Best process for asking customers to leave reviews?
-
This might be too off-topic for Moz, but I think many of us might face the same issue, so I thought I would ask.
Love them or hate them, we get 90% of our business from being #1 on Trip Advisor. My biggest competition is trying very hard to take over that #1 spot, so we are working to keep it.
Has anyone found a seamless way to ask customers for TripAdvisor reviews? We email, text, ask over the phone. But here the problem, Trip Advisor is not the easiest site to leave a review on. If you are on your phone, they want you download the app. Some people don't like to download apps. Or, if they have the app already and click "yes" to open the site in the app, it goes to the app store instead. There doesn't seem to be as much of an issue on the PC, but most people do everything from their phones now. And if something is a little bit hard, people are less likely to go out of their way to leave a review.
So, here's my question. Has anyone found a better way? Maybe a form on my website? Or a process that seems to work better?
This does have some SEO implications in that my Trip Advisor page does show up in search results quite a bit as well as much home page. Sometimes they are #2 and #3 together.
-
Can you please tell a bit more on "make it fun" part?
-
Make it fun. Make it something all your employees take pride in! And make sure all of your customers know how important a review is.
Once I started doing that along with rewarding my employees when they get a 5 star review my reviews starting coming in. I went from having a small number to have a ton. Customer come in and comment on them.
If you need any other help let me know.
Scott
-
You may have already looked into this, but I would dig into this if I was working with TripAdvisor:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/TripAdvisorInsights/n2159/complete-review-express-guide
-
Ah, I see. Well, it's definitely best to adhere to their guidelines if there's risk of a penalty.
I'd review your process for asking customers for a review. What can be improved? Have you tested different copy to see if it affects conversion rate on reviews? Maybe breaking down the process and illustrating it for the customer could help? Get creative!
-
Also, I've tried to call Trip Advisor... no luck... they don't have a phone number. I've tried emailing them, no luck there either. Its a black hole.
-
Incentives are technically against Trip Advisors policies. I don't think you are even supposed to offer anything in return, 5 star or not. I usually try to play by the rules because getting burned can be worse sometimes. Was thinking about having a contest... but that seems to be against the rules too.
-
Incentivizing is against Trip Advisors rules. They don't want to you to even offer something in exchange for review. And you certainly can't ask to offer anything in return for a 5 star review.
Yeah, honestly... I'm not sure how you can change a business based on tourism to not be reliant on Trip Advisor. I don't really like them to be honest with you. It is a headache managing the reviews and the process. I rank well on all organic searches .. 1 to 3 on most of the terms I track. But, its the market dynamics right now. Most people go to Trip Advisor to find things to do while on vacation... or at least check out your reviews. And if there is someone that out ranks you, then they will go to their webpage regardless of finding you first.
Do you have any suggestions, because I am all ears...lol!
-
Agree with previous response - incentives are the best way. We are struggling with getting reviews a lot, and we are "in-person" business. If you are strictly online - it gets even harder. My car's dealership offered $150 gift card for a 5/5 review. If you can do something like that, you'll get bunch of reviews for sure.
-
Are you in a position to incentivize them to overcome the friction in the process?
I'm not familiar with the workings of TripAdvisor, but perhaps they can offer some suggestions on how to streamline the process?
Personally, I'd be asking the question: How do we make it so we're not 90% reliant on TripAdvisor for business?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to make Google show reviews from Facebook and Google My Business?
I wonder if there is anything I can do to increase the chance that Google shows stars that indicate the average score of our reviews from Facebook or Google MyBusiness for the keywords where we rank nr. 1, for instance our brand name?
Reviews and Ratings | | AudunBK0 -
1st party reviews
Hi, I would like to add 1st party reviews to a website that promotes a software application using schema code to display ratings in search results. I have not been able to find any examples of software app schema being on a single page. Wondering how others have applied this and displayed on the website. Thanks.
Reviews and Ratings | | SaddleOak0 -
Poor reviews and ratings
I have an interesting challenge for a new client. Basically, they collect payment from gym users whose monthly subscription payment has failed, and they charge the gym user a fee and not the gym. Their clients love them for this, but the end consumer hates them and as a consequence, every review or ratings site from Google Reviews to Trustpilot is universally filled with angry consumers who didn't read the Ts and Cs of their gym membership. Understandable, but it also means the client can't have a presence on any social channel as they simply become a gripe board for disgruntled consumers. My question is, how are the poor reviews impacting on rankings and domain authority and should I treat this like any other client in terms of fixing crawl issues and seeking quality backlinks or am I always going to be pushing water uphill? Cheers gang!
Reviews and Ratings | | Algorhythm_jT0 -
3rd Party Reviews - Schema Implementation
Hi, Currently my client displaying Ratings & Reviews from a third-party (TripAdvisor) service and only displaying 5 reviews but not showing "Read More Reviews" button to TripAdvisor page. Now I would like to use Rich Snippet schema markup code on these rating & reviews but below are my few concerns, could you please guide me: 1. Can I use Rich Snippet Schema markup code on widget of TripAdvisor Rating & Review. 2. If I apply schema markup code, Do I need to maintain TripAdvisor link for "Read More reviews". Below are the URLs which contains TripAdvisor rating & reviews after big image: https://goo.gl/DLpDXE https://goo.gl/EHVG7o https://goo.gl/ok6cYp Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Satla
Reviews and Ratings | | TrulyTravel0 -
How to address reviews that show up in Google but come from a business's own website?
One of my clients has a competitor who has a fairly poor reputation based on reviews on Google and Yelp. But, this competitor allows people to review them on their own website, and their "4.8" rating based on 250+ "reviews" show up in search engine results. I assume they are using schema markup to encourage that. My question is whether there is anything we can do to report this to Google, or otherwise make sure the general public is not fooled by these reviews?
Reviews and Ratings | | irapasternack2 -
Best Plugins for Rich Snippets
Hello, I installed "all in one schemeraorg rich snippets" for my wordpress site but it messed up my website design so I deactivated it. Is there any other best plugin available with same functions and features? Or if there is any other best way to do this? Please help as this plugin worked fine with one of my other website. Any help is appreciated? Sam
Reviews and Ratings | | BrianBotts.0 -
What are some powerful reviews websites for online-only businesses?
Looking for a small handful of places that I can lead customers to, following a transaction with my dot com (i.e., no brick and mortar presence) business, so that they can leave reviews Chiefly interested in the sites that Google is most likely to notice Thanks! 🙂
Reviews and Ratings | | ntcma0 -
SCHEMA Review Markup Check & Questions
Hi, I have a few questions about our SCHEMA for user-submitted business reviews. Here's what I have so far: User Review Reviewer Name Business Name
Reviews and Ratings | | kirmeliux
05/14/2014 5 1. Am I missing anything? 2. Is the itemReviewed tag necessary? 3. If a category/results page has multiple businesses listed and shows their ratings, is marking the businesses up as you would on their individual page okay? What about the ratings? I have a feeling marking the ratings would confuse Google, but the businesses themselves (NAP) should be alright, correct? 4. General Q: Is it alright to have multiple reviewBody tags within one review? For instance, if the review is split into 2 parts and additional code/content is between them that isn't part of the review, can we just add multiple reviewBody tags within the same main div tag? Thanks!0