5 Things to Keep in Mind: Reviews

In the age of the millennial reviews can be a catch 22 - they are often highly subjective (due to opinion or circumstances that are unique) or ill-written, thus not providing enough information to be effective; however so many rely on reviews these days to be the deciding factor when it comes to purchasing anything especially if said purchase is wholly online.

So how best to approach soliciting reviews from customers whom have made purchase? It's not an easy task, but it is by no means impossible. Here are some tidbits to keep in mind when approaching a customer for a review:

1. a customer does not HAVE to leave a review
2. a customer does not HAVE to (even though it is the polite thing to do) contact you prior to leaving a review
3. receiving a less than perfect mark (such as stars on amazon or etsy) is not the END of the world - look at the content of the review
4. do NOT take reviews personally, take them as a constructive critique (even if they are mean spirited) and move on
5. even if you have 500 perfect transactions with 500 perfect reviews - this does not mean one "sudden" less than perfect review is wrong, you can make mistakes - learn from them

I do apologize that these quick tips seem a bit negative, that is certainly not intent behind them, rather it simply to be matter of fact about a contentious issue.

Now that that is out of the way, some of the more effective ways to solicit a review are:

INCLUDE a special insert with their purchase that thanks them for said purchase and details the importance of their feedback and how they can leave said feedback

ADD a review request to the receipt you include with their shipment

EMAIL them after you have determined their package has been delivered, follow up to make sure everything meets their satisfaction - detailing the importance of their feedback and how to leave it in a review

DETAIL very briefly at the bottom of listings or on social media sights the importance of reviews

*be sure not to violate ecommerce platform's rules about contacting customers*