A review isn’t just a rating, its a referral. It’s like a double down on word of mouth.
You may want the reviews to flow in organically, like a referral would. But like most things in business, you’re going to need to put more thought into it.
There are many CRM software programs you can use to follow up with customers, but sending a email after your customer is finished with you can be scary! What if they are a 3 star person? What will they have to say about your 5 star service?
Try a double opt in program to maintain that 5 star rating. Here’s how it works….
1.) First you send a follow up email, just like most booking platforms or cart software can. Keep it simple, your customer is ready for this email, they get them all the time.
2.)The key is in the follow up to the fist follow up email! Once that customer leaves you a 5 star rating on email number one, you then follow up with a second email including a link to your favorite platform for a public review.
This ensures you weed out any customers who did not have a 5 star experience with your business. Which will inevitably happen (ego check). Also, this gives you a chance to privately respond to this customer to fix any issues they had.
Of course you will get a lot less reviews by asking twice but at least you will be able to show you are the highest rated.
This isn’t going to work for every business. If you want to be the lowest price option, you may want to shoot for the most reviews to outshine your competitors. Even if those 3 and 4 star reviews will be peppered throughout.
For a premium product less is more. Get those 5 star only reviews and keep your brand 5/5.