You want to know what people think of your products. Don’t you? Ok, sure, it’s a little scary. It’s one thing to delude yourself into thinking you have the best thing since sliced bread; it’s another entirely to find out you still have problems to figure out if you want to win over the whole world. The only way to find this out and grow as a company is to let the public at large tear you apart
But it isn’t as dramatic as all that. There are other reasons why you should encourage your customers to leave reviews on your site, though. We’ll cover some of the main ones here and also show you some different ways you can convince people to let you know what they think about your store and items
Control the Conversation
Let’s face it: your customers are going to rate your items whether you like it or not. If they can’t go on your site and tell you what they think, they’re going to find you on social media and do the same. If that doesn’t work, they’ll go on their favorite website or fan forum and talk about you
In any case, they’re going to find a way to speak their mind. What providing a space for them to do so on your own website does is allow you to control the conversation. While they’ll still talk about you elsewhere, if you give them an area to talk to you directly, they’re more likely going to do so.
People just like to be heard. If they know there’s a chance you’ll see their complaint (or nice note, it does happen!) and change what they don’t like, they’re going to take you up on your offer. Again while it doesn’t eliminate them complaining to their family and friends, it does reduce the chance
If you’re careful to respond to product reviews, you could also do wonders for building an online community. People appreciate when you take the time to notice they have something to say. This will make them stick around longer or even become a lifetime fan, even if they started out with a complaint about you
How to Encourage It
Of course the first step is to set up customer reviews for your products. Logicblock lets you do this with every single one of your products in no time flat. This way you’re able to get an idea what people think right off the bat
But your customers should know you want them to leave product reviews. Many sites have this option and many assume anyone leaving a message will get ignored. So one idea is to have reminders on your website about product reviews. You could even go as far as to post a picture or two on the main page of your store showing that you do in fact respond to customer reviews
You could also post pictures like this on your social media accounts. For example, Instagram would be a great place to post a picture to proclaim how much you enjoy talking to your customers and fans
One last idea if nothing seems to work is to hold a contest for the best comment. You could announce the funniest comment or review will net the commenter a huge discount or free shipping on their next order. This should give people real incentive to go over and leave comments (and possibly shop more while they’re at it!).