Want More Reviews? Use These Clever Ways To Ask for Reviews

Two-thirds of shoppers trust online reviews more than their ex-partners. Yeah, they're that powerful.

And that's why it's so important for brands to get as many reviews as possible.

And you need to ask for reviews in clever ways that make you stand out from the competition.

This post will show you how to do that.

Send a Clever Review Request Email

Let’s start with the obvious one.

Without a doubt, emails are the most effective way to ask for reviews. Over the last 12 months, Loox customer review request emails helped to collect 5,844,506 reviews for our customers. And, Loox’s review request emails see an average open rate of 50%.

But having high open rates are only half of the battle. You also need to write a really compelling email. An email that makes people want to leave a review.

If you’re a great copywriter, you’re lucky. This part will be fairly simple for you.

But, if you’re struggling to come up with a great email, we're here to help. In this post, we cover how to craft a winning review request email. You’ll even get eight different templates you can use to convert buyers into raving fans who will want to leave a review. And if that's not enough, you can find more post-purchase email examples here.

Let's dive deeper!

Leverage SMS for More Reviews

Direct messaging through SMS is a straightforward and quick method to ask for reviews. 

Studies show that people are more likely to see and respond to SMS than emails. According to eztexting.com, 90% of mobile phone users will read their SMS within three minutes. 

To make this channel work for you, you have to be polite and concise when requesting reviews. The easier you make it for your customer, the more likely you'll get a response.

Want to send review request messages via SMS? Try our review request for Klaviyo integration.

Gather Reviews Using Your Website

Your website is where the magic happens. It’s where you have the opportunity to turn new visitors into lifelong fans. So why not use that to your advantage?

Placing "Write a review" buttons on your website can become one of your most effective sources of reviews.

Here’s how multi-million dollar brand BlendJet does it on their product pages:

And the best part, you don’t need to hire a designer or a developer to set up your review button. For Shopify stores, you can use Loox's no-code solution.

The Old-School Way: Ask in Person

Asking for in-person reviews is often very effective for businesses with brick-and-mortar stores. Brand owners can interact directly with repeat customers to learn more about their shopping experience.

It’s different for digital brands. These companies may have to host (or attend) events to interact with their customers in the flesh. But it can pay off. In-person events allow brands to deeply connect with customers on an emotional basis.

In-person events are also a great way to understand your customers' experiences with your brand and your products. Attendees are in the right mindset to share their opinions about your products. Otherwise, they wouldn’t participate in the first place.

But, keep in mind that hosting in-person events can be expensive and take time to plan and execute, so they may not be a viable option for everyone.

A Few More Clever Ways to as for Reviews at Scale

The above-mentioned tactics are some of the highest-converting ways to ask for reviews.

But, as your business grows, you might also want to automate and scale your review request efforts.

So here are three more ways to ask for product reviews:

1. Send review request messages via Facebook Messenger.
2. Ask for reviews through push notifications.
3. Get more reviews with the help of WhatsApp.

Need help with setting these up? No problem. You can find in-depth instructions here. Or just send us an email to support@loox.io - we’re available 24/7.

Incentivize Your Review Requests Program

Since we’re speaking about clever ways to generate product reviews, we can’t forget to mention incentives. Giving customers something in return for their feedback helps boost conversion rates

Incentives can help you increase response rates regardless of what method you use. A review request email that includes an incentive is likely to have a higher response rate than one without.

By using Loox, you can offer a percentage discount or a fixed dollar discount. You can also offer different discounts for users who submit photo or video reviews.

Honest Appreciation to Attract Reviews

Saying "thank you" goes a long way. 

It’s a simple but effective way to acknowledge customers' support. It's a form of appreciation that can make customers feel honored. Needless to say, it needs to be honest and genuine.

A great way to back up your real appreciation is by handing out the promised incentive in the same email you’re saying “thank you”.

Here’s the BlendJet way:

Take Advantage of “Happy Customer Moments”

I bet you have customers who are happy to use your products. The last thing you want to do is to miss out on the chance to encourage them to share their positive experience. 

These "happy customer moments" are what turn customers into advocates. The happier someone is, the more likely they are going to leave a great (5-star) review. There’s no doubt about that.

The kicker: You’ll not just acquire more product reviews, but also increase the chances of referrals.

Back to BlendJet, who made more than $230K from their post-purchase referral program. 

Here’s how it looks:

Ask Custom Questions

The best reviews are the ones that are personal. Contextual insights to be more precise.

Depending on the product, these can be:

• Specific usage of the product.
• Attributes of the customer (eg. if you’re selling skin-care products).
• Type of complementary products in use (eg. if you’re selling phone cases for Android and iPhones).

It not only helps future customers understand your product faster and make an educated decision about the purchase, but also lets you build and connect a community. If shoppers see that like-minded people purchased the same product they’re considering buying, it increases the chances of conversion.

Here’s a great example:

Everyone who’s considering buying a blender for the same reason will instantly see that their search for a perfect product has (finally) come to an end.

Asking the right questions and then displaying the answers make a difference. Really.

Looking For More Clever Ways to Ask for Reviews?

Customer reviews will help your business become a trustworthy brand. Investing in strategies that capture and display genuine reviews is vital. For any size business, from small to enterprise.

But we understand that you can’t spend 12 hours a day collecting reviews. You have better things to do. That’s why we built and optimized the Loox Shopify app to do exactly that - on auto-pilot. Wanna try? It’s free for 14 days. Just click here.