People used word of mouth (W.O.M) to learn about products, companies, and services. But with the coming of the internet, things have changed, and consumers are thronging review sites to make their buying decisions.
As a software company owner, you sure know that your potential clients will visit these review sites to decide whether to buy your software or your competitor’s. While there are plenty of B2B review sites you should be on, one site you should give particular attention to is Capterra.
Capterra has been around since 1999 (so it’s highly reputable), and it focuses on software reviews, so not having an account here is synonymous with being a doctor and failing to join a doctor’s union—you don’t reap the benefits.
While it’s good to be on Capterra, simply having an account isn’t enough—you need to have reviews to be more attractive to potential customers.
The beauty is that it’s easy to get Capterra reviews and lay out your business for success. How do you do it? Here are ways on how to get reviews on Capterra.
Email your customers
Emails are probably the easiest way to kick-start your review collection journey. After all, you already have everything you need—the customer’s name, email address, and location.
And the beauty is, since the customers have been using your software, they will be more than happy to open your email to hear what you have to say.
When crafting the email asking for reviews, don’t use flowery language or be cheesy. Use the same language you use to communicate with them.
To avoid wasting their time, make the email short and include a link pointing to your Capterra profile.
Studies show that only a quarter of software users have reviewed the software they use, but this doesn’t mean they will bend over backwards to give you their feedback. Most of them will, in fact, ignore the message, especially if they don’t already have a Capterra account.
To overcome this, give your customers an incentive to substantiate opening an account and leaving a review. One great incentive you can give is a gift card.
Ask your blog readers to review you
Chances are, your customers also read your blog, and you can capture their attention and ask them to go to Capterra and leave you a review. A good way to go about it is to have a message such as “Using our product? Your feedback will help us serve you better. Please review us on Capterra and share your experience” at the end of your blog posts.
Most people read blogs in their free time, so they might spare a few minutes to create a Capterra account and let the world know about their experience with your software.
Show up in your software.
There is no better time to ask for a review than when people are already using your software. All you have to do is craft a pop-up message that asks your customers to rate your service. To increase the chances of success, be timely with your message.
An ideal time would be when a client has completed a project on your software. At this time, they are still ecstatic, and they will most likely leave you a favorable review.
When creating the pop-up, don’t be obstructive that you get in the way and prevent your customers from doing their work. Make it easy for them to close messages by having a close button.
When they close the request, give them a few weeks or months before asking them to review you again.
Even if you want a review, don’t be too persistent with the request. When a customer closes the request two times in a row, mute the request so it doesn’t show again.
Ask your customers to review you on a call
It’s common for software customers to have a toll-free support line to provide support for their programs. If you also have the line, you should consider asking for a review every time a customer calls.
Like with the other methods mentioned above, you need to be strategic about how you go about. Of course, you should wait until the customer has asked their question and are thoroughly satisfied with the given solution.
As you are about to conclude the call, tell them you would highly appreciate it if they can spare some time to give their feedback.
If they don’t have a problem, tell them you will send them a link in their email. You immediately send them an email reiterating the request and include a link to your Capterra profile.
Collect reviews during events
Do you regularly run events for your customers? This is a great time to collect as many reviews as you would want. All you need to do is to set up a stand (with laptops and tablets) and place a huge banner asking your customers to leave a review there. To raise more awareness about the stand, make announcements during the event asking your customers to head to the stand and give their feedback.
Ask for feedback during the onboarding process
Almost every software needs to be set up to work with a given business, and you can get valuable feedback during the setup process.
Since the customers are new and learning how to use the product and engage with your company, you stand to get unfiltered feedback that can be of major importance to your business.
As soon as the customers are through with setting up their business on your software, ask them how the experience was. To nudge them to leave a review, let them know that their feedback is highly valued, and it will help you serve them better or come up with better products in the future.
Ask for Capterra reviews as part of the NPS survey
A net promoter score (NPS) survey can be a gold mine for genuine customer reviews when done right. The premise with NPS is that if a customer has a propensity to refer your brand to a friend or colleague, they are satisfied with the service you provide.
To collect reviews during the survey, have a system to collect data on how happy the customers are and use this data to your advantage.
Once a customer states they are highly likely to recommend a friend or colleague to your software (by giving you a 9 or 10), push them to review your company on Capterra.
Ask for reviews on social media
Have you built a following on various social media platforms? You can ask your followers (who are likely your customers) to review you.
There are plenty of strategies you can use to ask for reviews. One of the ways is to share quotes from reviews left by other customers. You can also take screenshots of the prior reviews and ask your followers to leave theirs.
On Facebook, Instagram, and other image-centered platforms, use high-resolution images to capture the people’s attention and trigger them to leave a review.
Besides the quotes and images, have a link to your Capterra profile. Don’t ask people to review you on Capterra, then leave it to them to find the site and your company. You will lose them.
Have your link right in the message.
Ask for reviews from your forum
If you have a forum, tap into it and ask your customers to give their feedback. To increase their chances of leaving you a review, give them an incentive such as a gift card.
Valuable tips when dealing with reviews
Address negative reviews
Whether it’s on Capterra or any other review site, you will always receive negative reviews. Over 57% of people report they are likely to trust a company with a few negative reviews than one with only positive reviews, so negative reviews might be good for your business, but always move fast and address the issue before it gets out of hand.
When a customer leaves a negative review, address the problem the customer is experiencing and offer a solution. To protect your company’s image, don’t be negative in your reply, regardless of how scathing the customer’s feedback is.
Ignore trolls
Regardless of how hard you work to create the best product for your customers, you will have people that will pick anything to throw dirt on your brand. The key to maintaining momentum and not losing focus on the bigger picture is never being intimidated by the trolls. Simply ignore them.
Listen to what people are saying about your brand
Nobody can protect your brand like you can and you should do it will all your might.
Brand protection begins with keeping a close ear on what people are saying about you. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools you can use to your advantage.
These tools send you a notification whenever there is a mention of your brand, and it’s up to you to find out whether the feedback is positive or negative and address it accordingly.
Does Capterra pay for reviews?
Yes, it sometimes pays for reviews, but it does not solicit people to leave positive reviews. Rather, it incentivizes people to take action, leave a review, and educate people about a given software program.
Now and then, Capterra invites people to review software products they have used in the past. In most cases, it pays $10 for every review, and most people can leave a maximum of 10 reviews a month.
Capterra pays for the published reviews, and the funds are redeemable via gift cars or virtual visa cards.
Are Capterra reviews reliable?
Yes, Capterra reviews are 100% reliable, and you can rely on them to make your decision on the best company to buy your software.
While Capterra occasionally pays people to leave a review, the Capterra staff manually examines all reviews to ensure they are from verified sources and valuable. During the verification, Capterra verifies the reviewer’s identity, checks for any conflict of interest, and confirms that the review adheres to the site’s guidelines.
If Capterra finds a fraudulent review, it gets rid of it and removes the reviewer from future outreach campaigns. The reviewer can also be banned from leaving future reviews on the site.
From all the manual work done by Capterra, we can say that the reviews left on the site are genuine, and you can fully trust them.
Ready to collect Capterra reviews?
It’s without a doubt that Capterra reviews are vital for the success of your SAAS business, but you can’t get them by sitting pretty and waiting for things to happen—you have to take the initiative to collect them. Do you have the zeal to do what it takes to collect the reviews? Here is what you need to do:
Create a high-quality profile
Everything begins here. Before you ask people to leave you feedback, you need first to ensure your house is in order. Create a compelling description of your company and add high-resolution images and logo. If you have videos, add them too.
To have an easy time setting up your profile, talk to a Capterra representative to guide you through the process.
Get in touch with your customers.
Once the profile in place, you should reach your customers and ask them to leave a review. You can reach them via email, social media, or any of the above-mentioned ways. To increase the chances of them taking the time to create accounts and leave their feedback, give them an incentive.
Co-brand the customer outreach with Capterra
If you are having trouble collecting reviews, you can work with Capterra and send co-branded emails to your customers. Here you need to give Capterra your email list, and it will create professional emails and send them to your list. It will even offer your customers a gift card incentive and handle the payout!
To know about this arrangement, get in touch with Capterra.
Showcase the reviews
Collecting the reviews isn’t enough—you need to showcase them on your website to your potential customers. One way to do it is to use Score My Reviews, review management platform. The tool will automatically collect, monitor, and showcase Capterra reviews for the entire world to see.
