Consumers now have more choice than ever when surfing the net, so if you run an online store, chances are you’re competing with hundreds of other websites. This means that it is important that you build a sense of trust with your website users, to ensure that you are the first choice out of the range of websites that potential customers may use.
We understand this is something business owners strive for, but how do you build consumer confidence on your website?
Trust Pilot
“Did you know that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendations?”
What is Trust Pilot?
Trust Pilot is a website which allows customers to review businesses online, giving a business the opportunity to see what their customers think about their products and services. It is free for customers to use, and businesses will get an option to use either a free or paid account, the paid account bearing more benefits of course.
Getting started
Getting started on Trust Pilot isn’t too difficult, all you need to do is;
- Locate the sign up page
- Enter your company details
- Press create account
Those 3 simple steps will now give you access to your free Trust Pilot account, and you will be ready to begin collecting reviews from customers at your own accord, this however is not where you will build consumer confidence directly with the people on your website.
Paid account
If you want to use Trust Pilot to gain the trust of your customers, then it is imperative that they see the great reviews that you’re receiving on your website, this is where your paid account comes in to play. When you are setting up your account, you are offered to choose a plan, the paid plans range from ‘Lite’ which means you can collect reviews and they will be shown on your website, to ‘Enterprise’ which hosts a whole range of benefits, like data protection and superior integration.
Depending on the type of business and the needs of the business, the choice of plan will differ, but the main thing we would use Trust Pilot for is to get these great consumer reviews shown clearly on our online store.
Google Customer Reviews
What is Google Customer Reviews?
Google Customer Reviews is a free programme that was introduced upon the closure of Google Certified Shop’s. If you are using this programme it allows you to collect feedback from users who have made a purchase on your site, if they choose to provide the feedback.
These reviews are optional for customers, but if they choose to do so they may receive an email once their order has arrived. The ratings that you collect from these reviews can be displayed on your website, using the Google Customer Reviews badge, which is optional to display. They will also appear in your merchant centre dashboard and they’re used for seller ratings, on an AdWords Shopping campaign.
Getting Started
To access Google Customer Reviews, you must first have a Merchant Centre account, which you can also use to create AdWords shopping campaigns and a range of other features.
Once you have a Google Merchant Centre, you need to;
- Find Google Customer Reviews in the Merchant Centre Programmes under the 3-dot icon
- Enable the programme
- Follow the steps to the integration of the programme into your site
Once you have completed the steps to sign up for the reviews programme, you can access all your metrics and information you may need from the dashboard.
Google Customer Reviews Badge
So, the reason behind all these reviews that you are trying to achieve is in order to display the Google badge on your website. This badge will display your seller rating, which is a score from 1-5 starts, and can be placed on any page on your website. This is where it is imperative that you are providing the highest level of customer service, as you need good reviews to make the badge work, if your reviews badge boasts 5 stars then you will be viewed in a great light by many potential customers, but if your badge displays only 1 or 2 stars you may be actually deterring customers, so be careful how you use this badge.
If you have the means of achieving these positive reviews, and you can back them up with a Google logo on your website, you will be viewed very well in the eyes of a lot of customers, and you will be on your way to building the consumer confidence you need to make the conversions on your site.
Be Reliable
My two previous points have covered programmes and tools that will help you and your online store gain a solid piece of evidence that you are a trusted site to buy from.
However, the most important thing when it comes to achieving consumer confidence is that you have to be reliable and you have to be running a good online store in order to achieve these things. You need the good reviews to get the evidence that you are a trusted seller, so to get these you must be the trusted seller and meet all your customers’ buying needs.
How to deal with bad reviews
Act swiftly
If you receive a poor review you must be able to respond to this review as quick as possible, otherwise you’re putting yourself at more risk of being slandered by the already upset customer.
Be understanding
If you or a member of your company has rightfully made the mistake that your customer is claiming, then be understanding, accept the mistake and commence the steps to making it right.
Be polite
There is every chance that a negative review may include bad language or be slanderous toward the company or an individual, as the person responding, it is vital that you stay calm and handle the situation in a kind manner, considering all the comments that the customer has made.
Negative reviews are not all bad, if you can recover from a negative review well, it will often show customers that you have better customer service, as every business makes mistakes, but it is imperative to consumers how you manage these mistakes, to build that trust.
Testimonials page
Another solid method of building consumer confidence this time comes directly from your own website, a simple testimonial page. Many online stores will overlook a testimonials page, however this is a free and easy way to get good reviews, clearly presented on your website. If you can gather enough good reviews from your clients and customers then a testimonials page is definitely a way to build consumer confidence.
Will reviews benefit my SEO?
Yes. According to Moz, they believe that reviews make up 13% of the overall ranking factors, when it comes to ranking in the ‘local pack’, which is the 3 businesses that rank at the top of the list, in the map layout, which is shown due to your location.
Local Pack
This determines that reviews are only 1% less than on-page SEO such as having keywords in your title, which shows they are quite heavily weighted if you are wanting to rank higher in the local pack. So, having a large amount of reviews, and a lot of good reviews, will directly benefit your SEO when it comes to a local search.
Local Pack/Finder Ranking Factors
Image courtesy of Moz.
We want to make it easier for you to access your potential customers online, if you want to know more about online stores, see our eCommerce web design page, or contact us.
