So you have an awesome product that you sell online and you want people to experience said awesome, right? But how will people know that your store, and the product you sell is in fact so awesome?! You will have to take certain powerfully inspired actions, and employ specific strategies to get the message of your “awesomeness” out there. Online customer reviews demonstrate that! To increase online sales it is vital that your customers provide positive reviews and feedback. Did you know that 90% of your customers are “Silent Satisfied Customer”, a.k.a. customers who are pleased with their experience but don’t choose to share reviews online. Therefore, it is important that you encourage them to provide their reviews. Today, I will be talking about 4 key ways in which you can encourage your customers to provide you with great reviews that will drive success for your online store.
Related: The Transition from Acquisition to Retention – It’s Do or Die
4 Steps for better Customer Reviews:
1. Rewarding Customers:
As a business owner you should be incentivizing action to get your customer to take that extra step and put in the effort to write a great review for your product. As mentioned previously, almost 90% of the customers don’t even bother writing reviews despite having positive shopping experiences. The better reward you offer the more reviews you will receive. Recently I purchased a pair of shoes from an online store based out of Calgary, they sent an email asking me to write a review, and let me know that in doing so I would get a 10% off my next order. Guess what? I was motivated to write a review and when I received my coupon code from them I was motivated enough to make a second purchase! Let’s see if they send me another email…
2. Time:
Have any of you ever heard that Eminem song where he says, “Timing is everything and that seems to be the key to my success; it has worked for me repeatedly.” Isn’t it true? Imagine you receive an email right after your purchase to write a review as opposed to a few days after it was shipped? You are more likely to provide an accurate review based on your experience as opposed to before consuming it. Timing is key to actionize customer interaction.
3. Turn Compliments Into Reviews:
One of the most popular Magento Extensions that Demac Media offers is our Canada Post Integration. After a customer purchases the product they can email our support team (which is managed by yours truly) with any issues or questions they might have. Recently, we had a customer who emailed us regarding an error he was experiencing while testing the extension. I was able to fix the error (it was a configuration issue) for him and also guide him on how the extension works. He was extremely satisfied and wrote a really nice thank you email to me and offered to write a review on the Magento website as well. I was able to use this customers compliment, and turn it into a review for the product we offer, helping us to build trust and drive future sales.
Related: Your Order Confirmation Page: 8 Ways to Improve
4. Respond Back:
Social influence weighs heavily with everything we do, and most of the time – if not always – we turn to Social Media to share our opinions, whether good or bad. While this may seem like it could easily be detrimental to your business (too many negative reviews), it’s important that you leverage social media and the powerful conversations taking place on the internet and use them to your advantage. You should be replying to customer reviews and comments to demonstrate to customers that you value and care about their feedback. This has a positive ripple effect and encourages other reviewers to post their thoughts and concerns on you company’s Facebook page or Twitter. If we scroll through Groupon’s Facebook page, we can easily see that their customer service department is diligent and responds to every client’s posts. Honestly, this encourages me as a Groupon client to share my experience as well, because I am aware that they value it and will respond back to me in a timely manner.
Use to Customer Reviews to Your Advantage!
Hopefully my post was helpful and clearly explained how you can leverage customer reviews to increase your online sales. Focus on providing quality products, superior online experience, and exceptional customer service, and let the products (and reviews) speak for themselves. Customer will be encouraged to write reviews and you will see your sales increase in no time. If you can think of any other ways to encourage great customer reviews feel free to share in the comments below.
Related: Understanding eCommerce Conversion Optimization
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