The majority of consumers who search for information about a point of sale on the Internet also consult reviews posted by their peers before visiting. The advantage of these customer reviews is that they can be consulted without time limit and by thousands of internet users. In this article, we will explain why and how community managers should solicit customer reviews.

Why and how to collect customer reviews from physical points of sale of a brand?

Why collect customer feedback?

The benefits from your point of view:

• Being able to measure customer satisfaction.
• List the "Pain Points" (customer pain points) and communicate them to the store managers so that they can improve the on-site consumer experience.
• A better ranking of points of sale in Google Search and Google Maps.

The benefits from the consumers' point of view:

• They are more confident because they quickly find the establishments.
• They can interact with you and see that their reviews are not neglected.

How to solicit consumer reviews for your brand's points of sale?

Customer reviews can be solicited actively (the consumer is clearly offered the opportunity to give their feedback) or passively (the customer is subtly encouraged to act). Here are some tips to help you collect consumer reviews in these two ways.

1/ List the local pages of points of sale on the most popular local search engines and directories so that customers can leave their comments (Google, Facebook, Trip Advisor…).

2/ Encourage consumers by sending an email containing a link that redirects them to the review form of one of the media you use. The email in question could be a newsletter or a personalized communication following a purchase. Here is the procedure for creating a link for Google Business Profile.

3/ Offer rewards to encourage consumers to publicly share their feedback: discounts for customers who have published a testimonial within a set timeframe, for example.

Note: The proposal should only allow for the collection of sincere testimonials (without mentions for persuasive purposes).

4/ Explain in documentation intended for point of sale managers why it is important to collect consumer reviews. Share with them the following 3 tips:

• Solicit customers in person to share their experience on the local pages of points of sale.
• Promote posters or stickers that suggest leaving an online review.
• Display the proposition on receipts or distribute flyers for this purpose.

5/ Frequently check the reviews posted by consumers and respond quickly whether they are positive or negative.

Today, there are tools that take into account essential points for optimized customer review management, among others:

• Make store locations visible on platforms with a local search engine (starting with Google Business Profile and Facebook Places) and related to your field of activity.
• Allow to check reviews and ratings received on a specific point of sale and be able to respond.
• Give the possibility to measure customer satisfaction general and local.

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