The best places to collect online reviews

If you’re using a third-party review platform, congratulations! You’re already one step ahead of your competitors, and smack bang in the middle of all the review action. 

But, as with anything, just joining or listing your business on a platform like Hellopeter doesn’t mean you can sit back and watch your reviews roll in (not quite yet, anyway). To kick things off, you need to let people know that your business is on the platform in the first place. 

Depending on the way you operate your business, you can leave reminders and links to your Hellopeter profile on your website, social media bios, in your store, or on your invoices. 

If you prefer face-to-face conversations with your consumers, that’s fine too. In a world where the bulk of our interactions happen online, an in-person conversation can be an incredibly powerful tool.

Your first stops: social media and a review platform

You consumers are already either writing, or reading (or both) online reviews about businesses and services. For the most part, they’re probably already posting their opinions on social media and online review platforms (like Hellopeter).

What do these two channels have in common?

They’re easily accessible to consumers. It’s important to remember that you should never make a consumer work hard to leave you a review. If you’re making them jump through hoops in order to leave their feedback, chances are, they won’t. And that’s why your social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram) and third-party review sites should be your first port of call.

How to gather reviews on social media

If you’re not tapping into social media, you should be. This is where your consumers spend a lot of time. However, social media platforms were not initially designed to help consumers find reviews. 

Rather use social media to ask for reviews, but make sure that they’re posted on a review platform (such as Hellopeter) so they don’t go to waste, and future consumers can find them easily. 

If you’re on your businesses social media platform, but aren’t seeing people posting reviews without any nudging, do the nudging for them. Simply reach out to your consumers via a tweet or post, and ask them for a review. If they leave a positive comment, ask them to copy it onto Hellopeter so others can find the feedback. 

Remember to keep your request simple, and more importantly, polite. Please and thanks go a long way in establishing, and solidifying, a longterm relationship with your consumers.

How to gather reviews via Whatsapp or SMSs

Before you start scrolling through your phone, hold up: only use this channel if your consumers have opted-in to receive SMSs or WhatsApps from you. If you’ve ever been woken up in the middle of the night by a message from a random business you’ve never heard of, you know just how annoying unsolicited text messages can be. Always ask permission, and if someone is happy for you to communicate via text message, never take advantage of it. 

As a rule of thumb, send requests for reviews via text between 9am and 5pm. Ask one or two questions that someone can reply to in the body of a text. If you’re going to use this channel, remember to direct someone by adding a link to leave a review. 

If you want to use WhatsApp to ask your consumers for reviews, head on over to web.whatsapp to save you the hassle of typing everything out on your phone.

Use the offline channels you already have at your disposal

Adding a request for feedback on or in your packaging is a relatively easy way to begin collecting reviews. You can direct them to your Hellopeter profile, social media accounts, or your website. 

Add an incentive for leaving a review too – but makes sure this isn’t a monetary reward. Think about how your customers experience your business, and then identify areas where you can place review requests. 

If you’ve shopped at Builders Warehouse, you’ll know that the business asks consumers directly after they’ve paid to rate their customer service, via a handy device right there on the counter. Their customers have just experienced their service first hand, so asking them for a quick review using a star rating system while they’re still in the store is a great move. 

Bear in mind though, timing is crucial – if Builders Warehouse asked consumers to review their products instead of their service, the feedback they gathered wouldn’t help the business, as their consumers wouldn’t have had a chance to use the product yet.

Look at your business through the eyes of your consumers to identify the right time, and place to make your move and ask for feedback.

Reviews on Hellopeter have helped over one million consumers make better choices. Had an experience you’d like to tell us about? Leave us a review here.