your audience doesn’t have to do much to leave a review. Maybe you could allow them to tap a single button on your app to leave a five-star review or give them suggested points that they might want to cover in a testimonial.

Be careful not to come across like you’re writing the review for your customers, however.

Mobile apps are making the review process incredibly simple for your customers.

Having an app enables you to personalize your marketing, strengthen your brand message, and simplify the purchasing process for the customer. Asking for reviews through a push notification or pop up doesn’t require users to leave the app, change devices or open several pages until they get to the review section.

Additionally, some apps offer users to quickly snap a picture of the product and upload it with their review, which further enhances the confidence of new users to do business with you.

Start Collecting More Reviews

Reviews are one of the most valuable tools for your business when you’re searching for ways to build brand credibility and encourage new sales.

However, it’s not always easy to figure out how you can convince your audience to leave positive feedback after a purchase.

Offering incentives, perfecting your timing, using personalized messages, and making it as simple as possible for your audience to get involved with reviews are some of the best ways to boost your chances.

Remember, the more testimonials you get from your customers, the more comfortable other people will feel about giving feedback, because they’ll be able to see the thoughts left by other clients.