Whether you are actively managing your company’s brand reputation or passively standing by, buyers are leveraging b2b customer reviews to make purchasing decisions. ReviewTrackers shares 80% of consumers in the U.S. read reviews prior to making a purchasing decision. Additionally, in the 2018 Benchmark Report, G2 noted “92% of buyers are more likely to purchase a product or service after reading a trusted review.” Even more, Northwestern’s Spiegel Research Center found just 5 reviews can increase the likelihood of purchasing a product by as much as 270%.
Some review sites like G2, Software Reviews, and Gartner’s review sites including Software Advice, Peer Insights, Capterra, and GetApp, all do a great job at collecting reviews organically, which means people come to the site and leave a review on their own. I’ve also seen, however, these sites collect “organic” reviews by emailing their own lists, running social media ads (with incentives), and asking existing customer bases to review additional products.
PRO TIP: In instances like these – where the sites are running ads or other promotions for reviews – be wary that reviews were written by actual product users. Some sites don’t ensure the validity of reviews or users. Some don’t even actually require users have product experience. In my In the age of information overload, where do peer review sites fall?, I share some details on how to spot fake reviews. Check it out and feel free to appeal or flag any reviews that appear fake.
Anyway, I’ve found some additional credible sites like Trust Radius and IT Central Station – which have the best, most thorough surveys – don’t collect as many reviews organically and rely heavily on vendors to request reviews on behalf of their customers. TrustRadius does a great job at vetting reviewers are actual product users and ask survey questions that allow buyers to understand the holistic customer experience.
With that said, if you’re wondering how to ask for customer reviews, you’re in luck. Collecting online reviews can seem like a daunting task. But, it turns out customers are happy to share their experiences. Whether their experience has been good or bad, many customers want to let others know.
How to Get B2B Customer Reviews
I’ve spent the past several years ideating and managing peer review campaigns and found some highly effective means for collecting customer reviews. Here are some secrets to building successful and fruitful peer review arsenals for your business:
Run Review Campaigns with Review Sites
Companies can hire sites like G2 Crowd or Trust Radius to online review campaigns. Companies can give them a customer list and the review sites will email the customers directly. Because the sites use a coded link for tracking reviews, you can measure the effectiveness of these campaigns.
Ask B2B Customers for Reviews
If you’re in B2B, you have your customers contact information. Email customers periodically asking them to complete reviews. Customers will want to share their experiences with others.
This is a great template for requesting customer reviews:
“Hi [customer name], thank you for being an awesome customer. We appreciate our partnership. Customer feedback helps businesses improve products and buyers make better purchasing decisions. We would love to hear your feedback. Please complete the survey on 3rd party software review site, [review site], and share your experience. To thank you for your time, you will receive a [reward]. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you!”
As mentioned in the template above, it’s okay to offer customers an incentive for leaving a review. Just follow the FTC guidelines on online review programs and soliciting endorsements. Anything from a $5 Starbuck gift card to a $25 Amazon gift card to a raffle during which the winner is chosen at random work.
You can also request customer reviews at industry or customer events, as well. In fact, many leading business software online review sites offer services to collect reviews at events for you. These programs can be highly effective ways to collect hundreds of reviews in a few days. Trust Radius published an article full of best practices here.
Ask Customers to Refresh Old Reviews
Buyers trust recent reviews. According to ReviewTrackers, “69 percent of consumers believe that only reviews older than 3 months are no longer relevant.” Many B2B software review sites also publish review recency timelines as part of their methodologies. For example, G2 shares the degree to which review recency matters in their Research Methodologies detailed in the chart below. After 3 years, the review holds little weight.
Reviews more than 2 years are completely weightless on IT Central Station. They don’t even appear on a company’s profile anymore after that time.
Needless to say, having repeat B2C customers or B2B customers, who are typically in longer term contracts, refresh reviews periodically can be extremely valuable to a business. Though requesting review refreshes won’t actually increase the number of reviews, it will increase the credibility of the review and of your business. Thus, it’s still important.
Collecting reviews is important to any business. Consumers and B2B buyers alike are turning to online reviews to understand whether products work, what implementation was like, how customer service is handled, and more. Control the fate of your business by taking control and managing your own online reputation.
Also See:
- Can Online Reviews Be Trusted? 5 Ways to Tell if a Review Site is Credible.
- How to Respond to Customer Reviews: Tips and Templates