Good Example: How to Ask for a Review

Filed in Local Search, Reputation Mgmt. by Matt McGee on June 3, 2013 6 Comments

Here are a couple images that I thought would be worth sharing on the blog.

I ordered a portable external battery not too long ago via Amazon.com from a company called Anker. I’d seen it recommended as a good option to help deal with Google Glass’ poor battery life, and it seems like that’s going to be the case.

In the product box was what I think is a pretty effective attempt at encouraging reviews. It’s not local search-related, but maybe some of you small business owners can use this (or something similar) to get more reviews of your business on Google+, Yelp, Citysearch, InsiderPages or wherever.

It started with this small card:

anker-review-1

And that card then flips open to show this message:

anker-2

I drew an arrow where the review encouragement begins. I think the wording is pretty effective: “… post a product review so that others can benefit from your experience” — that’s an appeal to our innate desire to help people. And the next sentence works for me, too, where it mentions being a “growing business” and “we know how scarce time can be.”

The inclusion of specific instructions is smart, too. Only problem is that Amazon seems to have changed the wording on its button — the card says “Create your own review,” but Amazon’s button now says “Write a customer review.” Still, no big deal there, in my opinion.

I think that’s an effective example of review encouragement (although no, I haven’t actually followed through and written one myself yet).

Do you agree? Anything you’d do differently? What are some effective messages that you’ve seen to encourage reviews?

Comments (6)

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  1. Phil Rozek says:

    Great example, Matt.

    A couple things they could have done to take it from very good to phenomenal:

    1. Handwriting and personalization. They should have someone take 3.5 seconds to scrawl “Dear Matt” or “Hey Matt!” at the beginning of the card. That same person could sign “Thanks — Jane” at the very bottom. Why? Because then there’s a person associated with the favor; you’re helping Jane, not just a company.

    2. Step #3 sounds a little more daunting than it should. The emphasis should be on “However much feedback you’re willing to give, and in whatever way works best for you.”

  2. Matt McGee says:

    Yeah, I thought the mention of doing a video was a bit out of place, esp. after the part about time being scarce.

  3. Chris Martin says:

    Could also provide a cross-media connection with a QR code to make it even easier to make the leap from paper to digital. Anything to make it easier will usually have higher responses.

  4. A month ago, I started using this strategy for a client in a service industry. For every completed job (with a happy customer) we sent out a followup email with the title: We’d Love To Hear From You. Then we provided links to where we wantedthe reviews (Google and Yahoo) along with some flattery and humility. So far we have 3 reviews, up from a big fat zero over the 12 previous months! We’re converting at about 3-4%.
    Three reviews is good for a small local biz. We are way ahead of the competition and at this rate, we’ll stay that way. So, I’d say t his works.
    Kris

  5. Over the last couple of years we’ve fine-tuned our process for asking for reviews, and it’s been a pretty successful program. We’re also in the service industry. After every completed job we provide the customer with a card that asks the question “How Did We Do?” and gives a link to our review page (www.randrheating.com/review). We’ve worked hard to make that process as SIMPLE as possible for customers, because as soon as it even remotely gets complicated, customers bail on it. We use a 3rd party http://www.customerlobby.com to help manage the review process, they keep it simple, and their reviews are syndicated across the web in many cases. We also recognize it’s critical to get reviews on other platforms as well, so we’ve got links to our Google+, Yahoo, Yelp, and others right there. Additionally every few weeks I will send out an email to recent customers w/ similar branding that again asks how we did, and with links to our review page. We started with about 5 reviews in 2011, and now we are approaching 200, all added up. Not too shabby.

  6. Peter says:

    I know it’s frowned upon to “incentivize” someone to write a review. But even this alludes to time being “scarce”. People are used to a time vs. reward exchange if they’re doing something on behalf of a company. Unfortunately, it almost looks like you’re bribing people to write reviews. It’s too bad though because I do think people should be rewarded somehow for their efforts – good or bad review.

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