Research Insight | Want Better Reviews? Tell Customers to Write Like They’re Talking to a Friend
Online reviews present a persistent challenge for marketers, as firms have very limited control over the quality and effectiveness of these reviews. According to a Journal of Marketing study, simply instructing consumers to imagine writing a review for someone close to them—such as a friend or family member—significantly improves the narrative style and persuasive power of reviews. Subtly prompting customers with instructions during review solicitations, such as “tell us about your experience as you would tell a close friend,” is a small intervention that significantly enhances review quality, increases consumer engagement, and leads to better outcomes for businesses through heightened persuasiveness and stronger customer attraction.
This occurs because people naturally communicate in more engaging, effortless storytelling methods when envisioning a close audience, leading to reviews that are more relatable and compelling to prospective buyers.
For example, if restaurant customers were prompted simply to “write a review,” their descriptions might focus merely on factual aspects like food quality and service speed. In contrast, if encouraged to “imagine writing to a close friend,” these same reviewers would be more likely to craft vivid, narrative-driven accounts, recounting memorable interactions or emotional responses that resonate more strongly with future diners.
The strategy does have its limits though. Narrative prompts prove more effective for experiential purchases such as restaurant visits or travel experiences than for material goods like clothing or electronics. Such prompts are also less effective when reviews are written on smartphones rather than PCs.
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What You Need to Know
- Prompt consumers to imagine a close friend or family member when writing reviews to naturally enhance storytelling quality and persuasiveness.
- Avoid direct instructions to “tell a story,” as these can reduce consumer willingness to write reviews; subtle prompts about close audiences are more effective.
- Use narrative-style customer testimonials in promotions to effectively attract new customers and improve customer acquisition rates.
Abstract
Marketers know the importance of online reviews, but what can be done to improve the prompts asking consumers to review? Across eight studies, the present work shows that a prompt that encourages writing reviews for a close audience enhances consumers’ use of narrative language. A growing body of literature reveals that narratives are powerful persuasive devices for shaping audiences’ beliefs, including when reading online reviews. However, little is known about what aspects shape the communicator’s use of narrative language in the first place. A prompt that encourages writers to imagine as though they were writing for a close audience increases narrativity, an effect mediated by consumers’ tendency to write in a natural, less effortful style when writing for a close (vs. distant) audience. The effect is attenuated when people write about material (vs. experiential) purchases, and when people write on a smartphone (vs. PC). Consumers find writing for close others to be at least as enjoyable as several other prompts, but with improved outcomes for firms. As most review sites provide limited guidance on how to write, this research offers an inexpensive and scalable intervention to improve reviews and the review writing experience.
Anne Hamby, Brent McFerran, and Christie Fuller, “The Power of Proximity: Exploring Narrative Language in Consumer Reviews,” Journal of Marketing. doi:10.1177/00222429251336706.