How can a business get more customer reviews and testimonials?

The very simple answer for this is to ASK. "Hey if you have a moment could you look us up on Google and give us a review?"

Place a link on your website ASKING: ( https://support.google.com/business/.../7035772?hl=en )

And once you start this.. RESPOND to each and every entry - good, bad, or indifferent

First, give the customer a great experience. This is KEY.

Second, for ONLINE businesses, it's easy. Just send the customer an email (shortly after their purchase) asking for their feedback.

Or, for OFFLINE businesses (with a physical location), you can print a reminder on their receipt, drop a flyer in their bag, or remind them (when they are at the register) to leave a review later.

(Tip: In addition to GMB, use yelp.com. For restaurants, yelp is ESSENTIAL.)

Third, respond to each comment. But be diplomatic -- even with the bad ones. (Note: I would suggest that you DO NOT PUBLICLY offer freebies -- or other compensation -- to people who submit bad reviews. It could ENCOURAGE copycats.)

Collecting testimonials is part of a much deeper topic called Reputation Management. But, GIVE, ASK, & RESPOND covers the process in 3 words.

John

Personally if it were me I'd give away products for free for review purposes
Small samples at least that way you can build customer testimony and in turn attract more sales !!

We reached out to all the existing customers for a positive business reviews and if they are not satisfied due to any bad/pending deliveries they can bring those to our attention first which can be solved on priority basis so that they can provide us a good positive, unbiased, informative, true review of the business operations.

We got a lot of positive reviews as a result and some negative feedbacks as well from which we learned a lot and further improved our business process and systems so that these bad reviews do not happen again.

I only have experience with offline reviews and book reviews.

We all get customers that praise our service. When someone is telling you how much they appreciate what you've done for them I just ask "Could you go online and leave a review on our Google listing for me when you get home?"

or "Could you take a minute right now and leave a review on Amazon?".

I always tell them where to leave the review, and that I would like it right now, before they forget. Certainly more than half the time, I get the review. and of course, it's a great one.

And I agree with a few of the others. Never offer an incentive for a review. Not of any kind.

Even if the customer means well, they may think they are helping you our by saying "He is such a great guy, he even gave me a discount for leaving this review!".

And as a few have already said, that's a good way to get your listing, or reviews dropped.

Added later;

When speaking at events, as soon as I left the stage, many people would come up to me and tell me how much they loved my talk. Every speaker gets this. I would just ask them right there is they would like to give me a couple of minutes on what they got from my speech. Of course, all were happy to oblige.

Even in my retail store, a customer would compliment me on our service. I'd just ask if they would be willing to say that on camera. Most were happy to help, and these short clips were used in online ads and on Youtube.

You can get customer reviews just by referring some one to another business .Another good way is by asking the customer afrer giving them good customer service .

You can even ask them to rate you on scale of 1 -10 etc . You might also want to incentivize them to boost their interest in giving you a customer review .So yes ask questions and get feed back .

Create an exceptional product/service -- something that People really love -- and more than likely a Person/Marketer will receive a lot of unsolicited testimonials.

2C

I would've argued this advice not so long ago, but use the command of the language to outline how they can leave a testimonial to show their sincere appreciation or encourage them to leave unbias and honest feedback.

Think about how many opt-in thank-you pages - instruct the recipient how to retrieve their download, goods, or what not's - by step-by-step simple instructions; "Be sure to whitelist our emails to insure future deliveries of gold, value, and tasty-tender morsels of nutritional brain food!"

Same difference... people love being under instruction, it's subliminally encrypted in most to feel normal being told what to do next(?)

Granted, most Warriors hate being told what to do, so we try to be polite to our own 'perceptive views" and telling others what to do - seldom is a position that someone who hates being told what to do, say, or think wants to do to others... but, statistically, I'd be inclined to guess, most people accept instructions daily, consciously-aware of it or not!

Nice question, is possible to find reviewers here on WF?

We ask for video testimonials at the end of our classes.
Some like to give, some feel uncomfortable on camera.
Also can ask to give a review of the service on Google.
I feel posting the video testimonials on our website help with getting more clients.

Give the quality service to the people that they love. That can give the businesses many original reviews and testimonials.

Post google my business post on regular basis.
Send email to customer and ask them for review.
Always reply your customer comment whether it is good or bad.

I have personally without realizing it become a Brand Ambassador for certain businesses.

Because I just observed how they went the extra mile for their audience/subscribers/end users.

During the Peak of the Pandemic Anik Singal of LURN and Nathan Barry of ConvertKit both offered Cash Payouts to Entrepreneurs experiencing a hardship and my jaw dropped.

It was all above board and very simple to apply for and cash straight to your PayPal.

Jeff Bezos had record profits during the Pandemic and DECREASED COMMISSIONS TO AFFILIATES....in a Pandemic.

It all matters in the mind with it comes time to making recommendations.

We are creating reviewers all the time whether we directly solicit them or not.

One way is to copy how FIVERR does it... Make customer feedback/review part of the delivery collection process

You could create a UX to prompt for reviews after the user has used your app/software for a while. Maybe an email?