If you want to know how your customers feel about your products, services, or brand, the best way is to collect feedback directly from them. With feedback, you want to go beyond basic likes and dislikes to gain your customers’ understanding of your products and their feelings. Customer feedback helps you evaluate areas that need improvements and where you stand among your competitors. This article explores ways to attract positive feedback.
Kickstart the Conversation
Most consumers take feedback for granted, while for some, it never crosses their mind. Therefore, you should take the initiative to send them a kind reminder. However, you do not want to ambush your clients with messages requesting them to send you positive feedback.
Instead, it’s prudent to start a conversation about them. You could ask them whether your product is addressing their problems as expected or how they think you should improve your services.
You should communicate that your intention is making sure that your customers are satisfied. Asking for feedback should merely come as an afterthought. If the client or customer you contacted is satisfied with your product or services, it will appear natural to end the conversation with a link to provide a review or feedback.
Make it Easy for Customers to Leave Private and Public Feedback
You should try as much as possible to reduce or minimize the efforts needed to leave a review or feedback. If you want to collect positive feedback, consider adorning your website with a feedback/reviews link.
For those using WordPress, you can achieve this by installing the WP Business Reviews plugin. This is a great way to communicate to your customers that you value their feedback. To encourage private feedback, consider adding live chat and survey links to your website.
When you provide your customers with an easy and quick way to communicate directly with you, you will be in a position to address their concerns fast and in private before they spiral to social media.
If you operate a physical store, you can install a suggestion or complaints box near your laundry point of sale hardware.
Creating Social Campaigns
If you really want to maximize your social proof, you will have to get the community involved. This approach will be more effective when your social media following is in constant interaction with your posts. If you are on good terms with influencers in your field, this will get easier for you.
For instance, you can ask your social media followers to review your products or have them tag posts of your products with the appropriate hashtags. These posts will serve as positive feedback, and draw more customers to your business.
You can anchor an incentive to the campaign to turn it into a contest and drive more feedback. The prize or incentive should be relevant to your target audience. Go ahead and set requirements for participation and emphasis that the goal is posting and sharing it via social media.
Display All Your Positive Reviews
Marketers call it social proof, and it’s a tool that makes online product reviews really powerful. According to Bright Local, 91 percent of customers trust online reviews the same way they would trust personal recommendations.
When people read positive reviews about your products or services, they are left with a long-lasting positive impression of your brand. A study by ReviewTrackers found that people are likely to continue keeping a positive impression from positive online reviews about a product even after those reviews are disputed. A positive first impression is more powerful than a negative review.
Respond Positively
For you to receive positive feedback from your customers, you will have to lead by example! Whenever you receive negative reviews and feedback, you should not ignore them or play tit for tat. Instead, take your time and respond positively.
By responding to negative reviews, you communicate to your customers that you are willing to own up responsibility for their dissatisfaction. A study conducted by Chatmeter shows that 33 percent of customers who leave negative comments or reviews are likely to leave a positive one after you respond to them, and 34 percent will delete the negative review.
Give Your Customers your Ears
Instead of resenting negative customers, this is an opportunity for you to make lemonade. These customers will push you to improve your products and create a better business. Some will even give you ideas that you couldn’t have thought of on your own.
Whenever you get negative feedback, do not brush it off but rather listen to what the client is trying to communicate. Then take action by improving your products, services, and brand on a daily basis. Once these customers feel that they have been heard, most will naturally revise their negative reviews and substitute them with positive ones.
Summary
Although positive feedback is extremely powerful, it is rare to come by. When collected on customer feedback/review forms, you will have documentation of what you should do to offer the best product for your customers. When offered on social media or online reviews, it shapes how other people will perceive your product or brand. By following the rules of online etiquette, staying compliant, and creating a positive first impression, you will naturally receive positive feedback.
