.png)
Announcements
Q3 Product Updates: Increasing Efficiency and Leveraging AI for REVIEWS.io Users
September 26, 2023
•
4 min read
In this post we'll take each of the features of REVIEWS.io and dissect them in further detail, explaining how they'll help your business. You'll find hyperlinks dotted throughout this post which will take you to other posts explaining each feature in more depth, so feel free to take a look at those as well.
Company Reviews increase your sales. Having company reviews is essential if you want to become a market leader. Our easy to set-up solution helps you turn more visitors into customers.
Take control of your online reputation with REVIEWS.io's Reputation Manager. This feature allows you to monitor and respond to reviews across multiple platforms such as Google, Trustpilot and Yelp - all from one centralized dashboard.
Why is this important for your business? Potential customers often find reviews on third-party sites before visiting your website. Even if you have excellent reviews on REVIEWS.io, inconsistent or negative reviews elsewhere can drive customers away.
With Reputation Manager, you can ensure that your online reputation is consistent and positive across various platforms, helping to boost trust and visibility. By actively managing your reviews, you can protect your brand’s image and increase your chances of turning positive feedback into loyal customers.
Let REVIEWS.io help you stay on top of your reputation and respond quickly to customer feedback.
Further reading:
The Complete Guide to Online Reputation Management
Reputation Management Announcement
One of the most valuable outcomes of review collection is eligibility for Google and Bing Seller Ratings - those eye-catching stars that appear in paid search ads, Google Shopping, and even YouTube ads. These ratings boost trust at a glance and can increase ad click-through rates by up to 17%, improving overall ad performance and lowering cost-per-click.
Seller Ratings are displayed as stars underneath your search results. To get them, you need to collect 100 verified reviews in a rolling 24 month period.
It is only possible to show stars by collecting reviews, and only by collecting with a Google-licensed third party review platform such as REVIEWS.io.
Further reading:
The Ultimate Guide to Google Business Reviews
Google Seller Ratings Stars & Seller Ratings
Collecting reviews and sending them to Google is just the beginning. By displaying badges and review widgets on your website your customers will be able to see your overall review score and read your reviews without leaving your website.
Showing company reviews on your home page is a great way for your customers to quickly be reminded of the Seller Rating they saw in Google before clicking through to your site, while showing individual product reviews on your product pages will improve conversion from any organic or paid traffic to those pages.
Expert answers gives you the opportunity to differentiate from your competitors selling the same products by providing your expert knowledge to your customers.
Further reading:
Your Reviews Timeline is your all-in-one solution for managing your reviews in one location. Get detailed reporting on incoming reviews from REVIEWS.io and across third-party sites in one place, and use advanced filtering to segment reviews by type, date and rating.
Further reading:
Attract and retain customers with real product reviews to influence the buyer journey, and gain more website traffic and on-page conversion.
Further reading:
Our powerful yet user-friendly review collector gives your customers a simple, pain free way to quickly leave authentic reviews, without logging in. Your fully customized and A/B tested email invitation templates let you stay on-brand while enjoying phenomenal review conversion rates.
Further reading:
Get started quickly by sending a Review Booster to your clients. When you first get started with REVIEWS.io you can upload a .csv spreadsheet containing your customer details (just name, email address and order ID are required).
We'll send your customized review invitation email to these customers and you'll very quickly have verified reviews in your account within 24-48 hours or so. It's a great way to get your initial review total up at the beginning.
As all reviews are updated in real time, the badges and widgets on your site will quickly populate with recent review content.
Further reading:
Contact Past Customers with Review Booster
Using one of our eCommerce modules or by BCC (blind carbon copy) your order confirmation emails to us triggers the review invitation process automatically. This starts the countdown to when your review email (or SMS if you are using them) is sent to your customer.
Dynamic Links allow you to use your current email provider (and your own email address) to send out review collection invitations, rather than using REVIEWS.io's own email servers. Basically, if you'd prefer to use Klaviyo or similar, this is the feature for you.
You need a developer to help you out but in short, a link is created in your email (which you'll generally put on a call-to-action in the email saying "Review Us" or similar). Your developer will auto-populate this link with your customer name, email address and order ID, and by the time they arrive on our site to write you a review, we can identify them and verify their review automatically.
Further reading:
How To Set Up The Dynamic Link
SMS Review Collection means you can now collect reviews from customers who you have a mobile number for. Collection via SMS is 3x times more effective than email review collection and 80x more effective than a paper based review request.
Further reading:
With the REVIEWS.io Developer API, you can customize how you collect and publish reviews on your own site. We have developed our API to be easy to use - most competent developers should be able to get to grips with it very quickly. Using the API lets you leverage the power of Reviews on your site.
Further reading:
Photo and video reviews not only increase trust and traffic but they also help maximize conversion potential. We make it easy for happy customers to add their great photos directly to their online reviews.
Further reading:
Reviews Stars on Google Maps are possible when your customers with a Gmail Account writes a review on your local Google Business Profile. Google Local reviews are separate from the reviews collected on REVIEWS.io which are fed into Google for Seller Ratings.
Instead, Google Local reviews appear only in Google Local (maps) results, rather than in organic text listings and paid Google Ads listings. Google Local reviews are really important for any business who have a physical branch which accepts visitors.
Further reading:
Ultimate Guide to Google Business Reviews
Alongside Google Local Reviews, Check-a-Trade reviews are really important for local plumbers, carpenters, electricians, tree surgeons and any other small business relying on word-of-mouth to get new clients. The majority of busineses in these industries do not have an established online profile, so using REVIEWS.io to automatically manage your reputation online will get you greater visibility in your local area, and ultimately more bookings.
Further reading:
Your review invitation email is how you ask your customers for a review. It's important you make the most of the features available to you when creating and sending it because these will directly impact your conversion rate (the number of emails sent divided by the number of reviews collected).
You have a few options with the customized email. You may use our WYSIWYG editor to quickly put together a good-looking, branded email containing your logo and a message of your choice, or if you prefer you can fully customize it with HTML coding.
You have unlimited A/B testing available so you can practice with multiple messages and subject lines to maximize your conversion.
Finally, you may also choose how long after the order is placed that you send your review invitations.
You can (and should) create at least one email template for Company, Product and Third Party review invitations.
Further reading:
Create Your Custom Email Template
5 Awesome Review Collection Email Examples
The Review Collector page is the nuts and bolts of your company's review strategy. Once your customers clicks on the link in your Review Invitation (either by email or SMS), they're directed to this page to write the actual review.
The collector page allows your customers to choose a star rating, add their comment and submit their review, all without logging in.
You have the opportunity to add additional fields to the review collector page to collect additional and more specific feedback from your customers as part of the review process.
You have two review collectors available to you, one for product reviews and one for company reviews.
Further reading:
Company Review Collector Page
Collect actionable data from your review invites by adding custom questions. Gather insight on things like fit, quality, or service satisfaction to help inform future shoppers and improve product performance.
Attributes can be applied to product, customer, and company reviews - giving you more detailed feedback and your customers a more tailored shopping experience. They can also be published alongside reviews and used as filters to guide purchase decisions.
Further reading:
Review Attributes
Use Review Attributes to Capture Product Insights
Increase review collection conversion rates by offering your customers a Voucher Code for completing a review. Voucher codes are also a great way to increase sales with repeat customers.
Further reading:
Voucher Codes
You have unlimited email templates with which to test variables such as subject, wording, even CTA colours, to see which give you the best review conversion rates. We'd recommend keeping your emails short and to the point, well designed and using your own branding for consistency.
Further reading:
5 Awesome Review Invitation Email Examples
Create smarter email campaigns by setting conditions based on location, purchase history or customer behaviour. Use follow-ups, time delays and segmentation to increase response rates and gather more user-generated content - like images and videos from your happiest customers.
Further reading:
Flow Sequences
How to Create a Flow Sequence
Build trust and confidence by providing relevant information at the right time. Providing product reviews on your website means shoppers are more likely to convert when viewing your item, resulting in an average 18% uplift in sales.
Further reading:
The Benefits Of Collecting Product Reviews
How To Collect Product Reviews On Your Shopify Store
How Product Reviews Increase Google Shopping Conversions
Reviews are matched to products in your eCommerce platform inventory using unique identifiers (GTIN Number). Once collected, these reviews are uploaded as part of our Reviews Feed to Google. Google then uses product reviews to give the product stars in Google Shopping listings.
Further reading:
10 Ways To Fail At Google Shopping
Manage and respond to your customers in real-time all from one handy location, your Reviews Timeline. Solve any issues and thank customers for their praise. Engage with customers and you’ll be rewarded with their trust.
Further reading:
Reply to both positive and negative reviews directly from the REVIEWS.io dashboard. Engaging with your customers shows you value their feedback, so we recommend responding to as many reviews as possible. If you're limited on time or resources, make sure to prioritise replies to any negative reviews.
To make things even easier, our enhanced Auto-Generated Replies tool can help you deliver more personalised, on-brand responses at scale.
Further reading:
How To Handle Negative Reviews Online
How To Reply To Negative Reviews
Manually add order ID’s, invoice numbers and customer references.
Further reading:
Forward specific reviews to the relevant person or department so any issues can be dealt with quickly and hard work can be rewarded.
Further reading:
Manually change the SKU or GTIN numbers on products so they match better within Google Shopping & Product Listing Adverts. This gives you full control to ensure that reviews are correctly attributed to your product catalogue.
If you've received a negative review and have successfully resolved your clients issue, you can ask them to revise their review.
Automatic review tagging allows you to automatically apply tags to your reviews which help you filter and categorise your reviews. You can filter your reviews by tag in your dashboard's Timeline, our API and our Reviews Widgets.
Further reading:
Give shoppers a fast, frictionless way to understand what others are saying with the AI Review Summary widget.
It uses natural language processing (NLP) to condense all your product reviews into a short, balanced paragraph - giving customers instant insight without having to scroll through every review.
Summaries appear at the top of your reviews and highlight common themes like quality, comfort, or ease of use. Shoppers can also filter reviews by specific attributes to find what matters most to them.
It’s an easy way to reduce decision fatigue, build trust, and boost product page conversions.
Further reading:
Expert Answers is a Q&A software that directly increases your conversion by enabling you to provide useful answers to questions from your potential customers. Answer questions directly on your product pages and potentially get more conversions.
Further reading:
4 Ways Reviews Positively Impact Your Customer Journey
Turn your company review score into a dynamic email signature and display your Reviews widget directly in all your outgoing emails.
Further reading:
Create high-converting shopping experiences with our shoppable UGC galleries. Curate and showcase real customer content - photos and videos - into dynamic galleries that inspire action.
Place them on your homepage, product pages or key landing spots to drive discovery, social proof and conversion all at once. Choose from multiple layout options, customize design elements, and turn passive browsing into active buying.
Further reading:
Combine & Manage UGC into Shoppable Galleries
Transform your best review content into shareable, eye-catching visuals with the Social Proof Editor. Create on-brand banners for social media, ads, or website placements using top-rated reviews and user-generated content.
Whether you want to boost trust with a glowing testimonial or highlight product features with real photos, the editor makes it easy to craft professional, conversion-boosting creatives in just a few clicks.
Further reading:
Master your reputation and act on customer feedback using our innovative reporting toolset. By understanding your customers you can gain valuable insight into sentiment. Take action with useful, measurable review statistics and improve your products and service based on genuine customer feedback.
Further reading:
Analyzing customer reviews can be time-consuming, but with our AI Assistant, it’s fast and easy. Simply ask the AI Assistant any question about your reviews - whether it's identifying product issues, customer service feedback, or areas for improvement - and get instant, actionable insights.
It helps you quickly uncover patterns and trends, so you can make informed decisions to improve your business. Available across all plans, this tool makes review analysis simple and efficient, saving you time to focus on what matters most.
Further reading:
AI Assistant Announcement
Gain clarity, improve strategy, and deliver better experiences.
Surveys give you a deeper understanding of your audience, so you can deliver more relevant messaging and make smarter product and marketing decisions. Use pre-built templates or create custom surveys to capture behaviour, preferences and motivation at every stage of the journey.
You can even trigger post-purchase surveys directly at checkout on Shopify, making it easy to gather timely, high-intent feedback without disrupting the customer journey.
Further reading:
Customers Surveys Announcement
10 Examples of Great Customer Surveys That Drive Better Responses
Place short surveys at key touchpoints on your site - like product or checkout pages - to uncover what drives customer behaviour. Segment surveys by URL, and use the insights to personalise messaging and offers, or guide product development.
Automatically follow up a customer review with an additional survey. Gather deeper feedback on their purchase, delivery experience, or brand perception - all while engagement is at its highest.
Further reading:
Post Review Surveys
Create adaptive surveys that respond to how a customer answers.
Ask follow-up questions based on satisfaction level to uncover detailed and actionable feedback, making every response more meaningful.
Further reading:
Introducing Conditional Questions
By creating modules that install straight into your eCommerce platform, integrating a review collection solution has never been easier. We support all the major eCommerce platforms (Shopify, Shopify Plus, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Prestashop, Volusion & Wordpress) and our solution will also integrate into any other platform you are using (even custom platforms).
Below, you'll find some of our key integration partners, but this is just a small selection from a much wider range. Our platform is built to be flexible and extensible, supporting a vast ecosystem of integrations to suit your specific tech stack.
Further reading:
Reviews supports Magento 1 and Magento 2. Plugins can be installed through the Magento Connect directly. See the following articles for full information.
Further reading:
Tap into the power of product reviews to drive purchases on TikTok Shop. Our integration lets you syndicate existing verified reviews collected through your online store to corresponding products on TikTok. These reviews appear directly within the product detail pages (PDPs), alongside any native TikTok reviews.
With 30.5% of TikTok users ranking product reviews as the most influential factor in their buying decisions - above price, video content, and social engagement - you can launch with confidence and build trust instantly. No cold start. Just social proof where it matters most.
Further reading:
TikTok Shop Integration Announcement
Power smarter email and SMS campaigns with REVIEWS.io and Klaviyo. Sync review data and customer attributes to create highly targeted, personalized messaging.
Use segmentation and sentiment analysis to enhance customer journeys and drive better engagement with every send.
Further Reading:
Connect REVIEWS.io with Influence to combine loyalty and review strategies. Reward customers for sharing content, drive brand advocacy, and grow your loyalty member base - all with a seamless integration that brings together social proof and incentives.
Further reading:
Drive Long Term Profitability with Reviews + Loyalty
Reviews supports Opencart versions below 1.5 and above 2.0.
Further reading:
WooCommerce and Wordpress are supported using the official Reviews plugin available from the Wordpress plugin repository.
Further reading:
Follow our integration guide to install Reviews into your Prestashop eCommerce site.
Further reading:
If you're using a custom eCommerce package or one which does not have a specific Reviews plugin, you can integrate Blind-carbon-copy emails to allow automatic review collection. It's simple to set up and lets you tell us when you have confirmed a customer order. We then send your customized review invitations using this data.
Follow our integration guide to install Reviews into your BigCommerce eCommerce site.
Further reading:
Follow our integration guide to install Reviews into your Volusion eCommerce site.
Further reading:
Enhance customer support by syncing REVIEWS.io with Gorgias. Automatically generate tickets for new reviews, questions, and survey responses.
View detailed customer data and respond directly via the REVIEWS.io widget within Gorgias - making it easy to manage feedback and maintain high-quality support from a single dashboard.
Further reading:
Boost conversions on your Shopify store by combining REVIEWS.io with Boost Commerce’s advanced search and filtering. This integration enhances product discovery and showcases verified reviews, building trust and guiding customers from search to purchase. With personalized search results and visible star ratings, you can boost shopper confidence and drive higher sales.
Further reading:
Boost Commerce Integration Announcement
The Reviews API allows your developers to customize a wide range of aspects of the Reviews platform, from individually-created on-page widgets to the way your emails are sent, to how Reviews integrates with your in-house systems. For more details and an API reference, visit our support pages.
Further reading:
Integrate Reviews into your Zendesk helpdesk software and you'll be able to track incoming reviews as tickets in Zendesk. You'll be able to respond to reviews just as you would any normal ticket in Zendesk using our built-in Reviews panel within Zendesk.
Further reading:
With Intercom Engage, you can contact your website visitors and single out specific web visitors for review requests, or alternatively manually request reviews from within your Intercom live chat while speaking to your customers. The Reviews integration for Intercom requires the Intercom Engage module.
Further reading:
Intercom Feature Announcement
Review notifications directly in your chosen Slack channel.
Further reading:
