Consumers like to tell others about problems and issues that they have - both good and bad. If consumers are likely to post reviews and critiques online, what better place than on your business’s website?
There are a variety of tools you can employ to add a review and comment section to your website. Consider enlisting a service that sends e-mails to customers who have made online purchases and that invites them to provide a review. Or, include an option where consumers can provide ratings and reviews directly on your website. PowerReviews (powerreviews.com) and Bazaarvoice (bazaarvoice.com) are two such companies that provide a mix of tools for capturing customer input.
After you have the capability to ask for and post customer reviews, what will your strategy be for soliciting the reviews and encouraging customers to provide the valuable information? Suggestions range from “including a ‘write-a-review’ link on every product page” to sending customers thank you emails with links to review/comment pages, to offering customers an incentive for providing a review like a free item or discount/points that can be applied towards a future purchase.
As you work through the process of asking for and posting reviews on your website, you will certainly find some reviews with spelling errors, grammar issues, and missing or incorrect product details. It is permissible to correct spelling, capitalization, and/or punctuation, but editing much more of the review should be avoided.
