How Does The Review Funnel System Work?

How Does A Review Funnel System Work?

At its simplest, a Review Funnel System reaches out to your customers as close to when they purchased as possible, thanks them for their purchase, asks them to share their experience, and sends them to the review sites most important to you.

It’s important to note that every Review Funnel System is slightly different. Most of them have the parts below, some have more, some less, but here are the most common:

Parts Of A Review Funnel System

The Database/List: This is the list of satisfied customers that you’ll want to request reviews from. You will usually need the following fields populated: First Name, Last Name, Mobile Phone Number, and Email Address. Each month you should be topping up your review funnel system with new contacts so that you’re creating a constant flow of great reviews.

Methods Of Requesting A Review

You can ask your satisfied customers to leave a review for you using the following methods:

Text

Texting has become the gold standard for review requests. Why? They’re opened at a rate of 98% and most texts (90%) are read within three minutes. So if you want to generate a strong review request-response, then texting is the way to go. Of course to make this work you’ll need to have a list of customers that includes their mobile phone numbers.

Facebook Messenger

Although not commonly integrated with Review Funnel Systems, some integrate with it. This can generate higher response rates than email, however, it can be a bit hit-and-miss depending upon your customers and their usage of the system.

Email

Emailing requests for reviews is the most common method because businesses typically ask customers for email addresses than phone numbers. Email is also a cheaper way to communicate, as texting incurs some additional costs. And before you say that email marketing doesn’t work (because of your views), stats show that it does indeed work, albeit to a lesser degree than texting.

Printed Items With QR Code

Business cards, office posters, invoices – and more – are often overlooked. But if you have people in your office, clinic, or location to be served, having posters or business cards with a QR code to ask customers to leave a review can give you an added boost because it’s occurring immediately at their point of purchase – which is when you and the amazing product or service you provided is at the top of their mind.

Verbal Prompt

This is usually combined with one of the above methods and is the most under-utilized method of asking for reviews. For some business owners, it feels self-serving and like they’re imposing on their customers. But think about it: if you’ve just had a great experience and the person who provided that service is asking for a review in a professional, non-pushy way, most of us would help them with this simple request, as we all understand that reviews are important, and it’s nice to feel like our personal experience is valued. 

The Review Request 

The key to an effective review request is to be clear, concise, and make it easy for the customer to respond. Different mediums lend themselves to longer messages than others. So if you’re texting, be short. Emails can be slightly longer if appropriate.

As an example, here’s a sample text review request: 

“Hi {first name}, thank you for visiting us today! To help us best serve you and others, could you click on this {link} to answer one question about your experience today? 

Thanks, {Insert Company Name}”

The Reminder Sequence

The reminder sequence is a set of messages that are delivered over some time to remind your contacts to leave a review for your business. Most review funnel systems remind contacts two or three times. It’s important to note that most systems can’t turn off these reminder messages even if someone has left a review. The reason for this disconnect is that many people’s Google accounts are not associated with the email address you’ll have on file for them. Although not ideal, this is just a part of the current state of affairs. You can, however, usually turn off the reminder messages if someone clicks on the review link, but this doesn’t guarantee that a review was left.

The Landing Page

The landing page is where every reviewer is sent before going to the actual review property (i.e. Google reviews, Facebook reviews, Houzz, etc). The landing page usually consists of your logo, a short message, and the opportunity to click on 1 to 5 stars. Once they have clicked on how they feel about your business, you can send them directly to review property, or you can have a Review Gatekeeper set up to try to head off lower reviews (see more below).

The Review Gatekeeper (Against Google policies)

Many systems include the option to “gate” your reviews. The way this works is if the reviewer provides a score below 4 stars it can provide a feedback form where you tell the reviewer that you strive for 100% satisfaction, and ask how you could help them feel better about their experience. Although gating your reviews is an option in many review funnel systems, it must be noted that this is in direct opposition to Google’s policies and if discovered could jeopardize your Google My Business account.

The Feedback Form

This is if you choose to “gate” your reviews. This form provides a feedback mechanism for reviewers who aren’t satisfied and lets them know you’d like the opportunity to resolve the issues.

Review Monitoring

Most review funnel systems provide a single dashboard to monitor and report on all your profiles on the various review properties. Many systems provide the ability to see a funnel view that shows data related to the performance of your funnel.

Responding To Reviews

You can view every review from most properties in one simple interface and respond to the reviews easily. This is helpful if you are receiving reviews across multiple properties and want an efficient method of responding to them. It’s highly recommended that you do respond to every review because statistics suggest that prospective customers read how your business responds to reviews (positive and negative).