As a business owner, it is crucial to measure customer satisfaction, understand the customer journey and know how your customers fell about your company and products to improve customer experience continually. The best way to gain insight into customer satisfaction and experience is through conducting customer satisfaction surveys.

One of the pillars of building a positive company image is proper acquisition of customer opinions. While an unsatisfied customer is likely to share a negative opinion online, a satisfied consumer may not be as inclined to express their admiration. Therefore, it is important for you to focus your efforts on encouraging customers to leave reviews. If you are wondering how to obtain positive reviews from satisfied customers, you will definitely find the answer in this article. How to encourage customers to leave reviews and recommendations? If you want to gather buyer opinions, you need to properly motivate them. A satisfied customer is the best brand ambassador, but without proper motivation, they are often reluctant to praise your services online. There is a chance that they will recommend your company to their friends or speak highly of your product to their family, but they may not share their experiences with a wider audience. That's why it is in your best interest to encourage users to leave reviews. There are several ways to obtain recommendations, and all of them are a prelude to building long-term relationships with consumers. Remember that you can collect opinions from your customers in various channels of communication, such as Google Maps, using your brand's official social media profiles, or on industry-specific platforms like Booking. These are just a few of the many channels for communicating with current and potential consumers, which are an invaluable source of knowledge about their feelings towards your product, service, or company. Now that you know why and where you should gather positive reviews, it's time to discover effective methods of collecting customer opinions. Ask for reviews in an email One of the simplest ways to obtain reviews from satisfied customers is to ask for recommendations. Depending on the customer's purchasing journey, choose the right moment to encourage them to share their opinion. You can send an email that encourages the customer to express their opinion about their online shopping experience or the level of customer service. Take advantage of the moment when the user has just received a new product and is still excited about the purchase. In this task, you can be assisted by one of the satisfaction survey tools and customer review management systems. A ready-made system for sending invitations, which are in line with your visual identity and reach customers after their order, will provide, among other things, Rating Captain. After completing the transaction, the consumer will receive a personalized message asking for their opinion. This will convince them that their opinion plays an important role in the development of your business and the improvement of your services. Sometimes, a simple request for the buyer to share their impressions of the purchasing process is not enough. In such cases, you can develop a recommendation template or use supporting questions that will greatly facilitate the writing of a review. Also, remember the principle of reciprocity and do not leave reviews without comments. Show the customer that their opinion matters to you and treat all their feedback as guidance in the process of improving your product and company. Reviewing products on the website Don't forget to publish widgets with reviews on your company's website - such recommendations work like a magnet for new and undecided customers. You can also place the review form on the product page, adding a suitable call to action, such as "be the first to rate this product." At this point, explain to the customer why their opinion is so important and explain how it can impact the improvement of your company's operations. If you run a mail-order business, a nice surprise would be to include a note in the package asking the customer to review your product or service directly on the website. Such a thank you for trusting and purchasing from your company should be personalized to emphasize the individual approach to each customer. Nothing serves as better advertising than the opinions of satisfied consumers. If you want customers to leave positive recommendations online, you need to make it easy for them. Leaving a review should not take too much time, so build a simple system for reviewing your products. Whether you ask the customer to rate in a survey or with stars, do not give up on proper incentives. Discount coupons for future purchases or membership cards can increase customer loyalty and attachment to your company. Also, treat all reviews as important guidance, as they are a valuable business lesson.