If you run an online store, customer reviews, both about your store and your products, can help you gain the trust of new customers who are about to place their first order in your store. If you run a medium-sized or large online store, you surely see that gathering those reviews manually is ineffective and time-consuming. With iPresso, you can automate getting customer reviews; let’s see how.
Last year, in Poland, there was a large e-commerce study conducted by Gemius. This study revealed that customer reviews are number-one deciding factor when it comes to your store’s credibility (45% of answers).
Interestingly, customer reviews are even more important than transparent product return policy (26%) and the cash-on-delivery option (30%). The conclusion is obvious – if you want to gain credibility among new customers who don’t know you yet, you simply need to have as many positive reviews as possible!
And this refers to two types of reviews:
- Those about your online store
- Those about the products you have in your offer
In the ideal scenario, you should have good reviews in both categories; this way, you can ensure people trust you and are willing to buy your products.
When using iPresso, you can automate this process, which can significantly contribute to the increase of reviews you’re getting. The reason is simple – people forget and are less motivated to give a positive review when everything is ok. Unfortunately, we are far more eager to share our negative experiences.
To work your way around this challenge, the best thing you can do is remind every customer about reviewing your online store and/or their purchase. And if you have hundreds or even thousands of customers per month, you need a way to do this with no involvement on your part.
We have three tools that will help you achieve this goal.
3 tools to automate customer reviews in e-commerce
MARKETING AUTOMATION SCENARIOS
MA scenarios are essentially communication flows between you and your customers that work based on predefined rules. You can use them to stay in touch with your customers, provide them with the information they need, and ask them to review your store.
In practice, you could set up a simple scenario in which everyone who placed an order in your store gets an automated email, WhatsApp message, or push notification asking them to review the store. Naturally, you can’t force anyone to share their experiences, but you can offer them a small incentive, e.g., a discount for the next purchase. This way, people will feel more encouraged to give you a review.
CUSTOMER SURVEYS
This tool is specifically designed to help you get customer opinions. It’s a good idea to conduct a customer survey from time to time to find out what people really think about your store. Later on, you can use the results of such a survey and publish them on your website.
Customer surveys can be very helpful even if you’re not satisfied with the results. Use customer feedback to improve your online store, your offer, and perhaps even the products that you sell. With this feature, you can use open-ended, single and multiple-choice questions to really understand what your target audience thinks about your store.
Keep in mind, though, that customer surveys are not designed to encourage people to give your store a review. They are to help you get feedback from your respondents. However, when it comes to understanding your customers and getting reviews from them, this tool can be helpful in improving your store.
EMAIL MARKETING AUTOMATION
You have one more tool that can come in handy when asking for customer reviews – email marketing. You can use this tool to automate all email-based communication with your target audience. Similarly to marketing automation scenarios, you can send automated emails asking for a review to every customer who has placed an order in your store.
Of course, you shouldn’t wait too long. Some stores send such emails even the same day the order was placed. It’s a good idea to wait two or three days before sending such an email, but you should definitely do so.
Here, the content of your email is also important. In short, you should highlight two aspects of this question:
- Customer reviews help you improve your offer (customers are happy when they know they have a real impact on your business)
- You are willing to give a small discount for a review (this way, customers get something in return for devoting their time to give your store a review)
Here’s a good example of such a message:
Hello [customer name]!
Thank you for your recent purchase! We hope you are delighted with your new product!
We are constantly striving to improve our offer and would love to hear your thoughts on your shopping experience with us. Could you please take a few moments to leave us a review? Your feedback is incredibly valuable and helps us enhance our services.
To thank you for your time and effort, we would like to offer you a 5% discount on your next purchase. Simply use the code REVIEW5 at checkout.
Thank you for your time and support; we appreciate it a lot!
Putting it this way increases your chances of getting more reviews.
Wrapping up
If you want to have a successful online business, you need to have reviews. Use the tools we mention above to streamline the process of getting them. iPresso also comes with many more tools you can use in your e-commerce business. If you’d like to give our platform a shot, you can start with a free trial period. Go here to get your free access!
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