How to Collect Customer Reviews

Reviews are one of the best ways to gauge whether a customer is satisfied with your business. They can share specific details about their experience with you, explain the impact of your services, or detail why they liked your goods. 

While some clients feel compelled to share feedback without being asked, others customers might need a direct request from a business owner.

Collecting reviews from clients might feel too sales-oriented or difficult to fit into your schedule. But by creating a simple strategy to solicit feedback, you can build positive customer relationships and help your business stand out from others in your niche. 

Read on for a step-by-step guide outlining how to get customer reviews and use them on your website and in marketing materials to help grow your business. 

Why customer and client reviews are valuable

Reviews are an easy way for prospective customers to learn more about your business. They can help convince someone to work with or shop with you, because we all naturally trust reviews from people like us more than a business’ marketing. And reviews also illustrate your unique strengths as a retailer or service provider. 

Other positive benefits of reviews include:

• They reinforce your credibility. Reviews signal that you’re a business with an established track record of success. Positive feedback in particular provides at-a-glance reasons why someone should choose to work with you. 

• They highlight every positive aspect of your business. Reviews often address multiple things that give your business an advantage. That could be the quality of your products and the caliber of your customer service. Reviews of service providers like salons might include a photo of a particularly strong haircut.

• They can help you increase sales. Positive reviews signal that your business can be trusted. This automatically makes you a better candidate for sales, since other customers have already vouched for your business.

• They’re invaluable marketing tools. It's easy to incorporate reviews into your overall marketing strategy. You can use positive quotes in social media copy, on your website, or in project proposals. Quotes can also be paired with photos or rendered as graphics for sharing on image-heavy platforms like Instagram.

• Potential clients or customers can find you easier. When someone needs to hire a business or service provider, they often look up reviews first. Having these visible on your website or social media makes your expertise clear right away. Reviews also help elevate your online presence by making your website feel more personal and dynamic.

• You can discover what's working—and what needs improvement. In a perfect world, you'll only receive positive reviews. But chances are good that occasionally you'll receive neutral or even negative feedback. Although these can sting, consider them information that your business can use to become more successful. Handling criticism well can also build trust and loyalty. 

How to collect reviews from customers

Strategies for requesting reviews vary from business to business. Freelancers and service providers often turn to social media to solicit feedback. For example, authors might ask readers to leave a review on online retailers, since more ratings can help your book be discovered. You can also point customers to a dedicated place on your website to leave feedback.

Email is another great way to collect reviews from customers and clients. You'll want to send feedback requests at the end of a project or after a purchase, when their experience is fresh.

In all of these cases, you'll want to take a conversational, friendly tone with your ask for reviews. Here are a few examples of emails.

If you sell physical items, an email alluding to a recent purchase can help people recall the transaction.

"Dear [customer name]:

Thank you so much for buying [item] from me. I hope you're happy with your order!

If you are satisfied with your experience, please leave me a review [link]. Every review supports our small business by helping more people like you discover our products. It will only take a few minutes of your time.

Best, [NAME]"

For service providers, you might want to be specific as to where you want clients to leave a review.

"Dear [customer name]:

Thank you so much for working with me on your [project name]. I'm thrilled with what we came up with together. 

Please consider leaving me a review about my work on [your review platform of choice]. These reviews help more people discover my business so I can keep working on exciting projects like yours. It will only take a few minutes of your time.

Best,
[your name]"

Freelancers might send a similar email:

"Dear [customer name]:

Thank you so much for hiring me to work on [project name]. I loved working together and I hope you are satisfied with my work.

Please consider leaving me a review about my work on [your review platform of choice]. Every review helps more people discover my business, so I can keep working on exciting projects like yours. It will only take a few minutes of your time.

Best,
[your name]"

How to build review requests into your workflows

Once you're in the habit of asking clients for a review, these requests will fit seamlessly into your workflow. In many cases, you can plan and automate these requests in advance so you can save time and don’t have to send outreach manually. Many entrepreneurs who use Squarespace recommend scheduling outreach shortly after your wrap up with a customer or client, so the interaction is fresh in their minds.

For example, your online store platform might offer this option. Squarespace users on certain plans can automate review request emails. After someone buys something from you, they’ll automatically get an email a set number of days afterward.

Service providers who see in-person clients can hand over a business card with a review request after a visit. To make the process easier, this card might have a QR code that takes users directly to a review site.

Other business owners might ask for feedback in the text of a client wrap-up email or create boilerplate text about leaving feedback in their email signature. And for business owners who solicit feedback via social media platforms, building occasional review requests into a broader social media strategy makes the process a breeze.

When should you respond to reviews?

Not all review platforms let you directly address customer feedback. If you can't respond publicly, feel free to send a note of thanks via email. If the review is negative, be polite and apologetic, and try to make the situation less fraught by being empathetic and offering a discount for a future service.

If you can respond directly to reviews, try and respond to all the feedback you receive. This shows you are attentive to clients and customers and value their feedback.

Positive reviews

For positive reviews, express gratitude to the customer for their support and express that you're happy they are satisfied. 

This response might look something like this:

"Thank you for doing business with me! I'm thrilled you loved my [good/service]. I appreciate the compliment and look forward to [seeing you/working with you] again in the future."

Neutral or negative reviews 

Neutral or negative reviews can be trickier to navigate. Don't cast blame and don't respond with anger. Instead, publicly apologize to the unhappy customer and then offer to make things right. 

This response might look something like this:

"Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear that my [good/service] wasn't what you were expecting, and I appreciate you letting me know so I can do better next time. I'd like a chance to make things right. I'm going to reach out via email; please keep an eye out."

In response, you might email them with an offer for a discount or partial refund, or some other resolution to their concerns.

4 ways to incentivize reviews

Satisfied clients and customers don't need much encouragement to leave a positive review. However, people can get busy and forget to follow through. Here are some ways to make it worth their while.

1. Offer a discount in exchange for a review. This might take the form of a percentage off on a future order; free shipping on a future order; or a certain dollar amount knocked off their next service.

2. Don't make review requests overly complicated. The reviews you request don't have to be epic-length novels. Emphasize to customers that a few sentences will suffice.

3. Stress how little time it takes to leave a review. People can feel overwhelmed if they think a review might require a big time commitment. State up front that you're just looking for a few minutes of their time.

4. Send reviewers unexpected discounts at a later date. Every so often, make it a point to send reviewers a surprise incentive, like a discount coupon.

Send review requests with Squarespace Email Camapigns

Using reviews on your website 

Reviews can include feedback shared privately via email, reviews left on external review platforms, or compliments included as part of a broader customer testimonial. All of these things can be great assets to your website. 

Your website is one of the first places people will go to learn more about you and your products, if not the first place where they interact with your business. Include reviews on your site so that potential clients and customers can independently verify that your product or service will deliver on its value. Remember, we tend to trust independent reviews and testimonials more than promotion directly from a brand or business. 

You can place reviews on your website in a dedicated section at the bottom of a product page,  your homepage, or on a standalone feedback and reviews page. You can differentiate review text by giving them a specific section style or using a different font or font style.

On Squarespace, plugins like Judge.me or HelpfulCrowd can give you the ability to add a robust review section for your website. 

Using reviews in your marketing materials

Reviews can also be an invaluable part of your overall marketing strategy. Just like they do on your website, these can act as social proof in your client proposals, ads, content, and social media that convinces a potential client to work with you.

When talking to potential new clients, you might put together a one-sheet highlighting your services alongside select review quotes from satisfied customers. As an example, think about how movie posters use positive praise for advertisements. 

You can also incorporate customer feedback into social media copy, particularly on business-geared platforms such as LinkedIn, or create colorful graphics around positive feedback and share them as part of an Instagram carousel. If your business lends itself to it, consider asking customers or clients to shout out your business on social media and among their friends too.

Another idea is to create blogs or social media posts detailing the work you've done with a client and include their positive review at the end. This kind of storytelling gives prospective customers a richer idea of what your business has to offer and how you work with clients to achieve success.