Are your reviews not where they should be? You probably know what you need to do but just can’t get it quite right.
Let’s face it, it’s human nature to leave bad reviews. When people are upset they will more than happily take to social media and roast your company.
But when customers are happy, they generally don’t say anything. You need to give them a reason to step up, and exert some effort to leave you a review that is going to be of big benefit to you.
We have some tips, some tried and true methods, to not only increase the quantity of reviews on Google, Facebook and other websites; but to also up your average score.
Our program will increase your average score, surprise and delight your customers, get you more reviews, and motivate your sales people.
There are two different strategies you can use simultaneously to really amp up your reviews; or you can use them one at a time to address particular issues.
Number one: contest
This is the easiest strategy and involves running a contest inside your company.
Let all your customers know that, every week, you’ll be giving away a complimentary five-day cruise for two people and all they have to do to be eligible is to leave a review on your Facebook page, Google, or whatever other sites you would like.
You can deliver this message through a post on your Facebook page, via an email to your customer base, through newsletters, or on point-of-sale material directly in your store.
In order to get your sales team behind the program, we recommend using our tickets and entertainment program or a gift card to Amazon or Starbucks for whoever collects the most reviews by month’s end.
Make the contest fun, use some balloons, or table talkers to promote the contest inside the organization and put some oomph behind it.
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NOTE: Word of advice from our own experiences.
If you run this program for longer than a month make sure you change up the gift. Although your customers will not really notice any difference, your internal staff and your sales team will get bored. We have a variety of different trips and different gifts you can use to keep it fresh.
Number two: point-of-sale review
This strategy is designed to capture the reviews at the very moment your customer is thrilled with your service. It requires the full participation of your sales team, as well as some reminders and push from you or sales management.
After every sale, when the customer is thrilled about their purchase, tell the customer you have a surprise for them. Thank them for their business and reinforce the fact that customer satisfaction is paramount to your business. Ensure this is achieved by giving them a complimentary trip to Las Vegas.
Then, while they are still surprised and delighted, ask them:
“Reviews are really important to our business. Would you mind if we took a picture of you holding the Las Vegas voucher; and then could you please post it on your favorite social media site and use #OurCompany?”
Now, remember not to use your own phone. Your sales people must use the phone of the customer to take the photograph.
Once the photograph has been taken it is immediately uploaded to the customer’s social media by pressing just a couple of buttons. While they are doing this, they can also post the great review using the same photo. You must give your sales team a few hints that they can pass along to the customer, such as:
• “Look at my new car from ABC motors, and best of all my sales rep Tom surprised me and Jerry with a trip to Las Vegas! Thank you so much, five stars.”
• “Here we were buying furniture at ABC furniture store and our sales rep NG surprised us with a complimentary vacation – you’re the best! Five stars.”
You may have found in the past that customers are tentative to open their social media to such a request; but when they are in the middle of being delighted with a complimentary gift you just gave them, they will be thrilled to do it for you.
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Word of advice: Find out which social media platform is their favorite before you give them the surprise.
If they don’t have a Facebook account, or a Yelp account, or have never posted anything on Google before and have no idea what it is they’re meant to do, then you’re probably going to have a hard time getting them to do anything.
You have to work at reviews, because your competition is also working. They don’t come quickly and they don’t come easily, but if you implement these simple few steps you will start to see improvement in both the quantity and your score.
Research tells us that a half-point increase in an average review can mean a 25% lift to some businesses. It’s simply something you cannot ignore. Good luck.
Get in touch
If you want to learn more about travel incentives or what we do here at Odenza, you can reach out to us by calling 1-866-883-2968 or by simply filling out the form at the bottom of this page.
