How to Write a Business Review Report Sample
When it comes to making decisions, nosotros humans aren't always contained thinkers. From buying our morning java to big-ticket items like a new car, we depend on our network'southward opinions, advice, or perspectives for making the correct determination.
With the cyberspace, those networks get way, style bigger. Nosotros're no longer confined to just friends, family unit, and coworkers—we can encounter what people all around the earth remember with just a quick Google search.
And these customer reviews hold serious weight with shoppers. Online reviews—either positive or negative—can touch on over 93% of consumers' decisions .1
While reviews can accrue on their ain, they shouldn't exist in a vacuum. Knowing how to ask for reviews, leverage them to get more business, and respond to less-than-favorable customer testimonials tin can improve your business image and land you more than long-lasting customers.
Go on reading to learn about:
- Why customer reviews are so of import
- ix types of reviews and how to get more of them
- How to respond to positive and negative client reviews
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 Desire to get more customer reviews for your business concern? Use these outreach templates (and DIY customer review architect!) to assist your customers give yous the all-time review possible.
Why are customer reviews so important?
Customer reviews build something known as social proof, a phenomenon that states people are influenced by those around them. This might include friends and family, manufacture experts and influencers, or even internet strangers.
Social proof tin push customers who are on the fence about ownership a product to make a buy (or consider other alternatives). While there are many different forms of social proof (like influencer campaigns and company partnerships), client reviews accept a special place in shoppers' hearts.
Recollect about the last time you tried a new restaurant. Or bought a vacuum. You probably looked for reviews online showtime, right? When considering a purchase, people want kickoff-hand perspectives from other people just like them. While a famous influencer might take hold of their attending, experiences from peers are as well important if you desire to convince them to purchase .
Depending on the manufacture your business is in, customer reviews might exist especially of import considering they assistance offset a mostly negative view of certain industries. For example, if you piece of work in advertizing, you've got a bit of an uphill battle—just 23% of respondents surveyed in the Customer Communications Review said that ad agencies provided "very expert" or "pretty good" service, and ad agencies rank dead terminal in comparing to other major industries:
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nine customer review examples (and how to get more than reviews)
Customer reviews come in many different forms. Including a few good ones on your website can improve your chances of winning more customers—who doesn't desire that?
And anything yous tin can exercise to go far as like shooting fish in a barrel for your happy customers to write those reviews for you will aid. For example, here's a handy Mad-Libs-style customer review architect that you lot can adhere to your message or email to the client when you're asking if they can write a review or testimonial for you:
Yous can download this customer review template, along with examples of outreach communications, to assistance you lot salvage a ton of fourth dimension equally you're gathering client reviews 👇
Let'south walk through the different kinds of customer reviews, starting with the easiest ones to collect.
one. Quotes
Testimonials or quotes from your customers are one of the most common forms of customer reviews. You're most probable to find them on a visitor website, typically on the homepage, or in their marketing materials.
Here's an example of a quote testimonial from WordPress :
These short (typically just one to two judgement) overviews of how your product or service impacted a visitor helps give your make credibility. With quote testimonials, those impressive claims you're making actually sound conceivable because they're backed up past someone who'south, well, not yous.
Nosotros list customer quotes as the easiest type of review to get considering they involve very little effort for you and your customer. Considering yous're in control of adding them to your website, all you need to do is ask your customers to share their experience in an email, in person, or over the phone.
Quotes as well allow yous to choose the dandy client service stories, perspectives, or opinions that you remember are near valuable. You can highlight your high-profile clients—and who says you have to use the less-than-favorable reviews?
How to get a quote review:
Ask for information technology. Call up your long-term customers and enquire if they'd be willing to share a testimonial or a flake about their experience working with y'all to display on your website.
Or look for positive words of encouragement in e-mail and social media responses or everyday conversations. If a customer gives you a great quote, inquire if you can showcase it on your website.
Y'all might be on multiple social media platforms, so how can y'all keep track of all these letters? If you lot're providing omnichannel customer service, you might already exist using a tool that tin consolidate all your customer conversations and advice channels into 1 handy dashboard. Like this:
💡 Pro-tip:
To become awesome client reviews, you need to provide awesome customer service, whether that's past focusing on proactive or agile client service.
ii. Peer review sites
Peer review sites are probably what you lot think of when you recollect of customer reviews. These include Google reviews, Facebook reviews, Yelp, Amazon, or G2 Crowd (if you're a software visitor).
You've probably encountered these kinds of reviews while you were deciding whether or not to endeavour a local business concern for the first time:
Reviews on peer-to-peer sites can happen organically, oft removing the company from the review process entirely. (This can be a nightmare if you're managing a small concern, since one bad review can accept a huge impact, but this also makes the reviews seem more than authentic.) Customers don't need to worry about if companies have edited them to exist more favorable (or deleted reviews they didn't agree with).
However, this too means you're not as in command of these kinds of reviews.
But that doesn't hateful you tin't do anything at all. These peer-to-peer review sites are often one of the first places a potential customer looks when considering a purchase, so ensuring you lot have some positive reviews on each is important.
How to get a review on a peer review site:
Again, the best manner to do this is to ask. Send an email, ask in person, or add together links to your website that make it easy for customers to leave their stance.
3. Social media
Social media is becoming just as much a resource for businesses that want to build brand awareness as information technology is for people who are interested in connecting with brands. Only don't just your social media campaigns to get prospects. Not only are customers turning to social media to ask brands questions or learn about their services, they're besides using their accounts to share opinions and reviews.
Here'due south an instance from American Hawkeye'due south spin-off clothing line Aerie:
Like peer-to-peer review sites, the company usually isn't involved in the review process—making them experience more transparent and honest. Simply one of the biggest benefits of having reviews on social networks is that prospective customers tin go a feel for who the customer is in ways they can't with testimonials or peer-to-peer review sites.
How to become social media reviews:
Encourage client reviews on social media by creating communities where customers are empowered to share their experiences or purchases. For example, Aerie uses the hashtag #AerieReal to make it piece of cake to see how customers are styling their items in existent life:
4. Case studies
Case studies dive deep into client results and are particularly useful for businesses selling to businesses (aka the B2B infinite).
Here's an example of a example written report from RingCentral and our customer Box :
Instance studies—different traditional client reviews—are written from the perspective of the company doing the work or providing the product. Rather than the customer explaining how they helped, the visitor walks through what they did to help their customer reach their goals.
This perspective gives potential customers an idea of how your team works. It gives you a chance to show off your problem-solving skills and attending to particular, and it allows your potential customer to envision how yous might help them.
How to go example study reviews:
Write your own! Be sure to mix in quotes, results, and info from your customer to back up your claims. Each case written report should read like a partnership—not only a one-sided perspective.
v. Client stories and interviews
Nosotros all honey a proficient story—and that'due south probably articulate in the review types that we've listed and so far. Customers desire to see themselves in the people your company has already helped; they want to know what your client experience is like. One style to do this is through customer stories and interviews.
Squarespace is one company that does this well:
Through stories and interviews, Squarespace shares who their customers are, what the vision or mission of their website is, and how Squarespace provides them with the platform to reach those goals.
For Squarespace, they get an opportunity to showcase how diverse their client pool is. Merely it gives customers an opportunity to connect with each other too. Similar to case studies, stories and interviews paint a larger flick of what the customer is hoping to accomplish—only you lot have to be less self-centered here and make sure your customer is the star of the story.
How to become client story-mode reviews:
Stories and interviews give a more personal perspective. Instead of hearing from your visitor, they're hearing stories straight from the client. So, to become those stories, send customers a questionnaire or old in-person interviews.
Give your customers an opportunity to share their stories, then focus on filling in the balance of the narrative with images, videos, and other content.
six. Blog posts
Blog post reviews give your potential client an opportunity to really dig in deep into your production or service, and even your make and civilisation equally a company. Rather than just a sentence or two like a customer might find on your website or a few hundred words displayed on a peer-to-peer review page, blog posts can be thousands of words, consummate with step-by-footstep instructions with images that thoroughly explicate a process or perspective.
This is a great instance of a blog post review on Warby Parker :
These kinds of reviews can typically answer more than complicated questions that crave more space and time—something that isn't really possible with traditional reviews.
But i of the biggest benefits of blog post reviews is the SEO value, pregnant you can get these pages to show up on Google when people are searching for reviews of your business. If you've e'er searched for "[production] review," you've probably encountered a post like this before. Because these posts tend to be descriptive, long-class, and useful, they tin rank pretty highly.
How to get weblog post reviews:
Getting reviews similar this one can be a little difficult. After all, not everyone has a blog to write on. You can increment your chances by offering a gratuitous sample or trial of your products or other goodies to industry influencers and experts who run pop blogs.
seven. Videos
Consumers similar videos. This isn't anything new. In fact, 85% of internet users in the U.s.a. say they watch video content—making it a strong contender as an outlet for your client reviewsii.
Shopify is 1 example of a visitor using video testimonials:
Video reviews tin give potential buyers something most written reviews can't: emotion.
Viewers can see the difference your products or services accept made. They can build a stronger connection with your customers, making it easier to put themselves in their shoes. These deeper connections tin can spark more sales.
Creating videos doesn't demand to be complicated. Customers sharing selfie-style videos talking about what your production has done, or just stationed in front of a camera, tin can get the aforementioned message across.
While you want the image and audio to be articulate in the videos y'all share, the quality of the message is more important. If you take a customer willing to discuss on camera how you've helped them, this tin can go a long manner.
Here's another video review of Shopify, this fourth dimension from YouTube :
This ane doesn't involve a lot of money or production—simply a user sitting in front of his estimator photographic camera giving his stance of the tool. And it even so has over fifteen,000 views.
How to get more video reviews:
If you accept the upkeep for larger production projects you lot desire to feature on your website (like our first example), achieve out to the customers you recall take the best story or video presence. If y'all're spending the money, you're in control of the story.
All the same, to become more than reviews like the second, treat it the same equally weblog post reviews. Reach out to industry experts who have large YouTube followings and offer complimentary trials or discounted products in exchange for an honest review.
8. User-generated content
User-generated content includes social media posts, videos, images, audio, or other kinds of content created past—you guessed it—a user of your products or services. Some of the review types nosotros've already covered would fall into this category (like social media posts or client videos).
Only user-generated content isn't just an online review or a client sharing an image with your hashtag. That's merely the get-go. Yous then need to take that content and use it in a bigger, coordinated way.
Here's an instance of how direct-to-consumer mattress brand Casper does it:
Like the Aerie instance, Casper encourages users to share pictures using their products (in this example, sleeping on their mattresses) on social media. When someone tags Casper in their post, the image is added to a reel on their website.
They besides share client posts on their own Instagram feed:
User-generated content puts your customers' experiences front and middle. Although they're not exactly traditional reviews, prospective customers can run into how happy others are with your products. It helps build actuality— something millennials love .
How to go more user-generated content:
This 1 follows the same tips as social media reviews. Encourage your audience to share their experiences by creating a unique hashtag or tell them to tag you lot in their posts.
Then showtime commenting, sharing, and engaging with your own audition. When your audience sees you showcasing other users' experiences or getting into conversations, they'll jump to become involved.
9. Make ambassadors
Think of make ambassadors as an external sales team. They're loyal customers who love your brand or product so much they're willing to recommend your products or services to their own networks. The bonus with having brand ambassadors is that they're usually seriously obsessed fans—and are probably more familiar with your product than even your own team.
Brand ambassadors don't demand to take large followings. In fact, anyone tin be a brand administrator. Y'all probably have brand ambassadors without even knowing information technology.
One of the all-time examples of brand ambassadors online is for the budgeting software, You Need a Budget (YNAB). Users are active on platforms similar Reddit , sharing communication on how the platform has changed their life for the amend:
How to go more make ambassadors:
While you could pay for brand ambassadors, you're better off creating them organically. In YNAB's case, they did so by providing a unique spin to traditional budgeting software. By helping customers who otherwise would have slipped through the cracks, they've created a loyal fan base of operations.
It takes more time to build make ambassadors naturally, but this is a high-reward review since their advocacy will be much, much stronger, directed, and in-depth than your average Yelp review.
How to respond to client reviews
Nosotros've said it before and we'll say information technology over again—your customer reviews shouldn't exist in a vacuum.
If yous're just allowing customers to leave reviews on peer-to-peer pages, social media, or their own blogs without acknowledging them or responding to them, y'all're not making use of powerful content that has been known to convert leads.
But your response process should look unlike depending on if the review is positive or not.
How to respond to a positive review
Congrats! A customer left you a positive review. Time to pop the champagne—and write a response.
Responding to a positive review is a lot less stressful than responding to something negative only merely equally important. Letting your happy customers know yous've seen their kind words and you capeesh their feedback tin can encourage them to go along singing your praises.
Hither'southward how to answer to positive reviews:
- Brand your message personalized. Customers volition quickly realize if y'all're but copying and pasting messages to all your reviews. Instead of giving a generic "Thanks!" have the fourth dimension to write a thought-out, personalized message.
- Respond in a day or 2. Fast responses show you're paying attention. While yous're non expected to drop everything to answer to reviews, a quick response—especially on social media—can keep customers engaged with your brand. Reduce your response time by integrating your social media apps with your cloud-based communications system. RingCentral connects with top social platforms, similar Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, so you tin can hands respond without needing to switch platforms.
- Show your personality. This is your adventure to engage directly with a happy customer, so make the most of information technology. Reply with some personality—humour, kindness, wit, you become the idea—to actually connect with your customer. Regardless of your brand's personality, be authentic. Your audience will exist able to tell if you're non.
- Give a recommendation. Now is a great time to betoken your customer in the direction of another product, a slice of content, or something related to their review. (This is a great way to personalize your response!) For case, if they say they enjoyed a product, recommend they wait into a supplementary project, or suggest they bank check out a blog post that tells them how to make the well-nigh of their purchase. Your main goal is to keep them engaged!
- Enquire if you lot can showcase their review. If someone leaves you a particularly stellar or unique testimonial, ask for permission to share it! Display it on your website, prove it off on social media, or create user-generated content out of it. Showing off the kind words of your happy customers is more powerful than but telling people how awesome you are.
How to reply to a negative review
Negative reviews are much less exciting than positive reviews. They tin be stressful, and responding can feel like a lost cause. But even the nigh unhappy customer tin can alter their opinion with the correct encouragement.
Responding to a negative review is a footling less "just be yourself" and a little more strategic:
- Respond promptly. Again, you may not need to drib everything you're doing to respond, just information technology'due south more important to go to negative reviews quickly than positive reviews. If a negative review is posted for likewise long without a response, not only is information technology frustrating for the unhappy client, but it can also leave a bad sense of taste in prospective customers' mouths. Do your all-time to get to negative responses in just a few hours.
- Put the customer beginning. You may not hold with what the client is proverb, but that doesn't mean yous should be on the defensive. Instead, listen and come across where the customer is coming from—you have to identify where their frustration lies. Retrieve well-nigh the response you would want in their shoes and effort and find a solution.
- Reply publicly, simply button the conversation to a private aqueduct. You don't desire to get into a debate with an unhappy client on Yelp, just you also don't want it to seem like yous're not acknowledging negative reviews. Reply to unhappy customers on the platform they've left the review on, but encourage them to continue the conversation through a private message on social media, electronic mail, or phone call.
If you have a phone or communications tool, it can brand this office easier. For case, RingCentral integrates with other popular social media apps to let you switch between platforms while keeping the integrity of your conversations:
(When frustrated customers don't accept to repeat their issues over and over, information technology might aid soothe them a fleck and requite you a better shot at turning the interaction effectually.)
- Follow through. Don't just apologize and call information technology settled. In order to change your client'southward opinion, y'all need to discover a solution to their trouble and follow through on it. Work with the client to notice what will change their opinion—and follow up later to see if you've been successful.
- Don't get it taken down. It tin be tempting to get a negative review removed, simply it can injure the trust yous've built with other customers—especially if that unhappy customer realizes they've been silenced. If you respond the right way, leaving the review up also proves to prospective customers that you care near your customers' opinions. Sometimes, an unhappy client will even write a positive follow-up review to show people that you actually turned things around for them:
Replying to reviews (both positive and negative) accordingly ways having open communication with your customers. Bringing reviews in as role of your customer feedback cycle tin can help you identify communication gaps or other areas where y'all're not meeting expectations.
What can you learn from these customer review examples?
Asking your audience to buy from you without whatever reinforcement from other customers is an uphill boxing. Without any reviews or social proof, you're expecting them to invest solely on blind trust—and information technology doesn't work well.
Rather than making your job more difficult, make the well-nigh of the happy experiences your customers choose to share. From peer-to-peer pages to your own website and social media accounts, showcasing positive reviews—and responding to negative reviews the right way—can help you lot land more customers.
onethedrum.com/news/2017/03/27/online-reviews-impact-purchasing-decisions-over-93-consumers-report-suggests
2statista.com/statistics/272835/share-of-internet-users-who-watch-online-videos
Originally published Feb 19, 2020, updated Feb 07, 2022
poundsdowerent1968.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/customer-review-examples/
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