Reviews Happen:A Strategy of When &

How to Respond

Mike WardPresident

ThriftBooks

Presenters

Jordan GarnerDirector of Marketing

Trustpilot

AgendaIntro to ThriftBooks & Trustpilot

Why Customer Reviews Matter

Collecting Reviews

Responding to Reviews

Leveraging Reviews

The ThriftBooks Success Story

Q & A

Introduction to ThriftBooks & Trustpilot

ThriftBooks by the Numbers

95% of consumers rated ThriftBooks 4 or 5 stars

Trustpilot by the Numbers

Social Proof for Future Shoppers

Consistent and Genuine Feedback

For Consumers• Free for all – consumer review site• Discovery and recommendation platform• Social sharing and community experience

For Businesses• Automated review collection system• Customer engagement and interaction• Insights and analytics engine

The Trustpilot Community

Why Customer Reviews Matter

50% of Americans who are aware of advertising don’t trust what they see, read

or hear in advertisements.

44% think advertisements are dishonest. -YouGov.com

“

72% of people trust consumer opinions posted online

(2nd only to “Recommendations from people I know”)

Need recognitio

n

Product

specification

Evaluation

of option

s

Purchase decision

Post-

purchase

Influenced by reviews

Look for reviews

Leave reviews

How Consumers Purchase

Look for reviews

Leave reviews

Look for reviews

The Consumer Buyer Journey

90% of consumers say buying decisions are influenced by online

reviews

The Impact of Reviews on the Consumer Buying Journey

72% of consumers will take action after reading

a positive review

Customers are likely to spend 31% more on a

business with “excellent” reviews

The Age of the Consumer

Companies must become customer obsessed and the only sustainable competitive advantage is knowledge and engagement with customers.

“-Forrester Research

Reviews are happening EVERYWHERE…

…you need a STRATEGY!

Collecting Reviews

Impact of Asking for Reviews Proactively

NOT asking for reviews:50/50 split positive/negative at

best(likely many more negative

reviews)

Proactively asking for reviews:83% positive reviews

More balanced representation of a business

Building a Trustworthy Brand Be Proactive!

Of the 4.3M reviews

we've helped customers

collect since May of

2015, 86% have been 4

stars or higher

• Desired focus of feedback?• Collection vehicle?• Timing?• Call-to-Action?• To incent or not to incent?• Reminders?• Where to collect reviews?

Considerations for Review Collection

• Open & discoverable reviews• Verified reviews & recourse to report if suspicious• Opportunity to respond & consumers to update• Easy, non-invasive experience for the customer• Trust signals (names, date/time stamp, etc.)• Review format CONTENT!• Third-party validation• Social sharing

What to Look for in a Review Platform

Implementing a Proactive Collection Strategy

1 Design a collection flow in your existing customer journey to align with your goals

2 Measure the results, optimize the collection rate, & iterate3Identify your org’s

goals for a proactive review strategy

NEVER STOP ASKING!

 Responding to Reviews

• Should we respond to reviews?• Will responding to reviews improve retention?• Can I actually save unhappy customers with a

response?• Can responding to reviews turn into revenue?

Common FAQs Around Responding

YESto all of the above

Content of Responses Always apologize

Address customer concerns directly

Give the customer a forum for follow-up

If the situation warrants, also reach out privately – not everything should be discussed in a public forum

PRO TIP: Ask the reviewer to update their review if resolved…

A Example:

1 Positive

Tone of Review Responses

2 Personal3

Professional4 In line with your brandPRO TIP: For any 3rd party platform that is actively receiving

customer feedback,CURATION & RESPONSE is crucial!

• Resolving issues for unhappy customers to win them back

• Encouraging happy customers to be return customers• Promoting customer advocacy among brand champions• Showing that your company cares & takes reviews

seriously• Giving your company a chance to build a brand voice

Benefits of Responding to Reviews

= REVENUE(remember to actually ACT on the insights you uncover)

Leveraging Reviews

Need recognitio

n

Product

specification

Evaluation

of option

s

Purchase decision

Post-

purchase

How Consumers Purchase

Insert TRUST SIGNALS on every step of your acquisition funnel to give prospects the verification they

need to move forward until CONVERSION

WEBSITE

SOCIAL

SEARCH

Paid Search(via Seller Ratings Ad Extension)

Organic Search(via 3rd party sites & rich snippets)

DISPLAYBanner, Re-Targeting, Social Media Ads…

EMAILS

The

Success Story

The Strategy:Make it easy for all customers to leave reviews for ThriftBooks in one central discoverable location

Respond to reviews to address & resolve any issues, encourage return business & customer advocacy

Make reviews easy to find for prospective customers throughout their acquisition funnel

On-Site Integrations:

Home Page:

Testimonials Page:

Off-Site Integrations:SEM:

SEO:

Facebook:

The Results:GROWTH

The Results:CUSTOMER SURVEY

Recent survey of customers and non-customers asked to rank the importance of elements of our site and others

FINDINGS: Reviews and trustworthiness of company in top 3 factors Thriftbooks.com scored parity with Amazon Far ahead of competitors in the vertical

The Results:CUSTOMER SERVICE & RETENTIONIntegrating customer reviews with existing customer profiles in CRM

→ more sophisticated customer contact strategy & enriched data

→ save & retain more customers

BUSINESS OPTIMIZATIONAsking customers to review ThriftBooks in one central location on Trustpilot

→ high quantity & quality consolidated customer feedback→ better identify & analyze trends

→ improve site, offering, and business

To-Do List

1. Proactively collect reviews from all of your customers in a central location

2. Respond & resolve ALL reviews3. Leverage your reviews to grow &

improve your business- sharing reviews EVERYWHERE- encouraging customer

advocacy- mine reviews for insights

4. Measure your success!

Q&AMike Ward

@ThriftBooksUSAJordan Garner

@TrustpilotUS@jordanroseg