It’s hard to get online reviews. Really hard. Everyone, you included, has tons of priorities in life and writing online reviews isn’t one of them. As consumers, we might appreciate how important online reviews are for local business, products and brands alike but we rarely take the time to leave reviews. Why? There aren’t enough good reasons motivating us to write reviews and so businesses and brands that would love more online reviews are going without them.
At Starloop we’re tackling two problems with one solution: We’re helping businesses get online reviews and simultaneously helping to reforest our planet.
Broadly speaking, this is called Regenerative Capitalism; the deployment of business as a force for ecological good. In our case, our regenerative capitalism is planting one tree for every online review to help combat dangerous levels of global deforestation.
If you’re wanting more online reviews (from your customers, clients, guests or patients) in a way that’s tasteful and effective, then let’s walk through this. We’ll show you the Starloop Way; our thoughts on how “doing good” is not only good for the planet but also great for your business.
The Old (Crappy) Steps To Get Online Reviews
Before we reveal what works, it’s super important to know what doesn’t work. Typically, there are three “old steps” being used to get Google reviews, Yelp reviews, Facebook reviews or reviews anywhere for that matter. Here’s what they look like…
Crappy Step 1: Awkwardly Asking for Reviews – The first misstep in doing things the old way is all about using the wrong language. It’s about awkwardly asking that loaded question “could you leave us an online review?” Unfortunately, as common as this question is, it’s one of the worst ways to get reviews. People know this question is really a fishing expedition for a five-star review and it’s super awkward. Understand that getting online reviews is a process, and asking people for reviews is like shooting yourself in the foot before the journey even begins. Don’t do it.
Crappy Step 2: Bribing People for Reviews – Because people won’t respond well to being asked loaded questions, the next step is to believe the solution is bribing them for reviews. The usual suspects here include $5 Starbucks cards, an Amazon gift certificate, a freebie or a discount or some other bribe. Downsides? It’s not a very effective tactic and more importantly, bribing people to say good things online is an ethics mismatch. Don’t pay people to write good reviews.
Crappy Step 3: Hoping for Reviews – The third step is good old wishful thinking; hoping that with Steps 1 and Steps 2 deployed that the reviews will start to show up. This might make you feel a little better but unfortunately in the real world, just hoping for the best means falling way behind. More and more, it also means simultaneously watching savvy competitors pull way ahead with 100s of online reviews and getting so far ahead that catching up will be impossible. Don’t sit around and wait for this to happen.
The New Way to Get Online Reviews
Starloop Members don’t have to deal with any of these problems because we’ve solved them all. Our Members are getting 100s of online reviews and due to our “one-review-equals-one-tree” model, it means we get to plant more trees to help reforest our planet.
Starloop Step 1: Not Asking for Reviews – Starloop Members don’t have to ask for online reviews because they get to use our proven “natural language” script that’s been tested on over 100,000 consumers. Starloop Members know exactly what to say (and when to say it) in order to tastefully maximize engagement and get more genuine online reviews. They never have to awkwardly ask for online reviews ever again.
Starloop Step 2: Ethical Motivation – Rather than ineffectively bribe people with Starbucks coffee cards, Starloop uses ethical motivation and plants a tree on behalf of our Members. That is, for every review that one of our Starloop Members get, we plant a tree. Humans respond well to the idea of more trees being planted and this beautiful motivator increases participation rates and results in more reviews being written.
Starloop Step 3: No More Wishful Thinking – Instead of crossing fingers and hoping for the best, Starloop’s platform proactively takes charge. Automatic reminders are sent out, making sure that people are engaging and participating. This happens without having to waste time, it’s all on autopilot and saves countless hours of time and rather than leave things to chance, it significantly increases the number of online reviews attained.
One Online Review = One Tree
One online review = one tree. This is how we’re reforesting our planet one online review at a time. Starloop has to date helped our Members get over 16,000 reviews on almost every website and directory you can think of. We’re grateful for every single review because in turn it’s helped us plant 16,000 trees so far.
We believe our eyes aren’t just cameras, they’re also projectors. In an often confusing world, we can all project new ideas, new ways of seeing and being. We can all be a small force for change. Like Yanik Silver says, let’s start to “change how the game of business is played”.
If these ideas resonate with you, help us reach our mission to plant 1 million trees … please Like, Love and Share this post.
Thank you!
Feature photo by Liam Pozz.
