in 2008, a tongue-in-cheek customer review led to a thousand sales of the three wolf moon t-shirt on amazon.
Reading: Reviews how to improve customer care comparison list
The initial review (and subsequent thousands of satirical reviews) about how wolves and the moon give charm and strength to the user was probably not the kind of customer review the seller wanted. Still, the case of the three wolf moons t-shirt speaks to the power of social proof that comes with customer reviews.
people are social animals and we use reviews as a shortcut for decision-making.
- according to the 2017 local consumer reviews survey, “85% of consumers trust both online reviews and personal recommendations“.
- according to the buyer-approved 2021 e-commerce “psychology of product reviews” survey, it showed that online shopping behavior is still rooted in the same basic psychology it has always been. worked to improve sales agents.
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the ‘traffic & The Buyer Approved Conversion Pile Ecommerce Survey made an incredible discovery regarding how Amazon generates a ton of highly targeted organic search engine traffic while maximizing its revenues. online conversion rates (generating an average conversion rate of 74% for prime members and a conversion rate of 10-15% for non-prime members).
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meanwhile, research by the spiegel research center showed that displaying reviews has the potential to increase conversions by 270%.
the same study from the spiegel research center found that reviews have a greater impact on the purchase decision on higher-priced products and higher consideration than on lower-priced items price and less consideration. .
User reviews are also especially useful for physical and non-uniform items. If you are a clothing store, for example, you may find it more difficult to convert online due to a lack of experiential and sensory details (for example, the texture and thickness of the fabric, the drape of the material on the body). ) that a customer obtains in a physical store.
User reviews reduce customer anxiety and increase confidence that what they receive will match the product description and image. however, it’s easy to get bad reviews even if you have them on your site.
maximize the benefits of customer reviews. Read on to find out how you can make reviews obvious, honest and helpful. Plus, learn how you can encourage customers to leave comments on your site.
1. have rating and review indicators on the top half of the page
The first order of business is to make reviews obvious. This doesn’t mean you’re going to shove all the user review text near the top of the page, but you do need some kind of mechanism that tells the visitor that you have reviews on the page.
go back and look at the three wolf moons shirt on top. the star rating system and the total number of reviews are obvious elements on the page, and users will be able to see them without scrolling down. that’s two thumbs up.
compare it against the product detail page on antsylabs.com, where it’s not immediately obvious that the item has been reviewed:
The rating and review indicators should be visible at the time the screen loads. however, they must also be located where users expect them to be.
h&m’s product detail page, for example, breaks predictability as the rating and review indicator sits at the bottom of the screen. the average rating is not likely to help persuade the visitor to add the item to their cart. it will surely be ignored as it is in an unconventional location:
2. don’t ignore the negative reviews
It can be tempting to do your best and highlight positive reviews, while negative reviews are a little less accessible.
resist the temptation.
You should try to be balanced so that visitors trust you. which will end up with products with excellent and poor ratings, but overall, users are more likely to trust and buy from you.
in fact, research by social commerce company reevoo showed that…
- 68% of consumers trust reviews more when there are good and bad ratings.
- 30% of consumers become skeptical and suspicious of censorship or fake reviews when there are no bad reviews.
- Those who take the time to read negative reviews are 67% more likely to convert. buyers looking for negative reviews are often heavily involved in pre-purchase research.
- 88% of consumers search for visual elements like photos and videos submitted by other users before making a purchase.
- products that have reviews with visual content can see a 69% increase in conversions compared to those without.
- 72% of consumers say they are more likely to buy a product that has reviews with visual content alongside the text.
- 44% of shoppers find a photo submitted by a customer more valuable than a photo submitted by a retailer or brand.
- keep email simple and direct.
- Place important elements in the top section of the email. This way, it’s immediately clear to customers what you want them to do, even if they don’t scroll down.
- The goal is to collect reviews, so have “write a review” as a call to action and make it a large button that users can easily tap on mobile.
- Do not include other elements that may distract customers from completing the task.
- In addition to making your subject lines compelling, make sure they aren’t truncated on mobile.
- Use a single-column email format, rather than a multi-column layout, to avoid the risk of email appearing broken on smaller screens.
- use a font size that is easy to read on any device.
- if you have a rewards program, award points that will go to the customer’s account.
- offer the customer a discount on their next purchase (for example, 5% or $5.00 off, whatever makes sense for your business).
- Encourage detailed reviews accompanied by visual content by rewarding reviewers with gift certificates.
- Keep the rating and review indicator in the top half of the page where visitors can easily see it. make it immediately obvious that your products have reviews.
- don’t ignore negative reviews. instead, take it as an opportunity to communicate with your disgruntled customers and provide excellent customer service.
- Let users rate reviews so the best ones stand out and visitors can easily see the most useful ones.
- Allow users to add visual content, and actively encourage them to do so, to increase trust in your products.
- show averages only when you have enough reviews. showing an average rating too soon can negatively affect the buyer’s perception of your product.
- improve the relevance of your customer reviews by allowing users to filter by customer type. This way, buyers can easily find the reviews that really matter to them.
- avoid negative social proof for products that have no reviews. You can indicate that the product is new or invite users to be the first to review the product.
- actively collect user feedback by offering incentives. You can award points, discounts, or product samples to convince customers that it’s worth spending a little time to share their experience with your product or service.
See also: 5 Effective Customer Service Tools & Software for Your Business
You can mitigate the effect of unfavorable reviews by responding to them. For example, if the poor rating is due to a defective product, you can let the buyer know about your replacement guidelines. In this way, you address the customer’s concern while also showing other buyers that you provide excellent after-sales support.
3. enable comments for grades
needs feedback. no, I’m not talking about the reviews themselves, you already know that.
I mean the reviews of reviews.
the reason so many websites ask if a review is useful is because it works. draws more attention to the most useful, fun, or informative reviews, where users are more likely to spot them.
4. optimize the visual content sent by the client
Photos and videos submitted by other customers play an important role in earning a buyer’s trust in a product.
consider these numbers from product reviews:
this makes sense, as people generally trust photos uploaded by other people more than photos of models who are there specifically to make the product look good.
What this means to you is that features around submitting images for reviews are some of the most important things to think about. doing it right can have a big reward:
make it easy to send visual content
When asking customers for reviews, ask them to include photos and videos. And since visual content is mostly captured on phones, make sure it’s easy to upload photos and videos from mobile devices.
Also, make the process of collecting photos and videos from buyers efficient for your business. Allow customers to submit content natively through your website instead of first uploading content to a third-party service.
make customer-submitted visual content easily recognizable
Make it immediately obvious that customer-submitted visual content is available on the product detail page. Otherwise, you risk the buyer leaving your site to search for user-submitted visual content elsewhere.
Their goal is to give the buyer all the information they need to make a buying decision in one place, so they don’t leave and end up buying somewhere else.
5. show relevant averages
This will seem obvious, but enough websites do it to warrant a warning:
don’t show average ratings if you don’t have enough ratings.
pick a threshold and don’t display averages until you reach that threshold.
showing an average score prematurely can backfire as people may not realize that the score is only based on a couple of reviews and doesn’t really speak to the quality of your product or service.
This pair of jeans, for example, looks underrated at first glance. the score, however, is based on a single review:
booking.com, on the other hand, avoids that problem: the site doesn’t show an average rating unless the property has received at least 5 reviews:
6. allow users to filter by customer type
in many cases, it’s not just the review that matters. the “type” of the reviewer is also important.
See also: How to buy a car whule under debt review
in the hotel industry, for example, a room might be perfect for backpackers on a budget, but not for couples on a getaway. therefore, hotel reviews will need to be segmented by guest types. in this particular case, you can have “families”, “solo travelers”, “business travelers” and “couples” as main types.
this will allow visitors to find the reviews that are most relevant to them, which in turn can help you convert them into customers.
7. avoid negative social proof
Having ratings for some products and none for others can lead to negative social proof. it will give web visitors the impression that products without reviews are mediocre. the partycity.com category page, for example, can be enhanced with something like “be the first to review” for products that haven’t been rated. or they can add a callout to indicate that a product is new, so users don’t wonder why certain products don’t have stars:
8. collect reviews
Unfortunately, the saying “if you build it, they will come” is not true about customer reviews. Just because people can leave reviews on your Page doesn’t mean they’ll automatically write reviews. (People often only feel compelled to write a review when they’ve had an exceptionally terrible experience.)
send post-purchase emails
powerreviews data shows that up to 80% of reviews come from post-purchase emails asking customers to review what they purchased.
remind customers to write a review by sending them a follow-up email once they’ve received the product. the time depends on what the customer bought. For example, if the customer is likely to notice improvements two weeks after using the beauty product they purchased, send the follow-up email after that period.
here are a couple of things to keep in mind when creating your post-purchase emails:
keep it focused
customize
address the customer by name in the body of the email and use that as the subject line as well. Experian’s 2013 email market study revealed that “personalized subject lines have 26% higher unique open rates than non-personalized emails.”
optimize for mobile
Keep in mind that more than half of emails are opened on mobile devices. emails should be optimized for smartphones.
make writing a review easy
Don’t force buyers to post a review. make the process as easy as possible and allow users to read and submit reviews using different devices and platforms.
incentivize reviews
Encourage customers to leave a review by giving them something in return:
send samples
Initial revisions have the biggest impact on increasing sales. According to the Spiegel Research Center, “the increase in purchase likelihood occurs within the first 10 reviews, with the first five reviews driving most of this increase.”
One way to generate initial reviews for new products, in addition to follow-up emails, is to send samples to buyers.
use a third-party review provider
Gathering enough reviews to make your product pages persuasive can take some time. one way around this is to use a third-party review provider like reevoo.
Reviews from third-party providers are authenticated, so buyers know the review was written by someone who actually bought the product.
these reviews, however, are syndicated. therefore, one downside is that they don’t tell potential customers about the shopping experience on your site specifically.
leverage customer reviews to increase conversion rates
The three wolves moon t-shirt review was lightning in a bottle, so it’s unlikely the sites would get the same kind of momentum. still, you don’t need to hit it out of the park every time. You just need to use reviews wisely to capitalize on the gains:
if you do this, you’ll have another great site optimization tool to add to your toolbox.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on February 10, 2014 and has been updated to reflect new best practices in using customer reviews to improve conversions.
See also: 20 Daycare Review Examples to Copy & Paste • Eat, Sleep, Wander
