Getting Reviews From Happy Customers Is Easy

For most businesses, their unsatisfied customers are the ones who are most vocal and splatter the Internet with scathing reviews on sites like Google Places, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.  This is to be expected as anger and frustration are strong emotions that can cause people to take action more easily than emotions of happiness and contentment.  To get feedback from your happy customers, you need to help them remember to share their satisfaction.

Using Reciprocity to Get Positive Feedback

In Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: Science and Practice (Amazon Affiliate link), he writes about the power of reciprocity and how giving someone something without asking for anything creates a psychological obligation for that person to want to give back.  One of his examples is about the restaurant experience and how waiters who include mints or chocolates when they deliver the bill, often receive a larger tip than if they didn’t include anything with the bill.

I was traveling in Peru recently, and after our stay at the Casa Andina Private Collection Arequipa (highly recommend staying there — they took great care of us), the front desk gave us a small package that you can see below:

It’s a small packet with a message on the back thanking us for staying at their hotel.  When I opened the packet, I found this:

It’s a small llama pin.  Not the most significant a gift, but it’s relevant because you see these pins at the local markets, and it’s a simple souvenir.  Underneath the pin was a card:

It’s a small card that’s labelled as something from Tripadvisor.  Since I’m familiar with Tripadvisor (and I’m a Tripadvisor user and find value in the reviews), it put me in the mindset that Casa Andina was about to ask me for a favor.

And they did!

The left side of the card contains instructions to go to a URL at http://www.casa-andina.com/capc-a/ta which is an address that redirects to the hotel’s write a review page on Tripadvisor.

This process works because it has a few things in place.

1. Small, inexpensive gift that was relevant to my experience in Arequipa
2. Clear call to action on what is expected of me to help spread the word about my positive experience
3. An easy website URL that took me right to the review page without having to figure out how to get to the review page

Creating Your Own Review Process

What you should think about is how you can take this process and apply it to your business.  Your giveaway doesn’t need to be something physical like the llama pin, it can be information like tips or guidelines.  Try to think of something non-monetary, but highly correlated to the products and services you provide.

Be clear on your instructions and make then at most 3 steps.  Setup a page on your website or create redirects to easily get someone to your profile on the desired review site — something like http://www.yoursitename.com/yelp or http://www.yoursitename.com/google work great for getting people to your Yelp profile or Google Places profile.

I think Casa Andina is doing it right.  Positive feedback or lack of positive feedback can make or break your business so follow these guidelines to ensure your helping your happiest customers share their enthusiasm.

What would keep you from implementing a review process like this one?

You might also like:

1. HOW-TO: Manage Negative Customer Reviews
2. HOW-TO: Get Customer Reviews on Your Website
3. Define Buyer Personas to Help Communicate to Target Customers