Want Amazing Reviews? Make a Face-to-Face Request

[Garrett Sussman]

Want Amazing Reviews? Make a Face-to-Face Request

You?ve worked wonders for your customer.

Now it?s time to ask for their feedback. Which usually triggers our fears of rejection. Many of us take the easy way out.


We send out a quick email asking for a review

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It?s fast, convenient and free. It also removes us from the awkward feelings that follow a rejection.

But rejection isn?t a likely outcome is it?

If you?ve wowed your customer, if they?re satisfied and happy, there?s a great chance you?ll get a positive review? especially if you change how you ask.

So how should you ask?

You make a face-to-face request

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Vanessa Bohns of Cornell University and Mahdi Roganizad of Western University showed in their research that face-to-face requests are better than impersonal requests made via email.

How much better?

Face-to-face requests were 34 times more effective than emailed requests.

That?s a dramatic difference.

In their study, they asked participants to request surveys from strangers. One group via email, the other in person. Next, they asked them to predict how many strangers would do what they want.

Here?s an interesting part about their study.

Participants in the email request group believed email was just as effective as a face-to-face request. They were just as confident as participants in face-to-face group.

Why is that?

Vanessa explains: ?Participants were highly attuned to their own trustworthiness and the legitimacy of the action they were asking others to take when they sent their emails.?

Which is basically saying ?I?m trustworthy so I?ll get what I want.? Which of course is the opposite of what happened.

Strangers saw an untrustworthy email asking them to click on a sketchy link.

They didn?t do it.

Here?s the surprising part about this study.

It doesn?t matter who you ask ? family, friends, strangers, it makes no difference. As soon as you decide to go from face-to-face to email, you decrease your odds dramatically.

The odds are in your favor?

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Just not as much, if your requests are delivered via impersonal channels like email or text. When these researchers replicated their results in a second study they found out why.

We?re missing much needed information.

The non-verbal cues we normally share ? our body language, gesture clusters, tone of voice, emotional health, etc. ? this information was missing. Simply put, impersonal channels like email don?t automatically include the information we needed to evaluate a request.

Okay, so face-to-face requests are more effective.

How do you use that in your organization? You approach customers directly, meeting with them face-to-face.

That wasn?t the real question though, was it?

The real question is, how do you scale this? How do you approach hundreds or thousands of customers with your request for a review? Who on earth has the time to speak to thousands of people, one-on-one?

You do.

Read the rest of Andrew's post to see what he has to say about leverage.

What's your experience been like? Do you find that a face to face ask is more effective than email or text?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Awesome Garrett!

That leverage idea is soooo smart! In addition to helping you get reviews it could help to
build customer trust, cement loyalty and would really help with word of mouth referrals!
So worth implementing!

You guys need to pop over to read the rest of the post to discover the leverage ideas.
I'm not going to give it away here, but it's well worth a read!

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Thanks, Linda! I agree, that leverage concept is very interesting.