Pop Quiz: Today’s consumer makes decisions to choose a service or product based on what?
If you said Customer Reviews then (ding ding ding) you’re right! 90% of consumers say that buying decisions are influenced by online reviews and 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Potential customers can seek out your reviews on the well-known review sites like Google and Facebook – but wouldn’t putting them front and center on your website make their job that much easier? By doing so you’d be giving your customers a level of transparency, showing them that you are willing to put forth reviews that realistically show what people think about you.
The one mistake many sites make when doing this is featuring only the best/5 star reviews which looks like you’re grooming the image of what people think about you. Posting reviews on your site is an opportunity to show customers that you’re a company to trust. We are a huge fan of these 5 sites that do just that; put reviews on their sites in a way that make it oh so clear that they’re authentic.
1. Dollar Shave Club
Dollar Shave Club is an insanely successful razor delivery service that just got purchased for $1B and it’s no surprise why – customers love what they do! And the company does an amazing job of capturing that and sharing it on their website.
When you click on the Reviews page of Dollar Shave Club you see reviews from a variety of sources from the web or Social Media. You can then filter these reviews for the specific product you are interested in. This makes it easier for a consumer to visit the site, see what they might want to buy and then determine what others are saying. Fewer steps, straightforward and lots of customer input.
Their approach is also unique in that they utilize social media as a big part of their review so current customers can share their stories using a hashtag on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook via #DSCReview. We think this is huge in connecting potential customers with real people talking about the products and bringing the Dollar Shave Club story to life!
2. Amazon
When people think of shopping online they think of one place, Amazon.com. Amazon has changed the game of easy shopping and a consumer marketplace where the feedback between consumers is fluid and easy. Amazon shows every review at a glance through a super helpful graph so you don’t really need to drill into the reviews unless you want further input. They also let users vote if a review was helpful or not.
On Amazon, a consumer can filter reviews by quite a few criteria: ones that were the most helpful, by the number of stars or even by verified purchase. This leads to a truly authentic feeling shopping experience which in turn leads to trusting and shop happy consumers! Another awesome feature? By default, the most recent review is shown first (unlike Google and Yelp who make you filter for “most recent”).
3. Casper Mattress
Casper Mattress is pretty much killing it in their industry. People are saying they’ll ‘never buy a mattress in store again’ and when you head to their website you see why. Casper is super transparent about their reviews which means you don’t feel like you’re being misled or shown only the good stuff. Just how do they accomplish this? When you visit their site you can sort by ‘stars’: you can look at all 1-star reviews or just the 5 stars – the main point is that they’re all present, nothing is hidden.
Another feature we love is what info gets captured when a customer posts a review. How many hours they sleep as well as who is using the bed (solo, partner, pet) are included just to help a potential consumer and in fact, connect with them and how they might use the mattress that much more. This is just plain fun! Casper Mattress has introduced a review process that lets the reviewer be a little silly and have some fun throughout the process. How great is that!
4. Handyman Connection
Handyman Connection is a nationwide franchise, working with homeowners since 1991. Their website does a great job of showing Customer Feedback Reviews and Reviews from the various review sites with the logo of the review site, date name and the location. Since sites from trusted review sites such as google, facebook etc will always hold more weight with consumers, this is a great move! If you’re loving this feature as much as us you should check out promio – they designed Handyman Connection’s page and are a phenomenal Marketing resource.
Handyman Connection shows these online reviews on their corporate site, as well as location specific sites so you see the great feedback no matter what page you end up on.
5. Ulta Beauty Products
Ulta Beauty Products takes review criteria to yet another level, similar to what we’ve seen with Amazon and Casper Mattresses. Beauty products can be tricky to ‘try out’ since skin tones, hair type, sensitivity, beauty routine and so on vary from person to person. So Ulta helps it’s purchasers actually create a profile that lends itself to each review they give, and then layers specifics for each type of product. For example, when submitting a review for lipstick Ulta asks you what your skin tone is:
While a perfume review asks what ‘Fragrance Type’ you tend to use. This alongside at a glance Pros, Cons and Best Uses really leave almost nothing to wonder before purchasing!:
So what to learn from all these awesome review formats? There are so many ways to show a potential customer what people are saying about what you do. But doing so in an authentic fashion increases the trust factor. The first step is, of course, being awesome, but you’ve already got that down. Next step is getting those reviews, listening to what your customers are saying and then making them seen and heard on your website.
