Product reviews are a key checkpoint for customers, now more than ever. Follow these four steps to ensure positive ratings and improve conversion.

Since the dawn of online shopping, consumers have used product reviews to research prior to buying. The key metric? The star rating. Reviews, whether on product pages on a marketplace or on review websites are a key pre-purchase checkpoint for customers.

In the current economic climate, customers are becoming increasingly careful with their spending, and a low overall star rating has the potential to derail the path to purchase.

Reviews are a numbers game; if your company has a small amount of reviews, a few bad responses can severely affect the overall rating. The frustrating fact is this: customers are time-poor and distracted and when it comes to writing a review, a bad experience motivates more powerfully than a positive one.

If your company is currently battling bad reviews, here’s how to turn your reviews around:

Get in touch

Proactively seeking out reviews is the first step.
How are you encouraging your customers to provide a review? Consider the interactions you have with your customers, and how you can engage, including:

• At the point of sale
• After the sale, using your customer database
• Offering post-purchase services (upgrades and add-ons, tune-ups, etc.)
• After resolving a customer issue

Use BE insights

A customer’s experience of the brand – and their review of it – can be adversely affected by factors outside of the product itself. The time the review is requested (morning versus evening, time since purchase, the season) as well as the customer’s associated interactions with the brand (delivery services, technicians, etc.) impact the outcome of their review.

However, reviews can be influenced using insights from behavioural economics. When contacting your customer, here are a couple of behaviours to take into account:

• Hot vs cold state
  Think about the mental and/or emotional state your customer may be in. First day back at school? Now may not be the best time to ask your customer to review their child’s new bento lunch box (which didn’t fit the strawberries Dad wanted to pack)
• Endowment effect
  You can make your customer feel good by recognising their smart choices. They’ll naturally want to share how clever, and let friends and family in on their great find.

Reward reviews

Sometimes you have to give a little to get a little. Consider how you can encourage your customers to leave a review by rewarding them.

Incentivisation comes in a number of forms; you don’t have to offer discounts and freebies to engage your customers. Can you offer special tips for use/maintenance of the product (that aren’t in the instruction manual) in exchange for a review?

Downloadable recipes for a new cooking appliance, or kitchen organisation tips to go with new cabinetry offers value without your company having to part with profit.

Remove the real nasties

In instances of unfair, false and/or defamatory claims, IMPACT can work with you to remove these reviews via a removal service.

Need help with your company’s reviews? Speak to Nicole to book a review assessment and strategy session with the IMPACT team.