Sleigh bells ring, are you listening...This season, let your customers drive sales with their reviews
There’s no question holiday shopping is highly competitive this season. In early estimates for the holiday season, Global Hunter Securities predicts anywhere from a 1 percent increase to a 1 percent decrease in sales when compared to 2008. With tight budgets and big-box retailers posing a certain threat, what is a small-business owner to do?
Numerous strategies exist to help carry the business through the season, such as hiring support for customer service and offering promotional discounts and extended hours. But with the limited time left for preparations, consider adding product reviews to your Web site as an additional low-cost option to drive organic customer feedback and endorsement, not to mention boost SEO for your company and product offerings.
In a recent survey hosted by RatePoint, we found 43 percent of the respondents indicating an increase in sales and 28 percent seeing increased traffic just by integrating reviews to the business Web site. RatePoint survey data released in July showed reviews were six times more likely to impact a business positively than negatively.
Not only will your business reap rewards for proactively seeking feedback to products and services rendered, but your customers are looking for it and will appreciate the candid sharing as well. According to research by Deloitte & Touche, more than 82 percent consumers who read reviews said their purchasing decisions have been directly influenced by those reviews.
When launching product reviews for your business, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Accept and consider feedback: Not every piece of feedback is going to earn you a stellar rating, but there is an interesting and useful take to not-so-perfect feedback. Having these reviews not only provides your business credibility from a third-party customer, but also the opportunity to make improvements with the products or services based on feedback. After all, what business is perfect?
- Let your products do the promotion: As a business owner, it’s instinct to stand by the products and services you offer. While it may be uncomfortable to give customers the power to provide carte blanche feedback on your offerings, be confident that your products and services will do the business justice and generate more sales through reviews and referrals.
- Show customers the good news: Highlight customer feedback by quoting reviews throughout the Web site (where appropriate) or in promotional campaigns (e-mail, direct mail and newsletters, etc.) you develop throughout the year.
SmartMomma (www.smartmomma.com), an online retail store to solve mom's issues related to baby rearing, which is offering free shipping on orders over $50 and a special holiday gifts section this holiday season, has found reviews, alongside these discounts, help the site to differentiate itself as it competes against larger sites for baby gifts. Owner, Heather Burns stated reviews gives her customers reassurance other parents have been extremely satisfied shopping at the store and has improved conversion rates since implementing a reviews program. (Disclosure: this is a RatePoint customer)
Business owners shouldn’t be afraid of feedback, but rather use it in a proactive and productive way. Those who don’t encourage customer feedback and dialogue through reviews miss out on valuable business information about what the SMB is doing well and not so good, in order to correct issues, strengthen the brand and further build credibility.
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