Build trust with online visitors and increase your bike rentals: How to get a satisfied customer to leave a review for your bike rental?

Lots of positive online reviews means people trust your business, which in turn is a great marketing online PR tool to increase your rentals by attracting new customers. And displaying reviews can increase conversion by 270%, according to www.sumo.com. Customer satisfaction matters because it still costs more to get customers than it does to keep them.  Most recent studies say it costs an average of 5 times more to gain a new customer than it does to grow an existing customer.

This means that your online reviews can make the difference between people choosing your business or turning to one of your competitors.

Why are online reviews important to your bike rental?

Research by Local Viewpoints shows that customer feedback in the form of online reviews can make a BIG difference to the bottom line, writes MarketingBit

1. 1. More than 7 out of 10 consumers:

• say online customer reviews influence their purchase decisions.

• read up to 10 reviews before choosing a local business.

• say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

1. Companies with positive reviews can convert 183% more new business than companies with negative or no reviews.
2. Only two percent (2%) are likely to use a business with no reviews or ratings.

But I only serve local customers! Why do you still need online reviews for your bike rental?

Even bike rentals that mainly serve local customers are affected by online reviews so any bike rental should be asking their customers to leave an online review. 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2017, with 12% looking for a local business online every day, according to brightlocal.com.

How do I get my customers to leave me positive feedback?

1. 1. The first step is to deliver an amazing customer experience.
   2. The next step is to encourage those who were happy with your bike rental experience to produce online reviews for you.
   3. Ask your customers:

• One of the best ways is to ask the customers in person for an online review of your bike rental.
• Sending automated follow-up emails is the easiest and most effective way to collect feedback from your customers.You can now do this directly in bike.rent Manager.
• Or you could create a simple business card or flyer you can give customers. Handing out these materials at the end of the rental is a great way to ask for reviews. Training your staff to distribute these to customers who are satisfied and happy with you at the end of their rental is a great opportunity to let them know reviews matter to you, writes smallbiztrends.com.

How to set up your post-rental email in BRM?

1. Go to: settings > notifications > what
2. Decide if you want the default to be ON or OFF.
3. Write the email. Customise the subject and content of your email. You can include links – for example, to a review system.
4. When you check a rental back in, the system will display a question about getting customer feedback. At this point, you can still choose whether you wish to send the email or not. You might want to make sure that the customer is satisfied at this point before you send the email asking for feedback.

What should I write in the email asking for online review for your bike rental?

1. The golden rule for getting a great response rate to your feedback email is: make it easy.
2. The best time to ask for a review is when the value that you’ve delivered to the customer is at the top of their mind, making it easy for them to recall what happened and write an honest review. With BRM you can send it as soon as they return the bike.
3. They are more likely to give feedback if you tell them why it’s important to you (for example to improve your service and offering) and what you plan to do with it.
4. Provide them with links to whichever review site fits your business, like TripAdvisor or Yelp.
5. Have very clear call-to-action links. Don’t add any other unnecessary links — have a singular goal of users clicking the review button.
6. Test different email copy to see what performs best.

Some more tips for writing the email in Blog from Genroe.com and tips for asking for feedback by email from Campaignmonitor.com.

It is very good practice to respond to customer feedback, especially if it is negative.

How do I turn the negative feedback into positive?

You might get some reviews that are less positive, and that’s OK, because it gives you an opportunity to improve your rentals.

When someone reviews your company online, whether that review is good or bad, your instinct might be not to touch it. On the contrary, engaging company reviews helps you humanize your brand and deliver powerful messaging that protects your reputation, according to HubSpot.

“Negative reviews are the most useful because they continue to challenge our methods, and teach us more about what our customers want,” Charlo Carabott, managing director of Mazuma Mobile, a mobile phone recycling company told bbc.com.

Research suggests when retailers replied to negative reviews on social media and online ratings sites, a third of those customers either deleted their original negative review or replaced it with a positive review according to SmallBizTrends.

Some tips on how to deal with negative reviews from Groovehq.com.

If you already have some positive customer reviews, create a chart or a poster of the reviews and post it in your shop where other customers will see it. Just seeing what others have to say, can help get other customers motivated to add their own comments.

Perhaps the best and easiest way to collect great online review for your bike rental is to make certain you deliver the highest customer service each and every time.  Impress them and they’ll look for ways to rave about you to others.

Positive reviews don’t just happen. They are mainly the result of great customer experiences.

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