Request Modes: 3 Feedback and Review Request Options
Customer experience, feedback and online reviews are massively important to any type of business today. The best companies are proactive in engaging their customers and send them emails to request feedback and reviews to manage their reputation. Did you know that ReputationBuilder offers 3 different request formats (and endless options) for your review request email?
We do, and each one has it’s own specific purpose – to get you customer feedback (1st-party feedback), a 3rd-party review (Google, TripAdvisor) or both. These core 3 formats are known as our Request Modes and allow you to target your main goals while making the desired customizations in your email request process.
ReputationBuilder offers three Request Modes to easily capture feedback and reviews from your customers. This guide explains the capabilities of each request mode so you can understand which one is right for your business.
You will see following options when you login to your Reputation Management account at https://awd.reviewability.com/login
Let’s look at the 3 options our platform offers for email requests (we offer SMS/text too) and show you how to enable or create each one so that you can get the most out of ReputationBuilder and your interactions with your customers.
Option-1 Ultimate Request Mode
This is the feedback request email format that allows you to capture the full amount of customer experience data our platform has to offer. Both 1st-party reviews (direct customer feedback) and 3rd-party reviews are requested along with the option of custom survey questions.
Example Ultimate Mode email request process and screens.
Ultimate Request Mode is a 3-step process for your customer so that you can quickly capture complete customer experience data for your business including:
- Net Promoter Score
- Optional Survey Questions
- Customer feedback (1st-party review/testimonial)
- Reviews on 3rd-party sites (choose 2-4 sites)
Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter Score is based on a response to this question:
How likely is it that you would recommend (your company/product/service) to a friend or colleague?
Customers select a rating of 0-10 with 0=Not likely and 10=Very likely and fall into one of the following categories:
Promoters (9-10): Likely to buy more, remain a customer for longer and make more positive referrals to other potential customers.
Detractors (0-6): Less likely to have positive buying and referral behaviors
Passives (7-8): Behavior falls between Promoters and Detractors.
The objective of NPS is to predict customer loyalty and claims to be correlated with revenue growth.
Optional Survey Questions
Ask your customer up to 4 additional questions using a 0-10 rating scale to gather more specific information than what the Net Promoter Score provides. It’s easy to add optional survey questions to Ultimate Mode.
Customer Feedback (1st-party Review/Testimonial)
Request customer feedback using Ultimate Mode to help you understand your customer’s experience and alert you of issues that need follow-up.
You can also use customer feedback as a 1st-party Review/Testimonial. Display these reviews on your website and add valuable schema to impact SEO using available widgets.
Reviews on 3rd-party Sites
Request 3rd-party reviews from your customers. Choose up to 4 sites from over 100 online review sites, such as Google and TripAdvisor, to include in your request.
A 3-Step Process for Your Customer
Step 1: Send a feedback request to your customer via email or SMS/text message.
- For email requests, customers select a Net Promoter Score rating in the email that links them to Step 2.
- For SMS/Text message requests, customers tap a URL that links them to Step 2 where they select a Net Promoter Score rating.
Step 2: A landing page is served that includes up to four optional survey questions and an open text field to generate customer feedback and 1st-party reviews (testimonials).
Step 3: After submitting feedback, customers are served a page that includes links to selected 3rd-party review sites. As a result of the rating received, a positive or negative page version is served.
Customer can also access the Ultimate Request Mode using TextBack, Feedback Locator, or Feedback URL.
Option-2 Review Request Mode
As some customers asked for a more direct route to obtaining 3rd-party reviews like Google reviews, we added Review Mode to the options. This mode is a more compact 2-step process with the email request asking the NPS question and the next step/page asking for the 3rd-party review. The consumer also has the option to leave you a 1st-party review directly if they choose to. This mode does NOT ask the customer for their comments or feedback in a step, so the only typing they do is to leave an online review.
Email review request using Review Mode.
Review Request Mode is a 2-step process to request:
- Net Promoter Score
- Reviews on 3rd-party sites (choose 2-4 sites)
2-Step Process for your Customer
Step 1: Send a feedback request to your customer via email or SMS/text message.
- For email requests, customers select a Net Promoter Score rating in the email that links them to Step 2.
- For SMS/Text message requests, customers tap a URL that links them to Step 2 where they select a Net Promoter Score rating.
Step 2: After selecting an NPS rating, customers are served a page that includes links to selected 3rd-party review sites. As a result of the rating received, a positive or negative page version is served.
Customers can also access the Ultimate Request Mode using TextBack, Feedback Locator, or Feedback URL.
Option-3 Direct Mode
Let’s get right to the point, it is Direct Mode after all. Direct mode allows you to ask for 1st-party and 3rd-party reviews right in the email request. It’s a 1-step process that allows the consumer to choose their path to leaving you review, whether at a review site like Google or as a feedback only clicking "Give Feedback" button.
Direct Online Review Request Mode Setup Options
Direct Online Review Request Mode Screenshot
(with internal feedbackl turned off)
Direct Mode
Direct Online Review Request Mode Flow Chart
Main focus: Put online review links right in front of your customer immediately and still offer a feedback route to capture 1st-party feedback at the consumers choice.
Why: If your only focus is 3rd-party online reviews, this puts that process in its fastest route. Going to Direct Mode when you have no idea on how any set of your customers generally feel about you might create a problem. We usually advise to use Ultimate Mode to start and once you have a good baseline of customer data and a high NPS you can move to Direct Mode.
Pros: What’s best about this version?
- The fastest way to request online reviews
- Review links in your very first email that follows up with the customer
- GIVE FEEDBACK button that hopefully an unhappy customer uses
Cons: You can’t capture Net Promoter Score or personalize the process for your happy and unhappy customers. You run the risk of putting a frustrated customer in the position to easily write a bad review. You lose the ability to capture customer feedback, good or bad, that can help you identify a problem, help save your customer, use in all marketing or push positive 1st-party reviews to your website with our Reviews Widget. You also can’t use the survey questions feature.
Set-Up: When you are in the location you want to manage, go to SETTINGS > REQUEST MODES> and then select DIRECT MODE from the mode options. Then use the main screen area to turn reminders on and off, edit the email content of each step, select email feature options and more.
Direct Request Mode is a 1-step process to request:
Because Direct Mode gives customers direct access to your online review profiles we recommend only businesses with a known NPS over 80 consider using Direct Mode.
1-Step Process for your Customer
Step 1: Send a feedback request to your customer via email or SMS/text message.
- For email requests, customers select an online review profile to then leave a review.
- For SMS/Text message requests, customers tap a URL that links them to the landing page where they can select an online review profile and leave a review.
Customer can also access Direct Request Mode using TextBack, Feedback Locator, or Feedback URL.
Make The Right Request
More than anything, the fact you are asking your customers for feedback and online reviews of any kind is a huge win. Most businesses fail to do this. Not you. We hope this post gives you a better understanding of the many options in ReputationBuilder for requesting feedback and online reviews using email.
In addition to email we offer many other methods to obtain reviews and feedback including text messages, short URLs, kiosk mode our multi-location locator and more. We hope this breakdown helps you make an informed decision and get the most out of your customer’s opinion of your business. It truly matters.