Customer ratings directly influence business growth.
in fact, 90% of customers say their decision to buy a product is influenced by positive reviews from other customers.
Reading: Reviews how to improve customer care comparison
the good news is that you can influence whether this rating is positive or negative.
The first step is to understand what we mean when we talk about customer ratings.
“Customer Ratings” are any ratings, comments, or reviews that customers leave about products and services.
Since these ratings are generally public and visible to everyone, potential customers use them to decide whether or not they want to buy your product.
this makes it crucial to a) keep track of your grades and b) work on improving them.
Fortunately, there are a number of specific steps you can take to improve and increase these scores. let’s get into them now – feel free to click.
- how to improve customer ratings
- takeaway
- respond to negative reviews
- contact positive reviewers
- start conversations with your customers
- personalize your messages
- make it easy to leave reviews
- reward customers for leaving ratings
- add customer testimonials to your website
- increase personal interaction
- automate processes
- take action
- let your customers know you’ve acted
- ask them. You’d be surprised how many businesses don’t get reviews because they don’t ask for them; if you don’t ask for them, customers won’t think to leave them.
- create popup windows. this means customers don’t have to click through to another screen or open a separate app, increasing your response rate.
- Insert them into emails. it’s much easier to give a rating if the request is included in an email that customers will actually open, such as a purchase confirmation email.
- Don’t complicate the process. Avoid asking customers to fill out a large number of forms or provide voluntary personal information. just start by asking them for a star rating and a comment or two.
how to improve customer ratings
You can positively influence your reviews through a number of different approaches – here are 11 specific steps you can take to improve your customer ratings:
1. respond to bad reviews
you should never ignore bad reviews.
if you do, your reviews could spiral out of control and damage your brand’s reputation faster than you can fix it.
Responding to negative feedback can give you some control and influence over what your customers say and think about you.
it also allows you to offer solutions to your customers that improve their overall experience and hopefully retain their business.
as an added benefit beyond providing solutions to existing customers, potential customers can also be influenced by the responses you provide to their reviews.
podium research found that 56% of consumers actually changed their perspective after reading responses to reviews.
When you reply to reviews, you show them that you are trying to solve your customers’ problems.
It also reassures its customers that if things go wrong while doing business with them, the problem will be resolved quickly; this builds trust in your brand overall.
2. communicate with positive reviewers
While responding to negative reviews is a clear first step, don’t forget about customers who leave you positive reviews.
You should always contact positive reviewers and thank them for leaving a rating.
It’s also a good idea to tailor your response to what the customer has told you.
An example of this can be seen below, where a Hilton representative responded to a review referencing the sunrise views the reviewer enjoyed.
responding to positive reviews makes your customers feel valued, engaged, and heard.
See also: How to Set Up a QA Program and Improve Customer Service
When you respond to positive reviews, you also tell potential customers that you care about your customers’ opinions.
These factors contribute to overall loyalty and will ultimately lead to lower levels of customer churn.
3. start conversations with your customers
Asking open-ended questions is a great way to find out what your customers expect from your products and from your organization in general.
The open data provided by these conversations can help you develop and tailor your products and customer experience into something your customer is likely to need or want to buy.
Essentially, engaging your customers in a dialogue shows them that you care about their opinions and experiences. this in turn fosters loyalty.
The data supports this. A Wunderman study found that 79% of consumers chose to shop with brands that show they understand and care about them.
4. personalize your message
when you tailor your message to your customers, they are more likely to pay attention.
Demonstrating that you understand their needs and are striving to create a custom solution that meets their needs will set you apart from the competition.
using their names when talking to customers and asking them specific questions can make a world of difference.
plus, when you reply to their comments in detail or refer to their comments, they know you’ve really read and appreciated what they’re saying.
personalizing the experience you provide and not just providing standard answers also helps build loyalty
5. make leaving reviews easy
If it’s hard for your customers to leave you a rating, they won’t. it’s as simple as that.
ideas to encourage customers to leave a review include:
6. reward customers for leaving reviews
Incentives can be a great way to get people to leave reviews. even something small and token can entice people to leave a review when they normally wouldn’t.
An experiment conducted by hbr showed that customers who were offered an incentive wrote reviews with 40% more positive language than the group who were not offered any incentive.
alternatives to monetary rewards include points in a loyalty program, free premium services, or product samples.
7. add customer testimonials to your website
having a substantial amount of reviews generates more business and more reviews.
so if you have customers who are willing to share their positive experiences, you can make the most of them by posting their reviews on your website or social media channels.
Here is an example of a law firm adding testimonials to their site:
Through featured testimonials like these, you can show potential customers your best side, as you have more control over what gets posted on your own channels.
8. increase personal interaction
While it’s not always easy, especially if you’re dealing with tens of thousands of customers, fostering interaction between your brand and your base can go a long way toward building strong customer ratings.
A great example of this can be seen at Chevy, a dog food company whose recent customer interaction made international headlines.
See also: Car Insurance for a Nissan GT-R | Bankrate
A chewy customer contacted them to ask them to return unused dog food after their dog died. the customer service representative she spoke with encouraged her to donate the food to a shelter. then they gave her a full refund and sent her flowers with a personalized note signed by the same chewy rep.
It’s this kind of friendliness and personal touch from brands that leads to great ratings, customers for life, and the organic attraction of new customers.
9. automate processes
it’s impossible to read tens of thousands of customer reviews. but it is essential to effectively analyze all those reviews.
to do this, you’ll need the help of automation.
tools like monkeylearn’s industry-leading artificial intelligence automatically analyze your scores using machine learning-powered text analysis techniques.
monkeylearn, in particular, offers a no-code solution that can deliver deep, actionable insights from your qualification data, no matter the size or complexity, in a matter of seconds.
10. take action
simply listening to your reviews doesn’t do much good if you don’t act on the comments they contain.
Once you’ve analyzed your grades, you’ll see where changes need to be made. you will then need to make these changes.
here is an example of how elon musk took action based on feedback he received on twitter:
Once again, keep in mind that negative reviews aren’t the only place you’ll find changes that need to be made.
while they may be easier to spot there, positive reviews can also show you what you need to do more of and how you can roll it out to more customers.
when you make changes based on feedback from your customers, you’re more likely to offer your customer something they’re likely to buy.
this will also mean more positive ratings and repeat business.
11. let customers know you’ve acted
Once you’ve made changes based on feedback from your customers, it’s highly beneficial to let your customers know you’ve acted.
don’t assume customers have noticed; go ahead and tell them exactly what has changed and that you changed it because of their feedback.
you can post this in the form of a blog update, review reply, tweet reply, or even a one-on-one email for that extra personal touch
When you do this, your customers will feel more heard and will be more likely to continue sharing their experiences in the future.
takeaway
The ratings your customers leave you are crucial to the continued success of your business.
but, just because they’re coming from your customers doesn’t mean you don’t have power over what they’re saying.
There are a number of steps you can take to improve your ratings, including simple things like responding to reviews and making it easy for customers to rate your business.
Ultimately, though, the most important thing you can do is listen, analyze, and act.
however, you will need the right tools to help you with this. Using techniques like sentiment analysis and keyword extraction, monkeylearn can help you quickly get insights from your customer reviews.
Then, with monkeylearn studio, you can view this analysis in an easy-to-view dashboard. To see how you can use text analysis to improve your customer ratings, book your free demo today.
