By Shep Hyken
Getting customers to review their experience with you is powerful.
Before they make a purchase, go to a restaurant, stay at a hotel and more, many customers do online research, which leads them to reviews that help form their opinion of products or services they want to buy—or even the company they want to buy it from. Nothing new there.
How do you get reviews? Well, the easy way is to ask for them. By the way, I recently interviewed Rupesh Patel on Amazing Business Radio, and he shared the “secret sauce” on how he gets amazing guest reviews for his hotels—and his recipe can work for any business. I suggest giving that episode a listen. Back to the concept of asking for reviews. I was recently asked about how to get good reviews and I noted that there are at least two requirements:
- The customer must be willing to leave a review.
- Your employees must deliver the positive experience you want your customers to talk or write about.
Customers who leave reviews fall into two categories. The first is those who are prone to leave the review without asking. The second is those who are willing to do so if you ask. Either way, if they are willing, then you should make sure the review they write about you is a good one. The only way to make that happen is to give them what they need to do so, which is a good experience.
A few years back, I wrote about a hotel that had a sign that read, “Please leave a review on Trip Advisor.” Then I received terrible service. As I was checking out, I picked up the sign, showed it to the front desk clerk and asked, “Do you really want me to leave a review?”
Here is the point. If you want your customers to leave a good review, everyone in your organization must understand that they are all part of what will be graded. Everyone must do their job to ensure the customer has an experience you would want them to write about. Hold them accountable and responsible for ensuring the experience is worthy of a good review.
Even employees who don’t work on the front line have a place in the customer experience they must understand. In a “behind-the-scenes” supporting role, they take care of someone who is doing something that directly impacts the customer’s experience—even if they never see the customer.
You want customers to want to come back. You want them to talk positively about you. You want a good review, whether they publish it or not. Make sure your entire team understands the goal, then empower them to go out and achieve it.
