Reviews matter. In fact, they matter a whole lot. According to a 2023 BrightLocal survey, an incredible 98% of consumers said they refer to online reviews for local businesses when they shop, and 49% said they trust these reviews as much as recommendations from friends or family.

What does this mean? Well, it means that having a few high four or five-star reviews to your company’s name is probably a good idea. They’ll give customers a positive impression of your brand, ultimately helping you boost your bottom line in the process. However, you’ve got to first learn how to ask for a review from customers.

We get it: the thought of asking people for reviews isn’t particularly appealing. It feels awkward. But remember that customers are used to being asked to leave reviews, and they’re often happy to do so, since they’re likely relying on reviews themselves. We live in a review culture these days, so it’s OK to ask for reviews for your business.

But how can you get started? Let’s take a look at a few tips and some strategies that work (oh, and we’ll give you some handy templates, too).

Requesting reviews: 6 tips to try now 

Before you start asking your customers for reviews, you’ll want to keep the following best practices in mind:

1. Personalize your requests: When you ask for a review, make sure you address your customer by name, and ideally refer to the product they bought, too. If your request feels impersonal and generalized, you’re likely to get no responses at all, or worse, negative reviews.

2. Keep your requests short and simple: Get to the point quickly and provide easy-to-spot and working links to your review platform. The process should be smooth and seamless—your customer could lose interest if it isn’t.

3. Consider using more than one approach. You can use a variety of different methods to ask people for reviews, but—and it’s a big but—don’t overdo it. Your customers should find it easy to leave a review for your company if they want to. Which brings us to our next point…

4. Don’t force it: Whatever you do, don’t nag your customers. The last thing you want to do is irritate them, or make them feel that you care more about reviews than providing a good product or service. Give them the opportunity to leave a review, but leave it up to them to act on it.

5. Recognize that not every customer is review material: Be selective about who you ask to leave you a review. Someone who loves what you do, and who consistently comes back for more—they’re gold, and you should definitely nudge them for a review. But an unhappy customer whose problem you’re trying to resolve? Yeah, you’ll want to make sure they don’t get your “Leave us a review!” emails, because they’ll probably leave you a negative one. Instead, focus on resolving their problem and giving them great service, but don’t rely on them for reviews.

6. Respond to your reviews: Don’t forget to say thank you for the positive reviews, and give a considerate and helpful response to the negative ones—this practice can actually help you change people’s minds! According to a ReviewTrackers study, 45% of consumers say they’re more likely to visit a business if the company responds to negative reviews. 

How to ask a customer for a review: 6 strategies (plus templates)

OK, so how do you politely ask for a review? What strategies are likely to work? And are there some templates for reviews that can help? Let’s take a look.

1. Via email

A simple email to someone who’s recently bought from you can be one of the best ways of securing a review. Deciding when to send it will depend on the type of product or service you offer. If you sell furniture, your customers will be able to tell fairly quickly if it’s well made. If you sell software, however, they’ll likely need to use it for a few weeks first. 

Either way, don’t be too pushy. Give it a day or two at least. Then, when the time is right, send out something like this:

‍

Another option might read:

2. In person

If your sales team has a particularly good interaction with a customer, that's a great opportunity to ask for a review. This works if you're an online business, or if you have brick-and-mortar stores. Either way, encourage your sales team to mention your review platform. A simple, “We’re so glad you’re so happy with our {product/service}. If you had a chance, we’d love it if you could leave a review on {platform} for us” could do the trick.

You might also think of leaving a little cardboard stand near the till saying, “We’re on {platform}—please leave us a review,” which is a bit more subtle.

3. On invoices or receipts

Every transaction involves an invoice or receipt. 

Include a little: “We’d love to hear from you—please write us a review” at the bottom. This is the time when a customer is most likely to leave you a 5-star review, so you'll want to make sure to ask at this critical point of the transaction. You can make it even easier if you include a QR code on your receipt so customers can use their phone to go directly to the review platform of your choice.

3. In delivery boxes

This one’s an easy and effective one. A little note in your customer’s latest order, thanking them for their purchase and asking them to leave a review if they’re happy, can prompt them to act straight away.

How about:

"Thank you for your order, {First Name}!

We’d love it if you left us a review. Simply scan this QR code and it’ll take you straight there.

We can’t wait to hear from you."

4. During your digital customer service interactions

When your customer service team interacts with a customer on the phone, via text, or over your chat function, it can be a great opportunity to get them to leave a review. But remember to only ask for a review if your customer has had a positive experience— otherwise, if they seem frustrated, or if they’ve been rude, you’ll want to avoid asking them for one. 

However, if you’ve helped them out, and they’re satisfied with the interaction, go ahead and ask them for the review by saying something these lines:

• Phone: Is there anything else I can do to help you today? No? Great, I’m so glad you’re sorted. If you have a moment, we’d really appreciate it if you could leave us a review on {platform}. Thanks so much!
• Text: I’m so pleased that we managed to help you out with {problem}. We’d love to get your feedback on how we’re doing. If you have a minute to spare, the link below will take you straight to where you can leave us a review. Thanks in advance!
• Chat: Thanks for contacting our support team. If you have a minute, please leave a review for us at the link below to let us know how we’re doing.

5. On your website

If you’re looking to collect reviews from your customers, putting a banner up on your website—or including a link somewhere (like on your product pages) to leave a review—can help you collect more feedback. For example, here’s how we display a banner on our own website to collect feedback from Magical users:

After you get the ball rolling, featuring reviews on your website is a great way to show new leads that you’re a legit business with a stellar reputation. A banner somewhere appropriate saying “4.8 stars on {platform} out of {number of} reviews” (with a working link) will help you build trust with potential customers. 

You can also make it easier for customers to connect to the review platform by inserting a handy “Leave us a review” link. Featuring a few testimonials from happy customers is a good idea, too.

6. On social media

Got a social media presence? ’Course you do! Encourage your customers to leave you a review from time to time or share a positive review with a caption like:

"Thanks for the great review, @{handle}! We’re so glad you love your {item} so much."

How to ask for a Google review

You’ll definitely want to get some Google reviews—Google is the most used and most trusted review platform across all industries, meaning it influences buying decisions a lot. 

To get a Google review specifically, rather than a review from any other platform, make sure you’ve set up your Google Business Profile and that your business profile has been verified. Then, only share your Google link whenever you ask customers for a review. That way, they’ll rate you on Google, rather than Yelp, Trustpilot, Facebook, or another platform.

How do you ask for a five star review?

There’s quite a simple answer to this, and it might disappoint you a little: you can’t. When you ask someone to leave a review, how they rate you and what they write is entirely out of your hands. Even if you think you’ve done a great job, there might be part of the experience that your customer wasn’t happy with, and that could make its way into their review. That’s just a risk you’ll have to take.

But if you're doing your best to combine a great product or service with a brilliant customer experience, your customers will hopefully leave you a review that reflects it. And if these reviews are a star or two less than you were hoping for, you’ll still benefit from the insights they share. Reviews can give you the info you need to make improvements to your business. 

Finally, can you create a template for reviews?

You bet. In fact, it’s a great way to make your customer service process quicker, simpler, and more streamlined. You can use some of the templates we’ve provided above, and save them to your own personal workspace using Magical. 

Simply type “//”, whether you’re engaging with customers via email, social media, or your chat functionality, and let Magical fill in the rest.

‍Try it out for free on Chrome today.