One of the most common objections to using a review service is that companies are afraid of customers leaving nothing but bad reviews. Sorry to say, but that’s a myth. Let’s dive into how customers are motivated to leave positive reviews.

Yesterday, we looked into review motivation and why people spend time leaving bad opinions about companies like yours. Let’s turn the tables and look at cases where you meet your customers’ expectations or perhaps even over-deliver.

Positive reviews are common

Back to busting the myth about customers badmouthing you when posting a review. We looked at the distribution of ratings of all reviews made on the Trustpilot review platform in 2011. This is how it looks.

As you can see, the most common rating on Trustpilot is 5 out of 5 stars. In fact, for every bad review we collect, there are 12 positive reviews being posted. If your business has a guestbook, a suggestion box or similar to collect feedback from customers, you will probably find similar ratios. Most people are happy to leave a positive review. You just need to give them a reason to feel good about your company.

Give your customers a reason to talk nicely about you

Getting positive reviews happens when your customers are motivated to do so. Essentially you need two things to drive that:

• A reason for your customer to feel good about your company. It’s all about expectations. People have a certain level of expectations and when you are able to under-promise and over-deliver, your customers will recognize that. It doesn’t have to be anything huge – just do a little better than people expect and you will increase the chance that your customer leaves a positive review. Take Mazuma Mobile, for example. They have some great advice to share.
• An easy way to submit the positive review in public. Once customers have a good story at the top of their mind you want as few impediments as possible to help them leave their positive review. Customers are brand ambassadors and by collecting their positive reviews and sharing it, you prove your level of service and make yourself look good in front of other customers.

Are you surprised about these numbers, too? Most people are and perhaps that’s the reason why positive reviews are a powerful asset in marketing. What do you think?

Tags: branding, motivation, positive review, review statistics, submit review