Pre-Empt Requests for Reviews with Open-Ended Questions

Using Open-Ended Questions when Requesting Reviews

As you already know, gaining new customers is becoming harder than ever.

Today, competitors are popping up everywhere, and the cost of gaining customers is rising. Also, it isn’t sustainable to assume that getting new customers will automatically fuel your business’s growth. The goldmine lies in your existing customers.

Potential new customers don’t trust your marketing content and your sales rep as much as they trust personal recommendations from their friends and family. Customer reviews, testimonials, and recommendations also play a considerable role when consumers are researching which business to buy from.

Reviews especially are a powerful deciding factor. Regardless of whether they are recorded as a video, written, or visualized, a glowing recommendation from a happy customer goes a long way. It’s all about how customer tells their story, and you can use the open-ended questions below to draw out a story that’s the most convincing sales pitch your customers have ever heard.

Ten Open-Ended Questions to Ask Your Customers

1. How was it before you bought our product or service?

This question will prompt your customer to point out how bad it was before buying your product or service. Then you can use their response to show how your products or services can solve customers’ problems and make their lives better.

2. What problem(s) did you want to solve with our product or service?

Your customer isn’t alone, and your product or service helped them solve a specific problem in their life. Hopefully, other customers with similar challenges can see and identify with their story. If you’re segmenting your target audience into buyer personas, then there’s a chance other customers are experiencing the same obstacle.

Including their story in your testimonials or reviews will show leads a proven track of customer success with your product or service.

3. Where did you begin your search?

Asking this question will make customers explain how and where they started searching for a solution to their problem. This will subconsciously guide potential customers to do what they did. Plus, it’ll give readers a path to buying your product – making the buying decision easier.

If other leads relate to your customer’s starting point, they’ll view your business as a shortcut to their long-term success.

4. What made our product or service different from other options?

Customers often compare products from different brands before making the final decision. Thus, asking this question will make it clear to prospects what the X factor of your product or service is. Because it’s a review, leads will trust these claims more than traditional advertising.

It’s one thing for you to say your product is better than other products because of X, but it’s a different game if your customers are the ones saying it. Customer advocacy plays a huge role in lead acquisition and customer retention.

5. What challenges did you face while buying our product?

It’s hard for any person to pull through and make a purchase. By asking this question, you’ll motivate your customers to share any challenges they encountered while making their buying decision. This question will make them detail their objections and how they overcame them, which in turn will empower other potential customers to do the same.

Also, your customer service and marketing teams can use this feedback to improve the customer’s journey. By understanding the most significant challenges affecting your customers, you can remove these objections and boost lead conversion.

6. What features made you buy this product or service?

What sold your customer’s decision to buy? Was it the product’s features? Was it your customer service? The price? This will help prospective customers reading or watching the review to consider their priorities. Plus, it’ll let your marketing team know the aspects of your product or service that are most desirable to customers.

7. What did you love about your shopping experience?

Whether your product is easy to use, offers an exceptional customer experience, or provides flexible payment options, this question will highlight the best part of shopping from you. Highlighting this will allow leads to understand how your brand aligns itself with their goals.

8. How are you liking your product?

Often, business is cut and dry. However, it’s always a great idea to delight and surprise your customers so that they keep talking about your business in their recommendations. Customers will always remember when you offered exceptional customer service and great products, and leads will want to hear these stories, too. Plus, it’s always easier to show how great your products are when highlighting individual moments.

9. Why would you recommend our product or service to others?

“What was the bottom line when deciding to purchase our products?” This answer will detail why customers love your product and why they’d recommend it to their friends or family. Leads are looking for honesty, and this question motivates customers to give a candid review of your product or service.

10. What would you like us to do differently?

This question aims to know what your marketing and customer service teams can improve. If the customer has anything to add, save their responses because it’s valuable feedback. Remember, customers giving positive reviews and testimonials are your happiest customers. So, their feedback plays a crucial role in maintaining customer satisfaction and improving customer experience.

Final Thoughts

Always ask your customers to leave their reviews and testimonials. And, remember to ask the right open-ended questions at the right time. If you include customer feedback in your marketing model, it’ll lead to positive relationships, which ultimately will boost conversions and sales.