The key to getting good reviews starts by giving your customers a good experience and having a good product. If you can do that,  then you’re already off to a good start. The hard part then becomes getting your silent but satisfied customers to actually tell you how much they enjoyed their purchase. Customers usually “tell” you by leaving a review.

Read ahead:

• Why customers leave reviews
• How to ask for reviews
• Automate review request emails
• How to phrase the question
• Use mobile-first review forms
• When to ask for a review
• How many days to wait
• Other times to ask for a review

Why do customers leave reviews?

To understand how to get more 5 star reviews, we first need to understand why customers leave reviews in the first place. In some cases, leaving a review means that a customer is going out of their way to share their experience with you because it was either really good or really bad. People are passionate and they want their voice heard, so they leave a review. But what about the other portion of customers who don’t feel so naturally inclined to leave a review? These are the customers who only leave a review because you’ve asked them to. It’s true. Over 80% of all reviews are submitted via post-purchase review requests. So this is where a good portion of your 5 star reviews will come from.

In short, a handful of customers will go out of their way to leave a review, while the rest will only do so because they’re being asked.

How do you make sure that customers leave a good review when they’re asked?

Disclaimer: you’re not “tricking” customers into leaving 5 star reviews. You’re simply removing any friction and reminding customers how much they like your product so that they’ll leave a review.

Just because a customer really liked their purchase doesn’t mean they feel like they need to leave a review. You have to focus on how and when you’re asking for a review to increase the odds that customers will follow through.

“How” - How are you asking customers to leave a review

Having a write a review button at the top of your review section hoping that customers will use it won’t get you great results. Instead, you should be asking customers directly to leave a review at some point along their post-purchase journey.

Automate review requests

You can set up automatic review request flows that will send customers an email asking them to leave a review after they’ve made a purchase. It’s important that the message has a link to the review form so customers don’t have to go through the hassle of going to your website (this is also a common point of friction).

By automating this process, you’re making the action of leaving a review a part of the post-purchase journey for every customer & you’re making it super easy for them to do so. (Tip: you can even send review requests through your existing ESP - Junip supports all the major ones like Klaviyo, Postscript, Attentive etc.)

What should the email say?

The saying “It’s not about what you say, it’s about how you say it” applies when you’re talking to your customers. No matter how you phrase it, you’re asking a customer to do something for you. So be nice! Maybe the customer is in a bad mood and isn’t feeling so generous to give you 5 stars. Having fun or quirky copy that makes a customer smile or simply feel good, reminds them how much they like your brand and frames your product in an even more positive light.

It’s also best to ask an open ended question. Starting the conversation by asking “Did you LOVE your purchase? Let us know!” opens up a lot of room for doubt as to *how* much a customer might have liked your product. Maybe they *just* liked it and had no objections. But when you ask them if they “LOVED” it, this forces them to ponder “hmm did I LOVE it? I don’t know, but I didn’t hate it. 4 stars seems appropriate”. Rephrase the question by asking “Tell us what you think” or “How’d we do?”. Now the customer isn’t using any sort of benchmark to assess how much they liked the product, they’re just relying on the fact that they’re happy with their purchase.

Use mobile-first review forms

Once you have the customer’s attention and have convinced them to leave a review, the actual experience of them submitting a review has to be seamless. If customers have to fill out a long, cumbersome in-email form, they’ll become frustrated, and it may affect the rating they leave. This experience is even worse on mobile. 72 percent of all online purchases are made on mobile. This means that the majority of your customers are on mobile, so it’s got to be easy for a customer to use their phone to leave a review. How? With mobile-first review forms!

This is what a mobile-first review form looks like:

Notice the progressive and animated designs that make it so easy to go through each step. Not only is this a way better experience than the long in-email forms, but reviews left on mobile are actually much more detailed & personal. When we use our phones to complete a task, we’re more focused and feel more comfortable sharing our feelings.

To summarize, there are 4 things to keep in mind about “How” you’re asking customers to leave a review:

1. Automate your review requests so customers can easily be reminded to leave a review → Junip’s flow builder gives you an easy way to do this
2. Use a friendly tone & express appreciation for your customers in the review request email to make them feel like a valued customer
3. Ask for a review in an open-ended way, don’t frame the question insinuating a customer already loves their purchase
4. Meet your customers where they already are and make it easy for them to leave a review with mobile-first review forms

“When” - When are you asking customers to leave a review?

The timing of your review request is so important and will absolutely affect the rating that a customer gives you. Ensure that a customer has A) received their order and B) had enough time to try out the product to form an opinion.

How many days should I wait to ask for a review?

Exactly how long really depends on the type of product you’re selling. For example, it makes sense to ask a customer who bought a sweater from you to leave a review 5 days after they bought it. This gives them plenty of time to wear it a few times and get lovely compliments from their friends. Whereas if a customer buys a face cream, they may need 2-3 weeks to tell whether or not they see any results. They will also be able to include details in their review about how the cream worked for them versus their first impression.

Is there any other time to ask a customer for a review that’s not via an automated post-purchase review request?

Of course! Pretty much any time that you’re certain a customer is satisfied is a good time to ask. For example, one-to-one support chats where you’re talking with a customer and have just resolved an issue is a perfect time to send them a review link. These are links that pull up a customer’s purchase history and show them all of the products they haven’t reviewed yet.

If you’re a subscription-based company, inserting this same review link within a customer’s account page is also a great place to prompt customers to leave a review. For example, a customer goes into their account to re-order their favorite flavor of your delicious sugar-free soda and is reminded to leave a review. Your product is already top of mind, and chances are if they’re re-purchasing, they’ll leave a good review.

There’s 2 big takeaways to keep in mind about “When” to ask for a review:

1. Make sure you give customers enough time to really love your product before asking for a review → you can set custom delay times and kick off your review request based on when an order is delivered with Junip’s flow engine
2. Ask customers to leave a review when you know they’re happy → Junip’s flexible review links gives you a way to do this

Getting 5 star reviews shouldn’t be a “quick win”

5 star reviews are a byproduct of getting it right with your customers, which is hard work! There’s no (ethical) shortcut to getting 5 star reviews. It might be more helpful to think about it as “How can I get all of the customers who liked their purchase to actually tell me they did?”. Then it becomes about setting up an effective review collection strategy that makes it super easy for a customer to leave a review. This lets you focus on continuing to create great products and giving customers an excellent experience that fuels the 5 star reviews.

If you’re looking for a way to level up your existing review collection strategy, give Junip a try. We give you all the tools you need to meet your customers when and where they’re most likely to leave a review. Get started by creating an account for free, or you can chat with our team to see if Junip is what you’re looking for.