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.

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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).