Positive online reviews influence buying decisions for 90 percent of people who responded to a survey by Dimensional Research for Zendesk. On the flip side, 86 percent said their buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews. And in the B2B world, 70 percent of the decision to buy is made before the person even speaks with a sales or account representative.

When buyers look at online reviews, they are interested in these four outcomes:

  • To see what type of product or service they are buying
  • To mitigate the risk of making a bad purchase
  • To see the product/service benefits and limitations
  • To get social proof from people who have used the product or service

Businesses can glean a great deal from online reviews. For example, they may see what triggers a buyer who is on the fence to make a purchase, or not.

In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we discuss five ways you can encourage customers to leave reviews and feedback about your business, from Chris Dunne, marketing executive at FeedbackExpress.

1. Send email. The No. 1 way to get reviews is by sending a friendly email asking for it after a customer has made a purchase, and hopefully tried and tested the product. Detailed product reviews on your site can help with SEO and boost a product's page in search result rankings.

Honest feedback from customers can also help influence buying decisions and address any areas of your business that need improvement. Customers who have purchased have purchased a product multiple times or have a high order value are more likely to leave you a review than someone who has made a one-off purchase or bought something of low value.

2. Online surveys. Online surveys are easy to set up, scalable and easy to analyze. And web tools like Survey Monkey to make the process a breeze. Create a few, brief questions and send out a link to your customer list. You could also send it to your social media followers or add it to your site for visitors to complete after they've made a purchase.

Design your questions so you gain a better understanding of how people are feeling about your prices, delivery methods, products or customer service. When creating your questions, use simple language to ensure that what you receive will be useful. Whatever your goal is, be specific with your questions. A typical question might be, "How likely are you to recommend our company to a colleague or friend?" Also ask some open-ended questions to get an idea of what your customer is really thinking.

3. Live Chat. We live in a society where people want and expect instant replies. By adding Live Chat to your ecommerce site, you can answer any questions and receive instant feedback from customers. This web feature adds value for customers and improves your response times and the customer experience.

It's easy to implement and there are lots of different options out there, including Zendesk and LiveChat.

4. Get social. The average person has five social media accounts and spends about an hour and 40 minutes browsing these networks every day. It's common for a customer to open an app and fire off a question to a company in less than a minute. If you're a business with a presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, then it's important that you regularly check your sites and respond to those customers or potential customers. You can also search these platforms to research what people are saying about your company and to look for industry trends.

5. Online feedback forms. Customers are constantly thinking of things that you could do better, and you need to tap into that. Having a structured way for customers to reach you on your site is a vital way for you to get feedback from customers. The form should be easy to fill out and easy to find on your site. If it looks like hard work, then you may miss out on minor or major feedback from customers which could improve your overall business or website.

Treat your customers right and offer the best customer experience you can. Your customers are your best marketing tool.

Source: Chris Dunne is a marketing executive at FeedbackExpress, a powerful, cloud-based software solution that helps Amazon sellers automate and manage their feedback communication with buyers. The software is proven to help sellers get more positive feedback and product reviews as well as remove any negative and neutral feedback quickly and effectively.