7 Tips to Write Effective Customer Reviews

Writing reviews can be powerful. Would-be customers rely on well-written online reviews from others before making their own purchasing decisions. While we understand that writing a review is important, knowing how to make your feedback as useful as possible may not be intuitive. 

We have a vast number of reviews on PissedConsumer, so we know a great deal about the art of their successful crafting. To showcase the effective ways to write a review, we’ve listed our best tips and great review examples below. 

Key Insights:

• Be specific when you write a review so that others can understand the details of your experience.
• Make sure customer reviews include relevant details, pros and cons about experiences to give an honest assessment. 
• Adding images and videos is one of the crucial things when you write effective customer reviews.

How to write a great customer review that will stand out and bring valuable assets to a review community? Consider the following essential steps.

• Provide relevant details
• Add images and videos
• Be honest
• Be constructive and respectful
• Highlight pros and cons
• Proofread the review
• Update the review

1. Provide Relevant Details and Be Specific

The first step in knowing how to write a review is simply understanding what to include. Your focus as you write a review needs to be on the issue – not a rambling collection of details that aren’t relevant to the situation at hand. A solid online business review will stick to the subject and not distract readers with unnecessary or irrelevant information. 

 A good review includes specific details like the time and location as well as details about the incident. Here is a review that meets these demands and provides customers and the company with helpful information:

The poorly written review isn’t easy to understand as it doesn’t contain enough details. They are usually too short to be very useful. Though customers indicated some basic information, such reviews doesn't offer constructive feedback for the business to enhance its operation. 

So, in a solid customer service review, be sure to include:

• Location.
• Time and date.
• A clear account of what happened.
• Suggestions for improvement or tips for other readers. 

2. Add Images and Videos

It’s hard to argue with a picture of a problem. Individuals who know how to do a review realize that when you add images to a posted online review, you’re not just talking about an issue, you’re showing it, too. Adding images or creating a video interview about your situation provides a richer experience for readers and viewers – they can see the problem and understand your frustration. If your complaint is about a complex situation or one that is ongoing, a video interview may be the best way to discuss the issue fully.

3. Be Honest and Truthful

When you write a  review, you should be honest and truthful. Avoid the tendency to exaggerate situations or leave out key details when you post about a situation. It’s natural to have strong feelings and to describe a situation from your own perspective, but distorting the truth in a customer review is unethical at best and fraudulent or malicious at worst. 

Be mindful of the legal aspects of reviews to be sure you aren’t making a bad situation worse. However, if you focus just on your own genuine experiences, thoughts, and feelings about the case, you’ll be helping others to avoid potential issues with honesty. 

4. Maintain a Constructive and Respectful Attitude

While it’s important to add details to a review, you want to write concisely and avoid using slang or insulting phrases that muddy the message of your feedback. Attacking an employee personally can also cause issues in a review. 

For example, one frustrated customer left a Blue World Pools review that barely mentioned many issues, but he did not explain how the company might resolve them. Instead, he focused on calling the company liars. The review may serve as a warning for others, but it reads as an attack rather than a helpful collection of information. 

On the other hand, a customer at Popeye’s was polite, explained their situation clearly, and identified all their issues. The reviewer expressed the preferred solution and provided users with specific recommendations.

On the other side of that same issue, avoid revealing too much about yourself. Online reviews feel personal, but they are about a situation – not someone else’s personal details or yours. You don’t need to leave your home address and phone number online to resolve an issue with a company. Make an account with a review site like PissedConsumer to monitor your reviews, and you can choose how to reply discretely to protect your personal information.

5. Highlight Both Pros and Cons

In the Popeye’s review above, the customer did an excellent job of including both positive and negative feedback. She noted that the employees were friendly and helpful, but that the food that was served was terrible. This is a great tactic to help others when writing a review. 

Share what the company does well and where they need to improve. The business can use that feedback to improve their services (because many companies absolutely read their own reviews, even if they don’t respond online), and other would-be customers will appreciate and trust the balanced review. Avoid focusing too narrowly on just one side of a particular issue.

6. Proofread Your Review

You always want to look your best, and that includes when you’re writing reviews online. Make sure that the review you’re posting and leaving is your best work, that has proper punctuation and appropriate grammar. Checking over your spelling or at least reading through what you’ve written before posting can’t hurt, only help!

7. Update the Review If Needed

Hopefully, things will improve somehow after you’ve posted your review. But even if they get worse, you can let others know by updating your original message. It’s easy to update reviews on the PissedConsumer website if there winds up being more to the original story you posted about. And if you have a new incident with the same company, you can also leave a review that is brand new about that experience. 

Online reviews are essential. They are helpful for potential customers who are thinking about working with a new company and are a great way to share feedback with businesses that need a bit of improvement. While we always hope that a company will respond to a review and help remedy a bad situation or thank you for leaving feedback about a good one, even if you never hear from them, your well-written review will help others make their purchasing decisions and they appreciate your efforts.