Anyone found an easy/effective way to use Square to get reviews?

[grantlantalawn]

We've done thousands of transactions with square but probably only turned a handful of them into reviews. Any ideas on how I could go about converting these sales into reviews? thanks! 

[maxpete]

@grantlantalawn Great question and thank you for asking! I wanted to share this article on How to Generate Online Customer Reviews which shares awesome tips on how to achieve this!

Tagging some other sellers here to share their experience with this too! @Bronze_Palms, @TheRealChipA, and @mksavage 

[Bronze_Palms]

Thank you for the tag!

Our salon has been great with customer reviews because we are timely.

We send prep instructions, a thank you text, then follow up a couple days later. 

When follow up texts get back to us and share how much they loved the service, we request the review and add our review link.

[ryanwanner]

Hi @grantlantalawn !

Customer reviews are always a challenge--unless they want to say something bad apparently. 😖

First thing I'd recommend is to make sure you have your Feedback enabled on your digital receipts

Dashboard -> Customer Directory -> Settings -> Feedback

Feedback from your receipts only go to you and currently there isn't a sanctioned way to show those publicly. I've seen sellers screenshot and post the feedbacks to get around this though. However, it is an invaluable way to get information from your customers.

Then, if you're not doing it already, I highly recommend taking the leap to Square Marketing. The main reason for this thread is for the automated Google Reviews email and text campaigns. How those work is whenever a customer gives you positive feedback or visits your store 7 (?) times, they will automatically get an email asking them to give you a review. When I enabled this campaign, I got 50 new Google reviews in the first month. If you're balking at the monthly fee for marketing, don't. If you enable first time guest, lapsed customer, and google review automated campaigns, what you will bring back into your store far exceeds the monthly cost. I'm seeing easily a 5x return on investment with those three emails, and that doesn't count any other campaigns I've sent out.

After that, if your business brings people in (restaurant or retail store for example), I highly recommend having Review Us! signage throughout your space with your business name fully spelled out and possibly a QR code to your online review site. Or, better yet, a QR code to a special page on your website with links to all the applicable review pages out there. Use this page as a way to also advertise your own website and any online ordering capabilities you may have.

Lastly, you can run promotions as well. If your customer shows you a recent review they get x% off their order kind of thing. Advertise this and watch the reviews roll in: people love deals, and a quick review is a pretty low barrier to entry. Personally, I'd limit it to reviews with writing, not just a star rating.

And never be shy about promoting your business. The more people know about you, the more you'll naturally get more reviews.

Hope this helps!

[Castlebait]

Id like to get more product reviews.  Problem with the automatic marketing email is it only sends out to ask for a product review if it is a repeat customer.  Kind of lame.

Google reviews are a catch 22.  Have good reviews and then some not so good, your stars drop.  And if you dont have 5 stars you are moved down the list on search results, especially maps.

[dimo10]

I only just went through this myself. we have a 4.2 google review with over 300 reviews.

We serve hundreds of customers a day... we get mostly good reviews but being a takeaway fish and chip shop, one bad meal and people feel entitled to post a bad google review. Dont come back in store to let us know. Dont give you the oportunity to fix a mistake. Just straight 1 star review.

So I thought i would email our 1400 customer database and ask for a review. I am not great with writing from emails from scratch so i used ChatGPT with the following prompt.

"hi i want to write a heart felt email to my loyal customers asking for their support by leaving a 5 start review on google. can you draft an email and subject line that will entice people to open the email and to encourage them to complete a 5 star review. you can ask me as many questions as you need to write the best possible email"

After a about 10 questions from chat GPT it came up with the following email.

Subject: Help Us Keep Serving You: Share Your Blue Sea Experience!

We need your help!
I hope this message finds you well and enjoying the day with loved ones. For over 30 years, our family has had the privilege of serving our beloved community through Blue Sea Fish Shop. As a local, family-run business, your support has always been the backbone of our success.
Today, we're reaching out to ask for a small favor that can make a big difference. If you've enjoyed our fish and chips, or if our shop has been a part of your family's traditions, we would be incredibly grateful if you could take a few minutes to leave us a 5-star review on Google. Your feedback not only helps us improve but also assists in spreading the word about our business to other local residents.
Leaving a review is easy:
Click the button below and complete a review.
Share your experience with us and the community!
Your words mean the world to us, and every review helps us continue to serve and grow within this wonderful community.
Thank you for being a part of our journey and for your continued support. We look forward to making many more delicious memories with you!
Warm regards,
Chris Dimopoulos
Owner, Blue Sea Fish Shop

[dimo10]

Oh and we now have 15 new 5 star reviews.

But the reviews are more detailed and talked about experience and how we have been part of their weekly tradition.

i hope this helps

[TCSlaguna]

That is great advice @dimo10. I have been trying to do something similar by direct messaging our Instagram followers to join our newsletter, but I think asking our email list to provide a review may be more valuable. People really look closely at reviews before they decide to visit. 

We have put a "Like Us? Review Us on Yelp!" button at the bottom of our monthly email newsletters, but have not had many reviews from it. I think a dedicated email explaining the history and passion of you as a business owner who cares about the customer experience is key. 

Thanks again!

[tam-rvc]

Square Marketing is a good option to try out and automate the review collection process.

I also wrote a thread a while a go about automating review collections. The discussion is in great depth. Feel free to check it out as well: https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Retail-and-eCommerce/Collects-Google-reviews-automatically-after-...