ConstantContact: Online Ratings & Reviews: A Sure-Fire Way to Increase Your Revenue
Source: ConstantContact
By: Caroline Shahar
If you’re not already asking your customers and members to rate and review your business or organization online, then you could be missing out on a great deal of revenue. People these days have become very comfortable with making their online and offline purchase/donation decisions largely based on what people not from your organization have to say. Here is a reality check of how ratings and reviews impact conversion:
- Customer reviews are the online tool that has the most significant impact on buying behavior. (source: PowerReviews/e-tailing group’s Social Shopping Study)
- 83% of all holiday shoppers are influenced by customer reviews. (source: Channel Advisor’s Consumer Shopping Habits Survey)
- 64% of shoppers consistently read reviews always or most of the time before making a purchase decision. (source: PowerReviews/e-tailing group’s Social Shopping Study)
- 49% of consumers would leave a website when conducting product research if it lacks customer reviews. (source: PowerReviews/e-tailing group’s Social Shopping Study)
- 78% of people trust consumer recommendations; 14% of people trust ads. (source: Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Survey)
If you’re not making it easy for people to find what they’re looking for — i.e., the voice of your customers or members — then it’s likely that your products, services, or cause will not even be considered. One of the best things you can do to get increased revenue from both new and repeat sales/donations is creating a pool of feedback on the sites people are using to make their purchase/donation decisions.
So how do you get your customers or members to give shoppers all the information they need to choose you? Well, only a small percentage of people write reviews on their own accord. But many more people are happy to give reviews; you just have to ask for it! And don’t worry about negative reviews; not only do they give credibility to the positive ones, but it turns out most reviews are positive anyways. According to a study by Bazaarvoice and Keller Fay:
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Just signed up with constant contact. Within 20 minutes I cancelled my subscription. I send out 20,000 emails a month to people who have signed up for my newsletter that I have collected over the years. For the last month, the constant contact customer service reps I have been talking to say that 20000 emails is no problem. They can handle it with no problems at all. As soon as I imported my list, they asked me to call them for a “random” list review. They told me I needed to provide proof from all 20000 contacts that they give their permission for me to send them emails. Since I have collected these emails for the last 10 years, this was an impossible task. The only reason I heard about constant contact was through an unsolicited email. Don’t use them if you have a large number of emails to send. They are a HUGE waste of time!