Reviews in the modern digital world are gold for businesses like yours. The yoga industry is pretty saturated now, so your potential customers rely on the experiences of others to determine whether they want to give your studio a shot. So how do you go about getting reviews for your studio?
It can be awkward asking customers for reviews, but we have some recommendations to make the process more natural. At the end of the day, you want your customers to be happy giving you a review rather than doing it begrudgingly.
Here are nine strategies for getting your members to review your studio:
Aside from giving your customers a great experience with your studio by having excellent customer service and quality yoga instruction, there’s more you can do to impress your customers and inspire them to leave you a glowing review.
Building authentic relationships with your customers is the absolute best way to do this. A satisfied customer will agree to give you a review, but a loyal customer will be excited to give you a review. You can go above and beyond to show appreciation for your customers by implementing some simple marketing initiatives. For example, highlight a member in your monthly newsletter or social media post or have a customer appreciation event.
An automated email that’s triggered to send after a member has taken a certain number of classes will encourage a higher response rate to your request to review. Schedule your email for after a member has had time to experience your classes and form an opinion on your studio. When you automate this as an email campaign, you can set it and forget it—then you can get reviews without stressing about how or when to ask each member to review.
When you send out your request to review after they’ve been a member of your studio for a while, don’t come right out and ask for a review. It comes across as sleazy. A better approach is to start a conversation with your member by asking an open-ended question.
Example: “How are you liking your classes at Such n’ Such Yoga Studio?” or “Are you ready to renew your membership?.” By doing this, you can collect honest customer feedback and screen who is actually happy with your classes before asking to leave a review. If you do encounter a member who’s had a bad experience, you have an opportunity to mend that relationship before asking them to rate your business.
Make reviewing your business as accessible as possible by having a presence on the main platforms where your potential customers go to learn about your business.
Yelp is one of the most trusted sources for customer reviews in the US. Make sure your studio is registered on Yelp and updated. Here’s how to claim your business or add your business to Yelp. Keep an eye on activity on your Yelp profile because responsive profiles are rewarded with a highlighted average response time.
Claim your business on Google My Business and ensure your studio is listed on Google Maps and in Google search of local yoga studios. When people Google your business, your Google reviews show up in the search results.
It’s important to also have a Facebook presence and encourage reviews here because people use it as a resource to learn about your business. Like Yelp, Facebook also rewards Pages with a low response time.
Leverage the audience already engaging with existing content to ask for reviews. Make it easy by asking them to leave reviews right there on your website. You can do the same by adding calls-to-action in your blog posts, social profiles, and emails with links to review.
Everyone loves a juicy incentive in exchange for a simple ask from a business. Motivate your customers to leave reviews with special offerings like a discount on their membership, a free class, or to be entered in a giveaway for a retail item.
Let’s be clear: you cannot incentivize a GOOD review, just a review. (Ethics, yo.) So before you plan on offering incentives, be sure your members are feeling fabulous about their experience in your studio.
Mistakes happen every day in business, and sometimes those mistakes lead to particularly unhappy customers who leave scathing reviews on your studio. Whether you get a five-star or a one-star review, take the time to thoughtfully respond to each and show that you care about your customer’s experience. Don’t be defensive when responding to bad reviews—your objective at this point is to resolve the issue with your customer. It’s a customer service practice that will benefit your business long term and actually reflects well on your business.
Social proof is a powerful marketing tool. When people see individuals like them sharing good reviews, they’re more likely to follow the crowd and do the same. Make use of the good reviews you receive by repurposing them as testimonials on your website, as a text post on Facebook, or as a quote post on Instagram.
If you’ve taken the time to build a relationship with a member, making the effort to ask them in person to review your studio can be the simple yet powerful gesture that leaves you with positive and thoughtful reviews. At the end of the day, all it really takes to get a review from most of your customers is simply by asking.
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