Should you collect reviews from clients? The answer seems obvious if you run an e-commerce business selling physical products, but what if you don't? What if you run a service-based business? Does it matter? Will it affect decision-making and service sales?
My answer is a firm ✅ YES, but I don't expect you to simply take my word for it (who the hell am I anyway?). Check out my top 8 reasons reviews are easy and essential to the success of your service business.
Also, I'm going to tell you a few key places you need to be showing those reviews off (because they don't just show themselves off!)
I threw a TL;DR at the end of this post for anyone who's in a hurry 🏃🏻♀️➡️
1. Reviews increase sales (by a LOT)
In 2017 Spiegel Research Center completed a very in-depth study about the impact of online reviews. One of the biggest of the report is that sales increase by about 270% when accompanied by consumer reviews. That's a lot. A sales increase of 270% is virtually unheard of in most marketing circles. Creating this level of success by putting forward such a small amount of effort screams amazing things for your ROI (return on investment).
2. Verified reviews increase sales even more
The Spiegel study found that "purchase likelihood increases 15% when customers are exposed to reviews written by a verified buyer vs an anonymous review." Add that to the 270% average increase from simply including reviews at all and you can see just how important it is to have verified reviews on your website.
Verified reviews can be pretty easy to achieve when customers/clients are able to purchase or book your services online. A lot of the online purchasing and scheduling platforms include an option to ask people to leave a review after a purchase or appointment.
If you don't have this type of online platform to verify purchases for you, you can make "purchases" appear more legitimate by having customers/clients outline who they are, the work you did with/for them, and their opinion in a testimonial-style post. Your company can then choose to "verify" the purchase itself by slapping a "verified" title beside it or including some sort of visual verification badge (which consumers seem to love, according to the Spiegel study).
I'll add to this, by suggesting that you link to your actual client's website or social media wherever possible. This allows people to get in touch with them, if needed, to ask more about their experience. But ALWAYS ask your clients if this is OK, first!
3. Consumers care about other people's experiences
Whether it's because they care about social influences or because they simply value the opinion other people have formed through experience, people care about what other people think.
Online reviews are a great way to supply them with that information on your website, so they don't have to look for it elsewhere. Not only can they decide whether or not to use your services, they can also select the services which are best for their specific needs by choosing to look at the experiences of people similar to themselves.
4. It's easy to direct your customers to leave a review
You can prompt your consumers to leave reviews by sending follow-up emails after purchases. In fact, approximately 80% of online reviews actually started with a follow-up email prompt.
There are a few ways you can prompt consumer reviews:
You can set up your sales platform to opt people in for your mailing list (I love to create landing pages on MailerLite for this) then include a prompt in your initial email. Just make sure you have a link that leads them where they need to go.
Some sales platforms will even prompt your customers to leave reviews for you.
You can personally reach out with form or personalized emails after every invoice or even attach a CTA (call to action) to your invoices.
Personally, I have a workflow of emails I usually send my clients after we end our work together. In one, I ask for the review. About a week later I follow up to remind them (because most forget).
5. You can incorporate reviews from Google, Facebook, Yelp, and others
If you're already collecting reviews on these platforms, use plug ins and integrations to get them up on your website. You don't need to go with something fancy and new. Stick with what you know. And if this is already where your clients are going to leave reviews, don't ask them to change.
You can embed individual reviews from any of these websites onto your own. Here is a link to an article that explains how to embed Google My Business reviews to your website. And, a link to a post about embedding Facebook posts/reviews to your site. Finally, here's one about embedding Yelp reviews.
6. "Negative reviews establish credibility"
I took that header straight out of the Spiegel report because wow, is that ever an impactful statement!
But I'm sure you're asking, "Amy, how the hell can negative reviews make me look more credible?"
Well, there's two parts to this. First of all, the good old "too good to be true" thing matters here. People need to know that you aren't just stacking 5 star reviews from the good moments and ignoring or (worse yet) deleting negative ones.
Secondly, when that negative review does roll in, you have the opportunity to address it in a professional way to show just how well you handle these situations!
Important bonus tip: Don't focus on reviews, focus on customer experience
Wait, what? Amy, you just wrote an entire blog post about why reviews are important and now you're telling me not to focus on them? What kind of crap is this?!
OK, slow down, don't get mad at me just yet.
Reviews are important and I am definitely saying that you should take the time to get them into your regular client routine. BUT, it shouldn't be all about the review. It should be all about the client! Create an amazing experience for every single person who walks through your real or virtual door.
There's no point in asking for a review if it isn't going to be good 😉
Extra Bonus for high-cost service providers
A lot of my clients work in services like photography and copywriting. Their service packages often start at about $1000. Customers are thinking very carefully when deciding to jump on board for services like these. But here's the good news: The Spiegel study found that consumer reviews can have an even bigger impact for high-priced services. 🥳
It's probably because, with bigger investment comes bigger risk, so most people want to know that other people have had a great experience.
TL;DR to save you some time:
Keep providing excellent service.
Go above and beyond expectations.
Make client and customer experience your top priority (not the actual reviews!)
Don't be afraid to ask for reviews.
Watch your sales increase.
And, yes, there's a huge study I used to back up every one of these points.
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