When your whole team puts in the effort to provide your guests with an incredible tour or activity experience, you hope that you wowed them enough for them to leave you a good review.

But did you know that 20% of consumers never leave a review? And of the 80% who do, this occurs only 4 times a year or less. – Podium 2021 State of Reviews

You can’t leave it up to your customer to write those reviews on their own initiative! You must actively encourage your guests to share what they loved about the experience. Here are 5 ways to boost reviews and referrals.

1. Ask For Reviews Directly

We get it – asking for reviews can feel awkward. But it will soon become second nature to your tour guides. When the request comes directly from the tour guide, it comes across as a friendly reminder to customers from someone they view as a peer.

There are other benefits to asking for reviews directly, like a higher overall rating.

The average rating of reviews generated from companies asking for reviews is 4.34 stars out of 5. In comparison, the average rating of unprompted reviews is 3.89 stars out of 5. – ReviewTrackers

To get your staff on the right track, give your tour guides some talking points or even an informal script they can follow.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve reached the end of our tour. We hope you had a great time today. If you loved the experience, please leave us a 5-star review on Google and tell your friends and family about us. We really appreciate your feedback!”

Pro Tip: If you want your tour guides to consistently ask for reviews, consider incentivizing them. One FareHarbor client gives small cash bonuses to tour guides who customers mention by name in online reviews. 

2. Personalize Your Request

The above example is a great way to make customers start thinking about leaving you a review. To increase your chances of them following through, make your ask personal by reaching out to clients directly.

You can do this by sending a follow-up email that personally addresses the customer by name. So even though you’ll be sending the email to everyone who took your tour, the individual readers will see a message with a personal touch – their name.

Get more tips on personalized marketing content here. 

Pro Tip: If a customer tags your business on social media or shares experience photos, don’t be afraid to send them a quick message asking them to review your business. 

3. Be Specific in Your Ask

In the first two tips, we shared ways to increase your chances of getting reviews. But asking for reviews alone is not enough. It is essential to share where specifically you’d like them to write the review.

You should approach this based on your reputation management goals. For example, if you’re hoping to get more reviews on Google, all review messaging you share with customers should specifically mention Google instead of just saying “leave us a review.”

For written communication to customers, make sure to include the link to your review site(s) of choice so readers know exactly where to submit their reviews.

4. Make Reviews Easy for Customers

That brings us to our next tip; make it easy! Just like stating where you want them to leave a review, sharing the direct link means customers could be writing a review within just one click.

Another way to make reviews easy is to share a customer feedback survey. This is because surveys allow you to ask specific questions that are not open-ended. Reviews rely on the customer knowing what they want to say, while surveys give them the option to answer multiple-choice questions and provide guided feedback. Learn about two scored survey options here. 

5. Ask Again…And Again!

Customers might not leave you a review the first time around, and that’s okay! Remember, they might be in the middle of a vacation or have a lot going on. Others like to take time to process the experience before summing it up in a review.

That’s why you should be repetitive in your messaging. Your first touchpoint is when your tour guide reminds guests to leave a review. After that, you can send a follow-up email asking the same, and can always reach out again with another reminder within a few days to a week after the activity.

Asking for reviews through email helps you track your reputation management and the success of those emails. As for another benefit…

About 70% of reviews come from post-transactional review request emails. – ReviewTrackers

So don’t worry about sending a few extra emails! Read up on everything you need to know about email marketing here. 

When it comes to being repetitive in your review messaging, don’t forget about texts and social media. You can send texts from your Dashboard asking customers to leave you a review or post on social media that you are looking for more reviews.

Review management is one of the best ways to get your business noticed, especially in your local market. Check out our tips for replying to positive and negative reviews.