We all love seeing those 5-star reviews come in from our shoppers. Sometimes though, they can seem far and few between – especially in the early days when you really want them to help boost your credibility in the online marketplace.
When I asked on Instagram, over 70% of you answered that you don’t have any after-practices in place and that you’re just hoping they will come back and leave you a review. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work like that!
This goes without saying but don’t sell something you wouldn’t be happy with yourself. In such a competitive marketplace, there is no room for mediocre effort. When you have great products and care about your customer’s experience, they sense that and will often want to leave a review because they found a really great product that made them happy. Don’t sell things just to sell them. Your products should be a reflection of what your customers actually want and need. Focusing on what your customers like will help you have more sales and more sales over time equals more reviews.
You start working for that review as soon as a question comes in beforehand, or once an order is made. Quick responses on Etsy go a long way. Set the tone for your shop and answer promptly, be friendly and provide any information you think is relevant to the situation. Etsy has a stigma that sellers never answer questions or take forever to reply. You should have the Etsy app and always be aware as soon as you get a message. I speak from experience on how many messages and even reviews I have had over the years of people thanking me for my quick response time. It matters to shoppers and sets the buyer-seller relationship/first impressions. Most customers will shop without any interaction so you should have a thank you message going out to anyone who makes a purchase. This can be automated on the back end of your shop dashboard, or depending on the volume of sales/time you have (what is realistically possible) a manual personalized message can be sent after purchase.
We have all had a hard to deal with customers or less-than-perfect reviews. If you haven’t yet, you will, it’s inevitable. But these can be great opportunities to get good reviews and gain helpful feedback. There are usually 2 scenarios. A customer reaches out directly and is mad/unpleasant or they head right over and leave you a bad review without even reaching out(that’s the worst). The first reaction to either is usually to be really upset and mad at the customer because you know you put a lot of hard work into your products and some things are out of your control. (You might also know that no, the customer isn’t always right). However, you have to set your emotions aside and take a breather before you respond. We sell on Etsy to serve the people and this is a perfect opportunity to change a bad experience into a good one. Do not leave angry customers on read or leave bad reviews unanswered. Take it as a challenge to change their attitude. I haven’t had that many less than 5-star reviews personally but I’ve had a few. I always do what I can to make it right. I’ve changed 1-3 star reviews into a 5 based on customer service and communication, even returning shoppers. Letting the customer know that their experience is your top priority goes a long way. Figure out what they are upset about, work out a solution together, and once you do, add to your conversation that you are happy you were able to solve the issue for them and that you value them as a customer and let them know you would love to see a positive review left from them. Remember you are running a business and sometimes you will have to resend an item and take a loss out of pocket but for as often as it actually happens, put it in the budget and prepare for mishaps. When you start looking at customer negativity as a positive challenge, you become so skilled in the customer service aspect of your business and the good reviews that come from these situations are so rewarding.
As I mentioned you can send personalized messages if you want to send manual responses to your shoppers, however, most of us do opt for the auto message. If you are not using this feature, finish reading then go turn it on. Etsy Dashboard > Settings > Info + appearance > scroll down. There is a digital and physical section to include your thank you note. Use this section to thank your shoppers, share any important info you want to get across like an email list they can join, certain offers, socials they can find you on etc. Include in here a quick reminder to please come back share a review as you love to know they were happy and it helps your shop and other shoppers – or whatever you want to say. You can also include a note that if for any reason they are less than 5 star satisfied to please reach out before leaving a review as you are on top of your inbox and here to help. Their experience is your top priority. (Some shoppers actually leave reviews to get your attention assuming you won’t answer a message, this has happened to me more than once?!) Not everyone will read this or remember it, but if there is a built-in prompt available, use it! Example to use below!
Most small businesses send out some kind of banding/packaging insert in their orders. This is a great place to include a reminder to come back and leave a review. If you don’t have much branding or fancy inserts right now, it’s okay. Even a simple reminder to leave a review works here. This simple gesture can remind your customer to hop back on their Etsy and they will either get the pop-up to do a review, or go back to their purchase tab and find their order with you. With physical orders, most shoppers won’t leave a review until they have the product so this is the best way to remind them that you would love to hear from them! I sell generic but super cute thermal label designs you can get and print for review reminders either with a thermal printer or just on sticker paper with print then cut in design space. These are great inside or out of your packaging. 👇 You can shop mine here.
This is number one on the list because most people simply overlook the basics – Bring some human interaction into your transactions. You can steal my wording below! This goes for both digital and physical shops. For digital, I would say pick a day of the week and dedicate a little time to quickly go through your completed orders. Check if they have been downloaded then send them a quick follow up including a thank you and a prompt for a review. A quick copy-and-paste message with a simple personalization works great here. I used to do this when I first launched my shop and you either get a review, sometimes a nice message, or no response. It’s worth a shot. Digital items are bought and downloaded so quickly without any other interaction that reviews are easily overlooked so reaching out is a great reminder. With physical items, we hope once the customer receives their product it would remind them to go leave a review, but not all shoppers think that way especially if they don’t run a business themselves. The sticker/packaging reminders go a long way here but if you want to reach out to try and increase your reviews, you absolutely should. You can make this a routine habit on a certain day of the week or just keep track of your delivery notifications then reach out in a day or two. Always allow time for the buyer to receive and get to opening their package first. I left an example below of a simple follow-up. Go ahead and copy and paste this and edit it for your orders or use it as a guide.
STEAL MY WORDING IF YOU NEED IT
FOLLOW UP DIRECTLY
Hey [NAME],
Thanks so much for your order! I hope you’re loving your [PRODUCT NAME]. If you have any questions, I’m always here to help.
If you’re happy with your order, I would love if you could leave me a review by going to www.etsy.com/your/purchases
Every review really helps my business on the Etsy platform.
Again, thank you so much for your purchase.
Have a great day,
[YOUR NAME]
AUTO MSG IN ETSY SETTINGS
Thank you so much for supporting my small shop!
[if you have coupon codes or a website, mailing list, anything you want them to know you can add it here]
⭐️Please come back and share a positive review, I would love to know you were happy!
⚠️I’m sure you will be completely satisfied, but PLEASE reach out if you are feeling anything less than a 5-star satisfied. I’m here to help, your experience is my top priority!
Have a good day,
[your name]
[your socials]
What’s most important to remember you can have amazing products, great customer service, and do all the other little things and despite your best efforts, you’ll notice many customers still won’t leave a review. That’s just how it is, and that’s okay. I know how important reviews feel especially in the beginning and how much of an impact Etsy makes us think they have on our shops. Some people really stress about the number of reviews they have vs. sales so I just wanted to remind you to focus on creating products your customers love. Focus on keeping up with demand and putting your best work forward. Reviews will come naturally over time. The more sales you have the more happy customers you have and that on its own will get your reviews growing over time. The majority of the time, people don’t comment unless they are unhappy about something so don’t stress over those numbers, they will go up as you grow!
Don’t send more than one follow-up, it’s spammy.
Never argue with a customer regarding their review. Reach out, try to understand the reason behind the review and come to an agreement. You won’t be able to please everyone so know when to walk away from the conversation and let it go.
Offer free product or discounts in exchange for reviews. We’ve seen it being done, but just don’t. That’s a bribe and such a bad look for your business!
2 thoughts on “How To Get More Reviews On Etsy”
I love your Etsy posts and they are actually the first ones that actually give some valuable information that will really help me. Also your writing style really suits me!!
Thank you so so much!
Also for your last sentence about the bribing for reviews, maybe good to mention that this is also against the Etsy policy and could move them to close your shop.
Thanks again, Love
Sabine and service dog Finley
Hi Sabine, I’m glad you found this helpful! You are absolutely right, it definitely is against Etsy policies. (bad for any type of business!) Too many shops do this, not something I would ever try.
Comments are closed.