In the rapidly evolving world of online commerce, there is the need to promote your brand in order to stand out from the crowd. How better to demonstrate to your potential customers that you are a legitimate online business than to accumulate as many verified recommendations as you can with actual people behind them?
The biggest problem with this approach or recommendation is that, regrettably, many online businesses lack testimonials. Or, when they do, the testimonials are so rare that they have little bearing on the prospect's impression of the company's legitimacy. In this blog article, we have added to the list in the previous article in which we explored the added features readily available at Kudobuzz that customers can use to improve review conversion rates. Read on.
Beautifully designed email templates
Our top-performing APM conversions have modified the basic Kudobuzz template that we use by default. Some have changed the email language to be friendlier, encouraging, and inclusive, and have also included their business logo to add more professionalism to the email.
Additionally, they don't directly request 5-star reviews. They only request that consumers provide feedback on the products they have purchased, and the majority of the reviews they receive are positive with compliments for the company's fast shipment, high-quality goods, and wonderful customer service. Here is an example of a gorgeous email template from one of our clients:
This business takes advantage of the placeholders embedded in the email template, so that the email content is more personalized, using the customer's name, the item they purchased, etc. Notice how they also mention feedback, which is neutral and could mean either positive or negative.
They don’t explicitly ask for 5 star ratings but give their customer the freedom to leave whatever feedback they desire, which, more often than not, leads to favorable ratings.
Use coupons
Everyone enjoys receiving free incentives to persuade them to take an expected action. We have seen that our top performers frequently offer coupons in the form of free shipping, discount codes, or other incentives to entice customers to submit reviews, hence raising their conversion rate. This is a win-win strategy for everyone as you get your review, and the shopper gets to save some bucks. Our coupons feature is simplified and easy to use. With the click of a button and setting up a few preferences, the coupon feature is enabled, and immediately goes out after you’ve received a review with a certain preferred rating. As mentioned earlier, this is completely customizable for you.
Take advantage of social media reviews.
One of the easiest ways to increase your reviews is to gather the ones from social media and display them on your site. We have discovered that some of our high review conversions come from companies who also had a social media presence and actively sought for evaluations there. For businesses who may have little to no social media presence, it’s time to start investing in one.
Go ahead and create pages for your business on Etsy, Facebook, Amazon, etc. Kudobuzz easily syncs with these platforms to display reviews on your site, as well as update them as and when you get new reviews on your social channels. The more reviews your customers see, the more eager they are to add theirs to the list.
Respond to reviews
This approach had to be one of our most surprising findings. When customers see that you are interested in their feedback, they are more likely to be satisfied and post more reviews.
According to our research, companies that replied to reviews by fixing problems their customers were having or by simply writing a thank-you note received up to twice as many reviews as those that didn't respond at all or ignored the reviews. These companies employed the use of the review Commenting feature to swiftly respond to the feedback they received from their customers.
Engaging with customer reviews isn’t just about managing feedback—it’s a powerful way to show customers that their voices are genuinely valued. Gidon Sadovski, founder of Overnight Glasses, advises; “Engaging with customer reviews, whether positive or negative, shows customers that their opinions matter. It fosters trust and transparency, ultimately encouraging more people to share their experiences and boost brand credibility." By actively responding to reviews, businesses not only strengthen customer relationships but also create a more trustworthy and inviting brand image that attracts new customers.
Use the right After purchase mail settings
In Kudobuzz, you either have the option to send out after purchase emails or after fulfillment emails. After purchase refers to the time period immediately following the predetermined number of days following a product's purchase.
For this, we noticed that a majority of our higher performers used the after fulfillment approach. This means that they hold off on asking for evaluations until after the product has actually been delivered to the customer. However, several high performers also used the after purchase option, and they found it to be successful. We are inclined to think that this might depend on the kind of goods or services you provide. We'll nudge you to test both to see which functions best for your use-case.
Conclusion
Using data from clients who have a high review conversion rate using the APM feature, we have examined various strategies for growing review conversions for your organization. Although the aforementioned tactics are not all-inclusive, they are effective and give our users great results. We will recommend you try them out on your own to determine which works best for your business.
