Why is it so important to work with customer reviews, analyze them and use them in your work?
Customer reviews are of great, invaluable importance when selling a product. However, many companies do not always understand this: they do not collect reviews, respond only to positive ones and do not work with negative ones. This is a big mistake and omission of the brand. In this article, together with SR digital marketing expert Tatyana Vasilyeva, we understand the intricacies and nuances of working with customer reviews and explain why it is worth paying attention to your customer reviews, and how this can increase your sales.
Tatiana Vasilyeva - more than 10 years in the fashion industry. founder of the agency for the promotion and development of clothing brands E-2, founder of the Tri Maruski brand, strategic ex-fashion producer on the ShopAndShow TV channel, author of the course “Creating a selling USP; Identification of the target audience of your brand.
Telegram - @E2fashion
According to a study by AliExpress Russia and the Data Insight agency, in 9 out of 10 online orders the decision is made using reviews, and for every fifth purchase reviews are crucial.
The same study provides the following figures:
- in 91% of orders, buyers take into account reviews, look at photos and videos, and communicate with other buyers;
- in 21% of orders, reviews are crucial, and buyers choose a product directly based on reviews;
- only 1% of buyers don't read reviews!
If a brand does not have reviews for a product, then according to statistics, 34% of buyers will choose a similar product with a review on another site or from your competitors. Top 10 sites with the most useful reviews, according to online buyers:
- "Otzovik";
- Aliexpress;
- wildberries;
- "Yandex Market";
- Ozon;
- "Yandex";
- YouTube;
- Joom;
- Irecommend;
- "In contact with".
Top 10 sites with useful reviews for online purchasing of clothes and shoes, according to users:
- wildberries;
- "Otzovik";
- Ozon;
- Lamoda;
- Aliexpress;
- Bonprix;
- Joom;
- "Yandex Market";
- YouTube;
- "Yandex".
Google analysts claim that buyers use more than ten sources of information before making a purchase. If there are reviews on the site, then 63% of visitors first study them and then leave an order. On average, this increases sales by 18%.
Research has also shown that customers trust reviews 12 times more than the actual product description.
Analysts from Anketolog (Institute of Public Opinion) present the following statistics (data for 2019, however, they are indicative, since reviews are still one of the main indicators of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction with a purchase) on the activity of Russians in terms of reviews and their attitude towards him:
- 93% of Internet users rely on online reviews when choosing goods and services; - for 63%, it is important how companies deal with negative reviews; - 25% believe that there are more objective reviews on the Internet than biased ones.
The majority of Runet users (63%) at least from time to time leave online reviews of products and services, and 14% do this often. Only 9% of users have never left reviews on the Internet.
Most often, Russians are prompted to provide feedback to a brand by a pleasant/positive experience - 56% of respondents who left reviews on the Internet reported that they usually do so under the influence of positive emotions from using goods or services. Due to negative emotions, 47% of respondents leave reviews, 19% write about products that are new to them, regardless of whether their experience was successful or not, and 19% try to write reviews on all products or services they have used.
At the same time, 80% of respondents who left reviews on the Internet noted that most of them were positive. Only 3% said they only had to leave negative reviews.
Despite the importance of reviews, only 9% of respondents received a comment on their reviews from the majority of companies to which they were addressed. Another 36% received comments from some companies, 24% received some kind of reaction, but this was extremely rare. And 31% of respondents were ignored by companies providing goods or services.
All this data proves to us that brands need to learn how to work with reviews and provide feedback to their customers. Imagine that you ordered shoes from Wildberries, and their quality did not match the description in the product card. You write your complaint to the seller of this product, but he remains silent. It is unlikely that you will buy a product from him again or recommend him to your friends. But if the seller responds to your complaint and offers you a solution to the problem, then, for sure, you will remain either loyal or neutral to the seller.
The number of reviews directly affects customer trust. < At the same time, buyers take into account both positive and negative reviews equally. And for the seller (brand) itself, a negative review is sometimes more important and useful than a positive one. This is a free way to learn about your mistakes and correct them. By monitoring reviews, you can better understand your customers. Next, we will analyze in detail how to work with reviews.
What's most important:
1. It is necessary to respond to both positive and negative reviews. 2. Monitoring and responding to positive reviews by the seller creates an emotional connection with the buyer. The buyer will be pleased with your reaction to the time he spent writing a review and rating your product. At first glance, it seems that working with positive feedback is not necessary or does not require much involvement. But this is a mistake. The response to such feedback should not be a ready-made template, but be individual. It is not enough to simply thank the buyer for a good review; it is important to highlight the strengths of the product or service that he indicated.
Handle the negative carefully and keep track of the number of negative reviews so that the “Reviews” column has a believable and convincing balance of plus and minus. It’s paradoxical, but sometimes the buyer’s decision can be influenced by the presence of negative reviews of your product. The value and usefulness of negative reviews directly depends on their quantity. Against the backdrop of negative opinions, positive reviews look more believable, but there is a certain line beyond which negative statements become a warning to users. For example, if a product page has 15 reviews about it, 2 of which are negative, then the remaining 13 look plausible. If this proportion changes, everything appears in a slightly different light.
It is important to respond to negative feedback in a timely manner and correct the problem indicated in it. Then give feedback to the buyer about solving his problem, thus regaining his loyalty to you. Other users will see the answer and find out that your company is not indifferent to customer problems - this is a good plus for loyalty. 5. There is a relationship between the rating and the likelihood of purchase: it turned out that there is a greater chance of being purchased from a product that has a rating of approximately 4-4.7 (out of 5) than an endless number of fives.
1. Dispute with the buyer. Remember that the customer is always right. Even in the most critical situation, you need to continue the conversation or correspondence in a polite and formal tone.
2. Ignore customer feedback. A buyer whose review remains unheeded will definitely not return to you. Ignoring it will have a bad effect on your image.
3. Long answer. As they say, a spoon is good for dinner. The speed of response can affect the number of sales.
4. Template answer. Such responses come across as insincere and don’t make customers feel valued by the brand/seller.
Now let's look at the most popular types of reviews today. There are now a plethora of options for providing feedback on the Internet.
1. Text - a description of a product or service, an impression of using the product or a review. The text can be presented in the form of a quote. They can be found in the “Reviews” block on marketplaces or on the pages of online stores, review platforms, and forums. Reviews can be presented in the form of a publication on social networks, an article-interview with a buyer, or a comment on social networks.
2. Image is the second most popular type of review. As a rule, this is a photo of the buyer with the product or a photo of the elements of the product that the buyer wants to draw the attention of the seller or other buyers.
3. Videos - reviews and “unboxings”, this is the type of reviews that inspire the most confidence among potential buyers, since they are difficult to fake. It is important to understand that the presence of different types of reviews increases trust in the seller. Therefore, the seller must be able to collect feedback from his customers, in all formats. How to do this? How to motivate your customers to provide feedback?
Obviously, the easiest way to interest a person is through direct and understandable benefits. What can you offer customers for feedback:
● Discount on your product;
● Gift from your brand;
● Bonus for mentioning your brand in its accounts on social networks or for recommending it to your friends, for example, a promotional code or referral link;
● Contests with a drawing of a valuable prize for the buyer for his feedback, for example, in the form of a photo or video.
In order for your customers to leave you feedback, you need to unobtrusively remind them of themselves: send a message, call, offer to follow a link via a QR code, add the buyer to your client chat or group, ask to subscribe to your store on the marketplace or social networks . Remember that at least half of the people who bought your product are willing to write a review. You can request feedback from each client yourself. You should remind yourself immediately after the purchase, otherwise they will simply forget about it later.
To summarize
1. Working with reviews is an important part of promotion
brand.
2. Reviews can double your sales at minimal cost.
3. The reputation of your brand will increase in the eyes of customers thanks to reviews.
4. You will gain the trust of buyers.
5. Reviews will help you differentiate yourself from your competitors.
6. Reviews will help improve your product and the performance of your company.
companies.
7. You can study your target audience through reviews. 8. You will establish an emotional connection with your customers.
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