With the right strategies in place, you can take far greater value from your investment in review collection. So here’s a look at five benefits you might not be aware of, and the tools you need to leverage them.
Reviews have come a long way since the early days of eCommerce, both in how they’re submitted and how they’re consumed. What we’ve seen over the past couple of years is the rise of the video review - a short, visual snapshot of the post purchase experience. A major benefit for you as a business here is that you can actually see how your products are being used.
More than just feedback on item specifics, video shows you exactly how a product fits into a customer’s lifestyle. That’s a valuable perspective that can inform product development, help you better understand your target market, and steer your advertising in a more profitable direction.
At first, we wanted to collect video reviews to post over our socials but we did not realise how much valuable data we’d actually be able to gather. We found out where our customers set up their spa and how often they use it which was key for informing our marketing strategy
Tom Jeffery - Managing Director, Wave Spas
We recently launched our Video First feature to make gathering this insightful UGC that much easier. By sending your own video to request a review, and including a tips video on the best way to go about it, you can encourage content that lets you into the lives of your target market. As a bonus, video reviews make for great social media marketing assets.
Ecommerce was once about convenience. Then it became a necessity, and that completely shifted the consumer mindset. Though our high streets are back up and running, the choices that now exist online mean many customers continue to shop there. The challenge for eCommerce brands is delivering the personalised experience those customers are now looking for.
There’s a lot of solutions for personalisation, but one you might not have thought of is adding customer and product attributes to your reviews, just like lingerie brand Nudea. Its use of our Review Attributes feature - which involves asking customers to state their bra size and rate the fit of their purchase - gives the reader context. Shoppers can base their decision on the experience of someone they can personally relate to (i.e. someone of the same size).
Attributes can be tailored to whatever market you’re in, and because you’re giving them more of the information they need, customers are far more likely to convert. They’re also more likely to make the right choices first time round, saving you money on returns.
A review is a judgement on your business, so it’s perfectly understandable that you might want to turn a blind eye to anything unfavourable. But in truth, those reviews of three stars or less are just as beneficial to your business as the glowing fours and fives. Why? Because they tell you how to better meet the needs of your market.
Attributes come into play again here. If a product is consistently marked down in a particular area, you can feed that data back to the product development team and get the issue resolved. Or, you can use customer feedback to test the waters with a product launch, like Jimmy Joy does when it introduces a new flavour in its health food range.
You can also use review content to pick up on any service related issues, like delivery, refund procedures or customer service response times. Essentially, those reviews of three stars or less are your ‘how to do better’ notes from the people that matter most.
Sticking with the often feared negative review, we encourage brands to flip them into a positive by providing a level of customer service that goes above and beyond. You see, customers are used to having their complaints ignored - or worse still, being hit with a defensive response - so a genuine, helpful reply to a negative review is typically a welcome change.
It shows you’re accountable, responsive and accessible, which makes the complainant more likely to change their opinion (and potentially their review). This in turn is seen by other customers. Customers that use negative reviews for assurance that, should they encounter an issue themselves, you’ll do your best to resolve it.
It’s an often overlooked benefit that’s so easy to take advantage of. Just integrate your review solution with a customer support platform like Gorgias or Zendesk, and have your service team jump straight onto any tickets raised off the back of negative feedback.
Your reviews are doing wonders on your eCommerce store, but they could be working their magic at other customer touchpoints too. If you work with a Google Licensed Partner, you’ll boost your reputation with Stars and Seller Ratings. And since most purchases start with a search query, it’s a pretty important place to send those trust signals.
With our Reputation Management feature, you can carry that trust to any other online channel a potential customer might use to check you out. Facebook, Trustpilot, Amazon, Etsy, Yelp, Google Local - you can send a percentage of your reviews to a host of third-party platforms and benefit from a consistent star rating across the board.
So there you have it. Five benefits you might not have been aware of that are incredibly easy to leverage with our market leading solution. If you need more advice on any of our features or integrations, just drop us a line via your personal dashboard.
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