Nurturing your community and learning how to build trust with customers is not only essential for your sales but also essential for keeping your current consumers.
According to Trustpilot, it’s 6x-7x more costly to acquire a new customer than it is to retain a current one, and by boosting your retention rate by just 5%, you can drive 25%-95% more profit.
But besides having a fantastic product or service, how can small businesses start to build trust surrounding their brand? Especially new businesses?
We sat down with Meghan MacCune and Tom Balanda from Trustpilot to learn more about why are reviews important, how to get customer reviews, and how to build trust with customers.
What Is Trustpilot Used For?
Trustpilot is one of the world’s best and most reliable review sites on the web. Unlike other websites that do not monitor the legitimacy of their content, reviews left on Trustpilot can not be taken down, altered, or hidden, assuming the review is not spam or fraudulent.
They are so much more than that, though; Trustpilot also helps businesses understand their insights and improve their customer service and experiences.
With over 160+ million reviews on their website, you can say they are the review and trust experts when it comes to knowing precisely what small businesses need to be doing to better build trust with their audience.
Trustpilot not only understands the importance of customer reviews and the overall customer experience, but they also understand how it can be difficult to ask or get your current customers to even leave you a review in the first place.
After all, it’s great if you have reviews, but what if you’re not comfortable asking for them?
That’s where Trustpilot comes in.
Why Are Reviews Important?
Reviews and social proof help with both new business and previous customers to come back. They can see that other people who are out there have positive opinions, or even negative opinions, and that their experience wasn’t just a one-time event.
As Tom mentioned during our interview, consumers are savvier than ever and will find a way to leave reviews, especially if it was a negative experience. Giving the customer that platform helps increase your brand’s sense of community and allows your consumer to have their voice heard.
Not only that, but people love to be asked about their experience or feel like they’re making a difference.
When you highlight your customer’s reviews and experiences as social media content, commercial content, or on your website, that consumer is now going to feel like they are a part of your brand and a part of your community.
But having these reviews aren’t just important for growing and nurturing your audience; they can also show you insight into how your company runs or where the errors lie.
Finding and fixing errors like this helps you show your audience you’re listening to their feedback and reviews. If it wasn’t for those people telling this company on Trustpilot about their check-out issues, who knows how long that problem would have continued to happen.
Consumers Want to Engage With Brands Who Care
As we’ve highlighted in a previous blog, Instead of advertising their products, Patagonia highlights the driving force behind their mission to create ethically made and sustainable clothes - and that is to make the world a better place for everyone.
This focus on their “Why” and now their product helps showcase that they are a company that cares, and their audience loves it.
The same idea is the reason why businesses should always respond to their reviews - good or bad.
Responding to customer reviews is just as important as generating positive ones. One of Trustpilot’s partners, Chatmeter, found that the attrition rate increases by an average of 15% when companies refuse to respond to reviews. Customers like to see that their favorite businesses are paying attention to feedback.
Showing your audience that you care about their feedback, learn from it, and are growing because it not only shows them that their voice is being heard but also helps create loyal customers.
How Do You Get Customer Reviews?
Asking your customers for reviews is easier said than done. You might be afraid of looking gimmicky, or maybe you just don’t have enough time.
Whatever the reason may be, we have a few ways that might help you request those reviews without feeling like you’re asking for too much…
Leave a “give us a review” link in your email signature
Include a thank-you note in each order, along with a quick sentence about the importance of reviews
Sign up with a third-party company that invites customers to leave reviews
During our interview, Tom made a truly excellent point…
“People love to be asked for help. If someone comes to them and says, "we would love your help," they are much more likely to offer their help...Those review emails do not go unnoticed by the customer.”
As we mentioned earlier, Trustpilot is perfect for companies that might feel uncomfortable asking for reviews or those who just don’t have time to set up an automated email or SMS campaign to target those who have received their products/services.
If you’re unsure how to get customer reviews from your consumers, the best way is to leave it to the professionals like Trustpilot. They will reach out to your audience on your behalf and invite them to leave reviews about their experience.
How Reviews Help You Build Audience Trust
Most consumers just want to be heard whether someone is leaving a bad review, a good review, a neutral review, or wants to highlight an employee positively or negatively.
Utilizing your review content can not only help your audience feel like their voice matters, but it can also be beneficial for those companies who know they have areas to improve within their company but are unsure where or how to go about finding that information.
When you focus on your 4-star reviews, you can see where you’re falling a little bit short and where you can improve upon. Maybe your product is great, but the packaging could be improved upon. Or perhaps your consumer wishes it was available in more colors or different sizes.
Regardless of the reason for leaving a 4-star review instead of a 5-star review, thanking those customers and using their suggestions to make improvements makes them feel like they are making a difference and that their opinions are being taken seriously.
Why Trustpilot Is Perfect for Every Small Business
Not every review site is made the same. Some allow for business intervention, which leads companies to hide or delete reviews that are not in their favor.
Trustpilot is all about one thing: being the universal symbol of trust.. This trust is built by not allowing brands to have the ability to edit, hide, or change reviews. Not only that, but they are free to absolutely everyone. Whether you're leaving a review or opening your business account, you never pay a cent unless you decide to upgrade your account.
Here are a few more ways Trustpilot is more valuable than some other review sites:
Companies can not pick which reviews get displayed on their profile page.
They are open to everyone and anyone who wants to read or write a review. Having that third party, unbiased review destination eliminates that element of lack of trust.
Offers marketing assets to their businesses including a quick and easy review post maker for social media.
Interested in Parterning with Trustpilot?
Zoek, like many other businesses who partner with Trustpilot, knew we had areas we could improve upon. We just didn’t know where to get all this information or how to analyze it.
That’s when we partnered with Trustpilot.
Their Trustpilot Partner Program is open to any businesses looking to “get better, get seen, and get sold.”
Get Better: Trustpilot will help you get excellent customer feedback, engage with your audience, and build a trusted brand,
Get Seen: Make your business stand out in search, advertising, and social media.
Get Sold: Use trusted reviews from an unbiased platform to nurture a sense of community.
If you’re ready to increase your audience’s trust through the power of reviews, reach out to a trusted member of Trustpilot, here.
Kellyann Doyle is a Content Marketing Writer at Zoek, an SEO, Web Design, and Digital Marketing Agency that assists small and medium-sized businesses with their online footprint. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in 2013 from the University of Houston with a Major in Communications and a Minor in Marketing and has been working in the Digital Marketing world ever since. When not working, you can find Kellyann trying new recipes, enjoying a good nap, or watching Friends for the 500th time.