5 Things To Do When Customers Don't Respond To Your Requests For Reviews

 

Asking for testimonials or reviews is one of the most procrastinated tasks for women business owners. It can feel pushy, needy, or annoying to ask your customers to write something nice about you!

That being said, glowing reviews and testimonials give your ideal customers or clients the confidence to book or buy. Positive social proof like reviews and testimonials are a key part of any good sales email, sales page, or product detail page (PDP) for a small business.

So, what do you do when you hate asking for reviews or testimonials or — even worse — when you ask for feedback and hear crickets?

Here are 5 action items to take right now to get more reviews and testimonials, so you can make more consistent sales from your ideal customers:

  1. Ask for feedback more than once

  2. Make it easy to leave a review

  3. Incentivize when appropriate

  4. Try SMS (text messages)

  5. Automate the process

Ask for feedback more than once

So, your customer or client didn’t respond to your request for a review or testimonial. I know, it sucks, but don’t take it personally. There are a lot of reasons why people don’t respond to these requests right away. For example, maybe they mean to leave one, but they just plan to come back later. Or maybe your email went to their promotions folder. Or maybe they got swamped with emails! Most of the time it has nothing to do with your product or service.

The #1 reason my women creative clients don’t get responses to their review requests is because they only asked 1 time. In general your customers or clients will need more than one reminder to give you feedback on your work. And, no, you’re not beating a dead horse or being pushy if you send a few reminders; think about how many reminders you sometimes need before you take action on something!

Ask your customer or client for a review or testimonial when you think they experience the peak results or enjoyment of your product or service, and then, if you don’t get a review or testimonial, ask again the next week, and the next. This is a normal practice, and you’re not being annoying when you send consecutive emails. If they love your offer — and you remind them — they’ll be happy to give you a glowing review.

Make it easy to leave a review

A metalsmith client of mine asked recently why I thought she wasn’t getting more reviews of her jewelry. Her system required her customers to go from a reminder email to her website, navigate to the specific product they bought, and then leave a review.

The more steps — or clicks — it takes for your customer or client to leave a review or testimonial the less likely they are to follow through. Go through your review or testimonial process yourself and see if it feels easy, effortless, convenient … or annoying.

If your e-commerce requires your customers to jump through hoops to leave reviews you can just collect them in a form and apply the reviews or testimonials to your website on your own.

Ask specific questions

You’ll get more — and better — responses from your customers if you ask them specific questions about their experiences than if you just ask them to give you a review or testimonial. For example, I like to ask my clients how they felt about a particular topic before our training versus how they felt after the training. This makes it easier for them to give feedback and it leads to better, more concrete testimonials.

Concrete testimonials — that describe how it looks and feels to get an outcome — make it easier to step into your customers’ shoes. They’re one of the most powerful tools in your marketing toolbox.

You may ask questions like:

  • What did you love most about _?

  • Which was the most memorable part of _?

  • If you were to recommend _ to a friend how would you describe it?

Show examples

Giving your customers or clients examples of reviews or testimonials may make it easier for them to give you feedback, too. You can link to a review or testimonial page from your request.

Incentivize when appropriate

If you collect reviews or testimonials with your own website form or survey it may be appropriate to incentivize or reward your audience for their feedback. If you use a third-party review platform like Yelp! or Google Reviews it is not okay to incentivize reviews.

For example, some of my clients do quarterly drawings for clients or customers who give them reviews.

Personally, I believe in telling your audience exactly why it’s so important for you to get reviews or testimonials, like: “Your feedback helps me improve and reach more people.”

Try SMS

Most of my small business clients email their customers to requests reviews, but email isn’t the only tool at your disposal. SMS or text message requests can be a lot more effective, particularly for some businesses.

For example, I have a client who offers local meat shares on a subscription basis. She wants more photos from customers of how they prepare their meat, so time is of the essence when she asks for feedback. Text message marketing would be a much more effective way for her to get reviews and meal photos than email because most people check their text message notifications more often than their email. It’s important to catch people at the right time.

I use SimpleTexting and ManyChat for SMS marketing. Learn more here.

Use a third-party app

You can use a social proof app to automatically request and collect reviews and testimonials — and even other types of social proof — from your audience and display it in your marketing to support your sales.

Automating your marketing means you can “set and forget” the process of collecting social proof for your marketing and focus on other, more creative aspects of your work.

See social proof apps and recommendations here.

When you include reviews and testimonials in your emails, sales pages, and product details pages, you’ll see more ideal customers or clients book and buy without hesitation.

Upcoming

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Upcoming 〰️

 

The No. 1 Biggest Game-Changer For Small Business Owners: Walking a Mile in Your Customers’ Shoes

 

When you own a small business you spend nearly all your time thinking about your stuff:

  • your to-do lists

  • your content creation

  • your frustrations and anxieties

And, then, often, you’re left wondering how you can work so hard and not see the results you’ve been looking for.

Why is this?

Because it’s easy to forget to take the perspective of your customer ... and as a small business owner you have to do that to be compelling.

No, seriously. You would not believe the 180-degree change in my clients’ businesses when they stop thinking about what they want and start focusing on what their customers and clients want. It’s unbelievable.

What do this mean for you?

It’s a healthy reminder to step into your ideal customer’s shoes and try walking a mile, so to speak.

When you understand what your ideal customer or client feels, wants, and needs, you’ll know what to say in your emails, blog posts, and social media content to get and keep their attention … and make more sales.

If this hasn’t occurred to yet and, right about now, you feel like a big ol’ dummy, lemme put you at ease:

it took me FAILING in my first business to really learn this. I had to start listening to people who were smarter and more experienced than me who were telling me to take my clients’ perspective.

And, damn, did it work. That’s literally what got me where I am today.

 
 

How to take your customers’ perspective

To get the results you’re looking for from your business you need to understand the voice of your customer (VoC). The VoC is what makes your marketing compelling and draws in your ideal audience because they feel:

  • seen

  • heard

  • validated

How to find the Voice of the Customer

VoC really means empathizing with your customers and clients and seeing your work through their eyes. VoC research shows you:

  • Why your customers need you

  • What you can do to show up for them

  • What they are looking for in a product or service

  • What their desires and interests are

There are many ways to do VoC research. Here are a few:

  1. Interviewing your customers

  2. Sending out online surveys

  3. Asking questions via social media (like with Instagram Story Polls)

  4. Looking at your testimonials / reviews

  5. In-person surveys

  6. Email

  7. Feedback forms

  8. Looking at website analytics and behavior

  9. Focus groups

What you’re looking for with VoC research

Look for common themes and patterns that emerge in your customers’ and clients’ responses. You want to nail down their:

  • needs

  • frustrations

  • priorities

  • desires

  • inconveniences

  • anxieties

Questions to ask in VoC research

  1. When you think about buying a __, what are you looking for?

  2. What words come to mind when you think about a __?

  3. What was easy or effortless for you when you __?

  4. What did not feel convenient? What felt frustrating?

  5. If you were to book or buy a __ with someone else in this industry who would you choose and why?

  6. If you were to recommend __ to a friend how would you talk about it?

  7. Which company have you purchased __ from this year?

  8. What do you wish was different about __?

What to do with VoC research

Take your findings from your voice of customer research and use it to write:

  • content

  • blog posts

  • emails

  • product listings

  • sales pages

When you take your customers’ perspective you’ll see that you start to attract more of your ideal audience!

 

4 steps to glowing testimonials (without really trying)

 

A good testimonial is often all your ideal customer needs to see to give them the confidence to click ADD TO CART.

Seriously! When you include testimonials in your website copy and social media content you’ll see your ideal customers and clients be:

  • more motivated to book or buy

  • less likely to ghost you

But, when I asked my women creative clients how they felt about asking for testimonials, 90% of them said they HATED doing it.

Here are 4 painless steps to collecting testimonials that will give your ideal customers the confidence to book or buy without hesitation:

How to get testimonials for your small business

Decide which type of testimonial you want

Your goal is to include glowing testimonials in your content and your website copy so your audience gets excited to book or buy.

Your testimonials can look like:

  • audio clips

  • videos

  • written accounts

  • star reviews

  • using a third-party app like Yelp! or Google Reviews

Which one should you ask your customers or clients to create? Pick the one

  • you think they’d be most comfortable doing and that would feel most convenient

  • makes the most sense for the way you communicate with your audience

For example, if you have a podcast you might consider asking your clients to record an audio clip on their smart phones and emailing it to you so you can use it in your pod.

Some people will be excited to create an unboxing video for a brand they like, and some would be more likely to simply fill out a form with their thoughts. The easier it feels for them to do the more likely you are to get lots of great testimonials.

Pro Tip: Let them choose from 2 options so they can do the one they feel most comfortable with

Make it easy for them to submit

Once you pick your format you’ll need to create a way to collect your testimonials.

I can’t stress enough how important it is that it feels easy and convenient for your customers or clients to check it off their to-do lists. If they have to log into your website or jump through hoops you’re not going to get the testimonials you’re looking for.

For example, I tell my clients to get started with a Google Form if they want to collect written testimonials. Most people are familiar with Google, it’s user-friendly, and you can include the link in emails, texts, or direct messages. You can even embed it on your website.

You can also give your customers specific instructions for how to submit their testimonial. You just don’t want them to have any uncertainty about what they need to do:

  • How to upload your unboxing video

  • How to write a Facebook Review

  • How to review me on Yelp

  • All you have to do is reply to this email with your thoughts

  • 3 steps to recording your audio clip

  • Share your testimonial to your Instagram Stories like this …

Give them prompts and examples

The most common thing that keeps people from submitting testimonials is that they don’t know how to describe their experience with your offer and … it feels like a chore.

You can help your audience overcome this by giving them:

  • prompts

  • examples

Prompts might look like:

  • What did it look/feel like for you to __ before [product/service]?

  • what does it look/feel like after [product/service]?

  • what was most frustrating, irritating, or inconvenient for you before [product/service]?

  • what can you do now that you couldn’t do before?

Include an example of a testimonial that you love so they can see what you’re looking for.

Ideally, it will include a description of the outcome or benefit that your customer or client got from your product or service. You want them to describe the transformation they got from your offer!

Pro Tip: If you’re asking for testimonials via email or your website you may consider offering them a little incentive in return for their feedback (this is not okay to do when you’re using a third-party app)

Automate it to send out so you can set it and forget it

Once you have your format and submission set up you can automate your testimonial requests so you don’t even have to think about following up to ask. This takes the “ick factor” out of testimonials for a lot of my clients!

Automation may look like:

  • triggering a testimonial request email to go out 30 days after someone buys your product

  • setting up a text message request to send 2 weeks after you work with a client

If you don’t have an email service provider or SMS platform you may have to set reminders to do this manually.

How long after they buy your offer should you send the request? That depends on your offer! Send it when your customer or client is able to experience the full benefit of your offer.

I tell my clients to be super genuine in their follow-up messages about why they care about testimonials, like: “I value your feedback because it helps me do my work better and helps me reach more people.”

Tell your customers or clients your honest feelings about why you care about their experiences!

Pro Tip: You may need to ask for testimonials more than once, and that’s okay; we often need more than 1 reminder.

Once I have testimonials, how should I use them?

Use your testimonials where your ideal customers’ or clients’ eyeballs go when they’re trying to decide whether or not to book or buy with you.

You can also use them in your content to create confidence and trust in your brand. The more your audience regularly sees testimonials the more:

  • motivated they will feel to check out your offers

  • confident they’ll feel clicking “BOOK” or “BUY”

I like to challenge myself and my clients to do Testimonial Tuesdays and share a testimonial in Instagram or Facebook Stories every week.

That being said, you should definitely consider creating a testimonial page on your website you can link to in your:

  • content

  • emails

  • sales pages

  • product descriptions

Here’s a look at my testimonial page

Testimonial FAQs

Are testimonials effective?

Yes! Think about how often you look at reviews or third-party apps or ask your loved ones for recommendations. Testimonials are really important in our decision-making.

Are testimonials and reviews the same?

Reviews are usually shorter and oriented around a rating, like 3/5 stars. Testimonials are an account from the customers or client about their experience in their own words.

Can testimonials be anonymous?

Testimonials can be anonymous, but imagine looking at someone’s testimonial page and seeing a lot of anonymous entries. Doesn’t instill a lot of confidence, does it? Try to get testimonials you can attribute to a real person.

What if a customer or client just texts or emails me what they love about my work? Can I use that as a testimonial?

Great! All you have to do is respond with: Thank you so much! Do you mind if I save that as a testimonial? I’ve never had anyone say “no.” You can also screenshot it and use it in your content.

Was this helpful? There’s more where this came from!

Here are upcoming free trainings you might be interested in:

 

Coca-Cola's littlest secret to success

 

TQM.

Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

It’s one of those jargon-y acronyms that gets thrown around the water cooler and the boardroom like paper shredder confetti.

WHAT’S TQM?

T. Q. M. Total quality management.

It’s a biz philosophy that was born back in the 1980s when American manufacturing was — oops! — suddenly threatened by pesky overseas competitors. The Japanese and Germans emerged from the wreckage of WWII with some pretty slick products, and, here in the US, we were just starting to slack off.

TQM meant shaping up US manufacturing from top to bottom, literally. From CEO to factory worker, everyone needed to contribute to products being ship-shape.

Today, major companies like Coca-Cola use TQM to keep their brands top-of-the-line.

What’s the Coca-Cola TQM secret?

Empowering feedback.

EMPOWERING FEEDBACK

Being asked for your opinion is naturally very satisfying. There’s nothing quite like putting in your two cents and feeling heard.

That’s the sweet little secret of TQM: Companies that ask everyone (everyone!) from corner office to factory floor to make suggestions for how to improve the operation tend to have happier employees.

It may not be convenient, but empowering people to give feedback makes them feel seen and valued.

HOW TO USE IT

This is a gamification technique I use with my clients to help them keep their customers coming back: Asking for people’s feedback is super gratifying.

Perhaps companies like Coca-Cola don’t use all the feedback they get from employees, but the fact that they ask for it is meaningful.

Gamification technique: Consider simple ways to continually ask for employee and customer feedback.