5 Tips to Get the Best Customer Review Rate on Your E-shop

Customer reviews are one of the most effective levers to improve conversions on your website. Indeed, 88% of consumers consult online reviews before making a purchase (IFOP) and 85% read up to 10 reviews!

So, while many e-commerce sites have implemented systems to collect online reviews, it’s still necessary to have enough of them and recent ones. Only 12% of internet users never read customer reviews and 44% believe that to be relevant, the review must be less than a month old (Bright Local). Hence the importance of having the best review rate on your website!

So, how can you get the best customer review rate on your e-shop? Find our 5 tips to increase your number of customer reviews on your website in this article.

1 – Combine Spontaneous Product Reviews and Solicited Product Reviews

To improve the number of reviews on products (or services) sold by your company online, we recommend combining two sources:

• Spontaneous reviews: reviews issued by a customer via an online review platform or site such as Google or on social networks for example;
• Solicited reviews: reviews collected following a request from the company via email or a marketing operation such as a customer review campaign for example.

Generally, spontaneous customer reviews are less positive than solicited customer reviews. Indeed, it is more common to share an unhappy experience than satisfaction. Negative reviews should not be banned, however, as they are just as important for your conversions as positive reviews.

Indeed, 52% of buyers say they trust a company more when it displays some negative customer reviews on their products (Capterra Study). Moreover, “68% of consumers have more confidence when they see both positive and negative reviews”. The conversion rate could even increase by 67% if the company responds to the negative review and provides a solution (Reevo study). Responding to a negative review shows that you value your customers, that they matter to you. This is an integral part of customer service and consumer experience. Responses to these reviews can also help clarify certain points and thus transform a negative review into a positive one for the consumer who is in the purchasing phase. Responding to negative reviews is not something to be improvised, the internet user must always see that you are trying to find a solution to improve the level of customer satisfaction.

2 – Reward Customers Who Leave a Review

Unlike dissatisfied customers, satisfied customers rarely take the time to share their experience via a consumer review. To encourage them to do so, you can create incentives to reward them. You can use one or more of these marketing methods to obtain more customer reviews on your website:

• Promotional offer,
• Discount,
• Gift,
• Loyalty points credit,
• Prize draw

You thereby improve your customers’ satisfaction and encourage them to consume again on your website using their credits, thus creating a virtuous circle.

On average, 31% of consumers give their opinion at least once a month on products or services purchased (Ipsos & Elia Consulting Study). Make sure it’s on your online store!

3 – Ask Customers at the Right Time

An important variable for obtaining qualified reviews is to solicit your customers at the right time. The customer must be ready to give their opinion. To do this, use your data to be relevant in your request and have the best impact. If you’re looking to get reviews on an anti-dark circle cream, wait at least 10 days after the purchase date to solicit the customer. Indeed, they will have had time to use the product and measure its first benefits. They will then be able to share a consumption experience and a much more relevant opinion than if you ask them the day after their purchase.

Always remember that the product or service should be testable before asking for the consumer’s opinion. This way, you will obtain verified reviews of better quality.

4 – Implement an Automation Strategy to Follow Up with Customers

If your customers don’t respond to your review requests, it might simply be due to lack of time or forgetfulness. Don’t hesitate to follow up with them and create follow-up scenarios based on customer behavior. Target differently those who opened and clicked in your first review request email and those who didn’t open it or opened but didn’t click on the link to share their feedback on the product.

Consider including offers in your follow-ups to have engaging call-to-actions and increase the rate of responses and reviews collected.

5 – Use a Consumer Review Collection and Management Platform

Using a collection platform and review management allows you to reach a larger target or customer community and thus maximize your chances of getting feedback, therefore your customer review rate.

Platforms or solutions for collecting reviews like Trustt, guarantee the authenticity of reviews collected and published on your site. With this type of solution, you can easily set up an ambassador program on your site by recruiting relevant visitors, create consumer panels to obtain more verified reviews, or even select influencers to rely on detailed reviews.

These solutions or platforms allow you to simultaneously improve your online reputation (e-reputation), which influences 96% of internet users during a purchase.

To help you get an idea, keep in mind that the best companies achieve consumer review rates of 47%, which is nearly one review for every two sales! The least performing ones are around 3%. The number of stars, or the overall rating, also has an impact on sales: 92% of consumers would use the services of a company with a 4 out of 5 star rating, 72% would use a company with a 3 out of 5 star rating, and only 27% if the rating drops to 2 out of 5 stars (Bright Local 2014). This rating will be displayed in Google search results, affecting your SEO and therefore directly impacting your business (reputation, conversions, sales, company revenue) and the click-through rate to your page.