Doorcount idea sheet · srchambercommerce.com/ideas/ask-for-reviews

Ask for reviews, the honest way

Happy customers rarely think to post a review; a friendly ask and a short link change that.

Steps

Make a short link or QR code to your page on the review sites your customers use.
Put it on a small card at the counter and on your emailed receipts.
Ask every customer at the same point, for example when you hand over the receipt: "Would you mind leaving us a review?" Ask everyone, not only the people who seem pleased.
Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely.

What to count

New reviews per month.

Keep it clean

Ask everyone the same way, not only the customers you expect to be happy: the FTC's guide for marketers says not to ask for reviews only from customers you think will leave positive ones. Never offer a discount, gift or entry in return for a review, and never write, buy or hide reviews. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials (16 CFR Part 465) bans fake reviews and paying for reviews that say a particular thing, and many review sites forbid any reward at all.

Sources: eCFR: 16 CFR Part 465, Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials; FTC: Soliciting and Paying for Online Reviews, a guide for marketers

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