Best process for asking customers to leave reviews?

[CalicoKitty2000]

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.

[DmitriiK]

Can you please tell a bit more on "make it fun" part?

[Scott1234]

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

[vcj]

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

[vcj]

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!

[CalicoKitty2000]

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.

[CalicoKitty2000]

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.

[CalicoKitty2000]

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!  

[DmitriiK]

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.

[vcj]

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?