The eCommerce industry is fiercely competitive. When searching the web for a new pair of running shoes, for example, you’ll be met with thousands of results, all claiming to be the best of the best. With so many options, shoppers look to social proof from other customers to feel confident about their purchases.
Why Reviews Matter
98% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase, and more than half of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Many consumers also seek out data from multiple sources to help them with their purchasing decisions. Making this data easily accessible on your product pages is critical to driving sales on your site.
But how can you encourage customer feedback and use it to help your business grow?
Considerations for Review Management Tools
Online review management has its challenges, especially if you have brick-and-mortar locations as well as an online store. You need a tool that allows you to easily solicit and capture customer reviews and questions, moderate responses, and provide the reporting and insights needed to make the most of this customer feedback. Tools like Virid’s ratings and reviews platform Revere help you manage reviews as well as user- generated content all in one place.
If you’re looking to implement ratings and reviews on your site or streamline your existing reviews management process, the following are important factors to consider:
Frictionless Feedback
To encourage customer feedback, it is critical to make it easy for customers. Automate the process with customized post-purchase emails that ask customers to leave reviews. Or make feedback even simpler by leveraging Revere’s unique Heartbeat feature, which allows you to capture feedback from customers in a low friction contextual way with one-click positive feedback.
Custom Branding
You’ve worked hard to create your brand identity – the right reviews platform allows you to customize email templates and review display (down to the stars you use) with your unique branding. This ensures seamless integration with the look and feel of your site.
Reporting & Customer Insights
Capturing customer feedback is half the battle. Leveraging these insights to shape your eCommerce strategy may be even more important. Ensure your ratings and reviews platform has robust reporting features to help you make the most of your data. For example, with Revere, AI-enhanced reports give you actionable business information from your customer feedback. Products with the highest and lowest average review ratings are surfaced immediately on the dashboard, allowing you to get ahead of any potential customer satisfaction or supplier issues. Top products can be highlighted in merchandising, allowing you to maximize revenue or quickly order more to avoid running out of stock.
Once you have the right ratings and reviews platform in place, how do you actually encourage customer feedback and use it to help your business grow?
Online Review Management Strategies
Though specialized review management software can be extremely helpful, they work best in combination with a thoughtful marketing strategy.
Monitor and Respond to Reviews
Research suggests that the majority of customers who write reviews expect a response. It’s important to try to respond to reviews so customers can feel confident that you are interested in their feedback, but also so that you can build trust with dissatisfied customers who are seeking a resolution. Offer something tangible in response to negative reviews such as a refund or replacement. For neutral reviews, you can ask for more details about how the product can be improved in order to keep those customers coming back. You can also leave a phone number or email in your responses to take the conversation offline to avoid any negative impact on your brand image.
Provide Incentives in Exchange for Feedback
Take advantage of the opportunity to build loyalty with your customers by offering an incentive such as a discount in exchange for their honest feedback. You can automate post-purchase email sequences or text messages that encourage feedback, always include a direct link to make it as easy as possible for your customers to leave reviews.
Incorporate Reviews into Your Marketing Strategy
Once you understand that customers use reviews to help them make decisions, you’ve now unlocked a new area of your marketing strategy. If customers see that you always offer a resolution as a response to negative reviews, they will feel more confident purchasing your product. If many customers are excited about a certain feature of your product, make sure to highlight that in your product marketing strategy.
Now that you know the benefits of encouraging customer reviews, and how to do so effectively, it’s time to launch your reputation management strategy. It’s likely that you already have access to review management tools that are included with your eCommerce platform, but that’s not always the case. If you’re looking for a better way to manage reviews but aren’t sure where to start, Team Virid can help.
Our eCommerce platform, marketAgility, is a unified commerce solution for the challenges many eCommerce retailers face. Similar to a SaaS offering, our platform includes everything you need to get started quickly, combined with the services and support of an enterprise agency, but with the flexibility and scalability of a composable commerce architecture. We’ll take care of all of the complex custom integrations like online reviews management, email marketing automations, omnichannel inventory management, alternative payment methods, and more. Get started today to learn how making the switch could help your business grow.
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