How to ensure a good number of reviews with effective CRM & best customer service?

There are tons of companies functioning in similar domains, and they all are vying for the same target audience. And such a situation makes it imperative that each company advertises itself to be the best. But advertising aside, customers today are not entirely swayed by features and benefits, they are looking for social proof. They want evidence where others have vouched for the product or service.

This brings us to the notion of customer reviews; they have become integral to the sales cycle of a company. They not only get the customer interested but also helps in converting a prospect to a customer. Given the benefits, it is not surprising that many websites have come up just to showcase customer reviews. And going by the trend, companies have high stakes when it comes to getting good positive reviews from customers consistently.

This blog attempts to engage the reader on how better customer service is the key to getting good customer reviews. This is meant for the entrepreneur who seeks to understand as to how customer service can be vital to receiving positive customer reviews. Now let’s list out the points one-by-one, here we go:

Good Customer Service for Positive Online Customer Reviews

• Put Email to Best Use: Every company that does digital marketing would have an email list. This list can come in handy as a communication channel for addressing customer concerns and soliciting reviews. If the customer service team is doing an admirable job and keeping the customers happy, it can seem innocuous to send emails asking for customer reviews. They really would not mind spending some minutes filling out some forms answering open-ended questions that directly get posted on third-party sites. This can be a perfect example of reciprocity between the brand and the customer.
• Run a Retargeting Campaign: Since the online customer service team is already communicating through email. It can be prudent to upload customer email addresses on Google or Facebook. In turn, these platforms would start serving ads to the customer while they browse the internet. As the customer has prior experience using the brand, it would be natural for them to proceed with the review. While there are methods for getting paid reviews, using retargeting is inexpensive compared to other methods.
• Create an Online Community on Social Media: Today, customer service teams use every possible avenue for addressing customer concerns. Thus, customer service teams must be able to leverage online communities on social media created by digital marketing teams. Marketing teams must help out customer service in getting customer reviews done by existing members/ customers of the communities. In return, the company can incentivise the members as an acknowledgement of their contribution.

• Reward the Customer: This can be done on the website itself; the customer service team must entice customers to get positive reviews. The scheme must be designed on a first-come-first-serve basis. For instance, “the first 10 reviews shall receive an Amazon Gift Card worth Rs.1000” Such an offer would entice customers to the website for writing reviews. The company must remain conscious about promoting this on social media and other channels to get maximum traction.
• Leverage Moments of Customer Happiness: If the customer service team has received praise or good feedback from the customer, it is good to ask for a positive review. In such situations, the customer may be inclined to give a review as a mark of reciprocity. Moreover, being in a positive mood, they are likely to give a good review.
• Start with Open-Ended Questions: When you are aware that the customer is happy with the product. It makes sense to make a follow-up call and handle the conversation with finesse. Avoid asking for a review upfront rather, ask about the product’s performance, or would they recommend the product to their friends and neighbours and so on. Once there is some momentum and rapport in the conversation. You can gently ask for a review without sounding too obvious. In most cases, the customer is likely to oblige due to the positive experience they’ve had with the product or service.
• Reduce the Friction for the Review: As far as possible, make it easy for customers to give a review. Do not make them navigate multiple windows and umpteen number clicks before landing on the review website. When soliciting reviews via email, include the link to the review website prominently. Ensure there is minimal work involved in giving the review. Also, it can be prudent to give multiple platform options to the customer. Allow them to go with the platform they are most comfortable with.
• Communicate the Time Frame: Most customers are hesitant about giving reviews if it takes up too much time. The best way to deal with this conundrum is to communicate the time frame beforehand. Convey it in the clearest possible terms that it would take less than 2-minutes to get the review done. This can encourage many customers who might have overlooked giving reviews in the first place.

Effective CRM for Good Online Reviews

Now that we have spoken enough about customer service let’s turn our attention to secondary and long-tail use of CRM for online reviews. CRMs are generally used for conducting surveys and eliciting customer feedback, these can be used as a substitute for online reviews. Here how it goes:

• Segmentation is the Key: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software allows you to categorise your list of contacts according to predefined criteria. There are many features associated with segmentation. Decide on a segment from where you are likely to receive the most positive feedback for the product or service. Once you have settled with the segmentation, send out the feedback forms and wait for the response.
• Keep CRM Content Updated: In the normal course of events, the CRM is likely to change many hands. This makes it vital that the information in the CRM is updated and relevant. As far as possible, remove any obsolete data within the system because to elicit good responses from feedback and surveys, it must reach the right audience segments.
• Set Ground Rules for CRM Management: While carrying out a survey, it is essential that last-minute scrubbing of the CRM data is avoided at all costs. Set some ground rules for team members operating the CRM. Such enforcement will ensure that you remain confident of the relevance of all contacts in the CRM. This best practice can bring out an optimum response from a survey or feedback.

Conclusion:

There can be a lot of talk around corporate monopoly and unfair trade practices. These situations precipitate when there isn’t healthy competition in the domain. Fortunately, customer reviews ensure that the best brand in the domain wins. By having customer reviews, the power remains in the hands of the customer to ensure the best brand grows and sustains in the long run. Companies can make this happen through their customer service and CRMs.

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FAQs

Q. How does customer review create a level-playing field?

Ans. Customer reviews ensure that the customer remains in the driver’s seat in changing the fortunes of a company. A company doing a good job is rewarded. In contrast, a company wanting just to create hype is made to pay the price for not giving enough attention to its quality or service.

Q. What does the future hold for customer reviews?

Ans. Today, the customer has an abundance of information at hand. To sift through all that information takes time and effort. Customer reviews are the shortcut to getting the best advice on a product or service in the market in the shortest possible time. This trend is likely to thrive going forward.

Q. How to ensure more customers contribute to customer reviews?

Ans. The write-up does have pointers in this regard. Apart from that, foremost, the product needs to be good enough to excite the customer. It should be able to deliver what it promises without gaps. This creates an opportune situation where word-of-mouth can nudge many like-minded customers (first movers) to opt for the product and give reviews.