What do you pay attention to when you buy something new from an online store? For me, the discount on the product, how long it takes to ship, and what other people have said about it would be some of the most important things. After all, what other people say about a product can make or break its reputation.
The good news is that you can also use customer reviews to your advantage. Here, I’ll tell you how we can use customer stories and feedback to sell your products and earn the trust of your new users.
What are customer reviews and why should you use them?
In a nutshell, customer testimonials are reviews and stories of experiences with a product from people who have used it. They show that other people like a product or service, which makes it more likely that new people will trust it.
Let’s say there are two online stores that have been selling similar products for almost a year. On the first platform, there are a lot of customer stories from people who have bought something and liked it. On the other hand, the second store just lists the product and doesn’t have any reviews. If all the other factors, like price and delivery time, are the same, you might be more likely to buy the product from the first store.
That’s why it’s a good idea to have positive customer testimonials, as they can have a big effect on how your buyers think about your business as a whole and boost its credibility.
How to Get Customer Feedback and Testimonials
Now that you know how important real customer stories are, let’s quickly go over how to get them. Most professionals agree that getting honest feedback from customers quickly is one of the hardest parts of their job. You can get around this (and make the process a lot easier) by trying one of the following ideas.
Fill out a Customer Feedback Form after you’ve bought something.
If you want to hear from your customers right after they make a purchase, you might want to leave a dedicated form. For example, a form like this could be shown after they have bought the order online or after they have received it.
I would suggest not having a long form and only asking the most important questions (no more than 5 or 6). This will make it easy for your customers to fill them out. You can have a comment section that customers can choose to use, or you can just ask them to rate the purchase instead.
Send them an email and ask for their opinion.
This is one of the easiest and most common ways to get testimonials from customers. Let’s say a customer bought something from your online store a few days ago and it was sent to them. Now, all you have to do is send them an email and ask about their reviews for the purchase.
Most online stores, like Amazon and Etsy, have a dynamic email template that lets customers rate the product and even write their reviews in the email body. Once they answer, their comments are posted right on the product page so that other users can see them.
Get feedback from customers on other platforms
Even if a customer doesn’t leave a review directly on your website, they might leave a testimonial somewhere else. For example, I ordered food from a nearby restaurant not too long ago. After that, I wrote a review on their Google Business page instead of their website so that more people could learn about their food and services.
Because of this, Yelp, Google Business, Facebook, and even Twitter have become great places to find customer stories. Make sure you check these social and review sites every now and then and respond to your customers to start a conversation.
Use Apps for Surveys After a Purchase
Lastly, if you have a large business, you can also use third-party apps to collect customer stories. For example, if you are using Shopify or WooCommerce, you can find apps that you can add to your store right away.
You can later set your preferences to automatically send post-purchase surveys to your customers, collect them, and show them on the product page in any way you want.
Use these tips to get the most out of customer testimonials
Great! You should know by now how to ask customers for testimonials and stories about your products or services in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone. Then, you can think about using these tips and tricks to use the testimonials you’ve collected in smart ways to boost your brand’s reputation and sales.
Know when and how to ask your customers for feedback
How and when to talk to your customers is the most important thing to think about. Before you reach out to a customer to ask for feedback, you should try to keep the following in mind.
- Their loyalty to your store. This is because repeat customers are more likely to give positive feedback than new ones.
- The amount of money they spent: Customers who spent more money on an item are more likely to leave feedback about their experience.
- Their experience as a whole: If they’ve already told you something bad about your business, you might want to think twice before asking them for a testimonial. Instead, you should either wait a while or let them buy something else first.
- Also, try not to send too many emails or phone calls to your customers asking for feedback, because they might get annoyed. You could leave a single feedback email and then send a follow-up email. If they want to leave a review, they will get back to you.
Make sure you show off what your customers have to say.
You should already know that customer reviews are important. If a lot of people have said good things about your product, a new customer is more likely to buy it.
You could also post reviews and stories from happy customers on your website. If you look at our website, you can also see that we have a lot of positive customer reviews that help us gain the trust of new users.
Make pages that are just for customer stories.
Last but not least, you can also put detailed customer stories on your websites or blogs on pages that are just for that. You can also look at different examples of customer testimonials and learn from them.
A great idea would be to put a little bit of customer feedback on your website. If a visitor wants to know more, all they have to do is click on it to read a detailed story about how your customer felt about the whole thing. In this way, you can connect with your visitors on a more personal level and help them understand your products.
Last Words
After reading this post, you should be able to use customer testimonials to your advantage. As you can see, I’ve included all kinds of tips that any online store owner can use to collect and show customer stories in the best way possible.
You can also look at some great examples of customer reviews and learn from them. If you want to give your dropshipping store more power and manage everything in one place, dropship-empire is a great choice.