There are two trends that are happening with online reviews.

1. reviews are getting shorter
2. reviews sound more positive today

A study of nine million reviews by ReviewTrackers found that the average length of a review has reduced by 65%. In 2010, the average length of a review was 600 characters, today, it is within the character limit of an expanded tweet, i.e. 200 characters or less. (Source) Compared to the 3.8 average star review that customers gave in 2010, today the average reviews rank is 4 stars and above. This translates into shorter and more overall positive-sounding customer reviews. And that can be quite a winning combo for your WooCommerce store.

Now, put on your thinking hat. What if, these shorter reviews could be a bit longer? Let’s say as much as the length of a microblog? What if you can convince your users to write longer more descriptive reviews with specifics about what they liked and disliked? Imagine the business impact that these positive reviews at length could create.

Better reviews provide your store real benefits, like:

• Better social proof
• Better online product SEO and more user-generated content
• In-depth product knowledge for interested buyers
• Advanced notice and help in Identifying areas where your products are falling short

But, how do you get your customers to write longer reviews? With mobile texting and tweeting ruling the roost, the old school method of long-form writing is taking a backseat. Nevertheless, here are some ways to convince your customers to write descriptive product reviews.

Getting it done: How to convince customers to write longer reviews

Getting a customer review is a difficult task on its own, and getting customers to write longer reviews is pushing the envelope. Nevertheless, it needs to be done.

Here is how.

Three great ways to encourage your customers to write longer reviews for your WooCommerce store are:

1. Ask questions
2. Make them participate
3. Request with CTAs

1. Ask questions

One reason why your customers may not be able to write longer reviews is probably because they do not know what to write about. Not everybody has an imaginative mind and a flair for writing. So, the onus is upon the business to draw out the reviews from them.

Questions can help with that. Questions that revolve around the utility of the product and also that have a personal touch can make your customers write longer reviews.

Here are some questions you can tweak to your advantage:

• How did you learn about the product? Website, email, social media, friend?
• Please tell us your story. What problem did the product solve?
• Can you tell us three things that you like the most about the product?
• If there is one thing that you want to be removed right away, what is it?
• Is there anything memorable about the product that you want to share with the world?

These questions can help break down a lengthy answer into small sections. They are easy to answer and also help bring out focused answers from the customer. You can send retargeting emails carrying questions or surveys that will help your customers to write descriptive reviews.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to write individual emails to your customers manually requesting them to write reviews. TargetBay’s Reviews and Q&A tool can automate this task for you. Every time a customer completes an order, TargetBay pops up a review request with options to give star ratings as well as descriptive reviews. You can integrate TargetBay with your WooCommerce store. It also fully integrates with several other eCommerce platforms including Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce.

2. Make them participate

Having customers tell their stories and their own reviews about a product is nice but frequently buyers have specific questions that need to be answered. Providing a Q&A capability like the one in TargetBay’s platform helps prospects who may have doubts. Letting your prospects ask questions to real users and letting them see real user replies is one of the best ways to help your prospects convert.

Of course, connecting past buyers to future prospects is a good way to create user-generated content about the product as well. It can easily double up as a FAQ section that can dispel most concerns about a product. Most importantly, many answers sometimes point out important features that may have been missed out in reviews.

Amazon also does this right with its ‘Customer Questions and Answers’ section.

3. Request with CTAs

CTAs are action-oriented. That is why marketers put in so much effort to create and position CTAs. The entire persuasion that a blog post or landing page creates is turned into action by a CTA. A CTA has the innate ability to tap into the inner psychology of a person and make them do something.

Undoubtedly, they can help customers write descriptive reviews too.

Consider these CTA texts:

• We like stories. What’s yours?
• Your insights can help someone buy better. Share all your thoughts.
• Less is NOT more. write generous reviews
• Don’t be shy, share your review!

Each one of these can help convince the customer to write a more thorough review.

Closing Thoughts

Customer reviews provide a better understanding of your product and how it is faring in the market. They significantly influence the buying decisions of interested prospects. The challenge lies in collecting reviews, and we all know it is not easy collecting customer reviews especially when there is no face-to-face interaction. All you can do is ask in a subtle manner. If you are running a WooCommerce store, tools like TargetBay’s WooCommerce product reviews plugin can give you an upper helping hand. TargetBay automates asking for reviews at the perfect time. With tools like TargetBay, you can AB test different CTAs and popups that can persuade your customers to write robust reviews for your store. Now is the time to Get Started improving your reviews.