We all like to believe we’re a trustworthy source, especially when providing trust in our brand for current and potential customers. But are your practices actually meeting standards?
If you haven't read Part 1 to increasing trust surrounding your company, do so now! It's not imperative to understanding Part 2, but if you truly want to recognise what promotes customer trust and start crystallising your strategy, you need to appreciate and abide by all 5 key questions (where possible for your business).
Here's a reminder:
1) Do you protect your customers economic interests? Part 1
2) Can customers easily post, and see other reviews, on your website? Part 2
3) Are employee incentives aligned to encourage customer trust? Part 3
4) Are you competent in delivering quality services? Part 4
5) And are you competent in providing good customer service? Part 5
This blog will cover review collection, publication, and responding to reviews in order for your business to truly live up to the image you portray and sell to your patrons.
Our favourite topic! Review collection and publication gives future customers a peer reviewed idea of your business, and who better to trust than satisfied post-customers who have trialled your services?
It's so easy to start collecting by simply asking your customers if they're happy to leave a review. Through custom email invitations, you can tailor your emails to your company's image, making your invitations and brand congruent. Asking implies openness, you want to hear your customer's opinion, no matter which way they lean. Openness evokes trust.
There's no harm in asking, like some may believe, so why not reach out to a large variety of people who may be pleased with your services? Research has found that customers who are actively asked leave more positive reviews, and these reviews are considered less biased.
This lack of bias is due to the isolation of a review collection survey, and if anything, produces more trustworthy and accurate ratings of your products or services. Tick no.1 for trust, simply by asking for reviews.
To ground that trust, you need to clearly display your reviews on your website. This doesn't have to be overwhelming and take away from your products or services, reviews can be displayed using widgets and your rating visible using a trust badge.
At Reviews.co.uk we have an assortment of widgets to choose from including: carousel, vertical, floating, photo, and product widgets, to meet different website needs. Allowing consumers to assess your services by exhibiting the experiences of previous customers, enables them to form an accurate representation of your company, creating trust.
A great way to broaden that scope is to utilise those reviews that create your Seller Ratings, and get those stars to appear in Google results too. Trust isn't just limited to your webpage, but an initial search. This rating can instantly be seen by your potential customers leaving them more informed, and trust established, before they even visit your site. Tick no.2.
The only way your Seller Ratings can appear in Google is through a licensed Google Review Partner. You can check out our solutions further by visiting our homepage, and consider joining us to showcase those stars, as seen in the example below.
Review partners are able to manage your reviews so that fake, abusive, or spam reviews are moderated, and only genuine, honest, reviews are verified are published.
Legitimate reviews should never be deleted, and if with a Licensed Review Partner, actually can't be removed unless they meet the criteria mentioned. By publishing all reviews, positive and negative, you are transparent to your customers.
Counter-intuitively, a few negative reviews actually increase trust. Negative reviews provide a dialogue for you to respond and offer help, offer insights into any short-fallings, and allow future patrons to see you're active when things go wrong and are taking efforts to better your services.
If you don't believe me, (although I hoped we were building trust, blog by blog) the figures don't lie: 68% of consumers trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores, and 52% of buyers say they trust a product more if they have a few negative reviews.
You can check out our blog post dedicated to negative reviews, and how they're actually your friend.
The bottom line is, all reviews - if genuine - allow your customers to promote your products or services, and enables potential customers to make an assessment - either through the review or your responses to such - before plunging into a purchase themselves.
Assuredly, 105% of people are more likely to make a purchase when visiting a site and interacting with reviews. Winner-winner, tick no.3. You get the idea.
Reviews are your elderly neighbour, that man at the bus stop you always see on your way to work, the lady from HR who's always smiling, your son's best friend, and you. They are real experiences, not an advertising creation, and build trustworthiness surrounding your company from social proof.
I hope this second instalment was as helpful as the first. If you haven't already, read the rest of the questions and their qualifiers to pique your interest further. If nothing else, they should give you an inkling to get the building blocks for a trust strategy going, before part 3.
Get ready for the next post in which we’ll go over incentives and trust, I look forward to then!
To find out more about the benefits of reviews, head to our homepage, or click the button at the top of this page and sign up to a free trial. You can also check out our other blog posts to find more advice, tips, and great topics.
