How to improve your online reviews

There’s little like the feeling of getting a notification that someone has left you a new review online. Oh the emotional rollercoaster.

First there’s the dread that it might not be 5 stars (why does our brains always go there?!), then there’s either the elation when we see it’s glowing or the spiralling if it’s not.

If you’re here, then you’re clearly looking to either increase the number of reviews you have or improve their score, or both. Before we get into it let’s just recap why bother.

Do Online Reviews Really Matter?

In short, having reviews online these days is incredibly important. There are a number of reasons why, but most importantly:

Online review increase purchase rates (a lot)

According to Key Statistics, 92% of people are more likely to make a purchase after reading a good review. 

So, pretty much everyone.

After attracting people to your product and getting them interested in buying, the last thing you want is to lose the sale at the last minute because they aren’t 100% sure they can trust you.

Excellent reviews also increase purchase spend by 37% on average, so not only are you far more likely to make a sale, but it’s also likely to increase the size of the sale.

Google likes to see online reviews

Google is designed to promote websites it feels that it can trust. In simple terms, that means that in order to send traffic your way Google needs to know that you’re a trustworthy source of excellent information.

One way it can tell this is if you have great reviews online. So, in order to be more visible on search engines, reviews are really important.

How to improve your online reviews

Let’s face it, sometimes things go wrong. And it can be completely out of your hands. You can’t guarantee that 100% of your customers will be happy 100% of the time. So, a realistic strategy is one that allows for some not-so-amazing experiences in the mix too.

Here I’m going to share one little hack that has a big impact on both the number of reviews you get but also the percentage of them that are excellent.

And it’s simple to implement: increase your comms.

By this I mean, increase the amount you speak to your customer post-purchase, how you talk to them and what you talk to them about.

Here’s what happens often times after a customer makes a purchase:

• Immediately after: ‘oh god, did I really need that thing?’ - gets a bit of guilt over spending the money

• Or: ‘what if it’s not a great product, or the company isn’t nice, or they’ve just scammed me out of my money?’ - trust issues

• Time passes: waiting for delivery

• Delivery: lots of underlying nervousness has built up, so if something’s not 100% they’re ready to pounce (ie go straight for the bad review)

It’s natural for our brains to jump into protection mode after making a purchase. If you want to provide the best experience for your customers, you need to expect this as a natural step in the process.

If the customer doesn’t hear from you while they’re going through the above process their worries will be left to fester, putting a lot more pressure on your product’s delivery.

What to communicate to buyers post-purchase

Now, against the above scenario, imagine your customer receives the following comms:

• An order confirmation that tells them not only what they’ve purchased but when to expect it and what to do if they have any issues

• Content on why they just made an excellent decision, including how it’s going to help them and reviews from other customers

• More information about the company, it’s values and the people behind it

• Clear instructions on what to do if they have any issues and reassurance that you’re there to sort it out

• On delivery: they’re asked how it is/was and how to get in touch with you if anything isn’t 100%

The whole way through the journey you’re now getting them excited, building trust, building a stronger, more human connection and reassuring them that you’re there if anything goes wrong.

This does 2 things:

1. REDUCES NEGATIVE REVIEWS: as it puts you firmly in between the customer’s experience and the review platform, i.e. they’ll come to you first and give you a chance to make things right before going public.

2. INCREASES POSITIVE REVIEWS: because your customer knows they’re dealing with real humans who care - this can feel rare in an online world and people like to promote companies that make them feel looked after in this way.

How to deliver your post-purchase comms

The good news is that you can automate these comms via a pre-programmed email sequence. Depending on your email marketing platform these might be called journeys, automations or something similar.

Automated email sequences are something you should be maximising in your business, as they do so much of the hard work for you.

If you’re selling physical products or services then your email sequence will fill the gap between purchase and delivery. If you’re selling something digital and immediately available after purchase, emails 3 onwards can be delivered after the product and still have the same effect.

Here’s how this email sequence could look:

1. On purchase: send email confirmation of order, including details of how/when it will be delivered and what to do if anything is wrong. Include a short piece of text that reminds them why it was a great choice to make and a review from a past customer. Keep wording to a minimum in this email.

2. Same day: send an email that gives them lots of useful tips on how to make the most of their purchase - use this to highlight all the ways in which it’s going to make their life better. Again, include a review here.

3. 1-2 days later: tell them more about your business and the people behind it - maybe a snippet of your story and why you do what you do, or the profile of someone who works in the organisation. This is designed to humanise your business and reiterate that you care and are on hand if they experience any issues.

4. When delivery is on its way: notify them, remind them why they should be getting excited and what to do if anything isn’t 100%.

5. After delivery: ask them how it was and if there’s anything you can do to help or improve your service.

If you’re delivering a physical product and use a system that lets you mark orders as fulfilled then you can use this setting to trigger emails 4 and 5. For example, Shopify and Klayvio work extremely well together to do this.

Once you’ve set this up, it’ll keep running, looking after every customer on autopilot for you. As it does, you should see a great improvement in your customer engagement along with an improvement to both your number of review and how many of them are glowing.

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As ever, if you want more hands-on support in launching and growing your business reach out to me about 1:1 coaching. There’s really nothing you can’t do with the right support.