4 Ways to Leverage Customer Comments for Ecommerce Growth

IN THIS GUIDE…

We’ll explore ways you can leverage customer comments to evolve your ecommerce business. This includes using feedback to:

1. Bolster brand reputation and improve consumer trust.
2. Build long-lasting customer relationships.
3. Identify and rectify consumer pain points.
4. Improve SEO and SEM strategies.

Introduction

Collecting customer feedback is crucial for ecommerce retailers. But at a time when consumers are more empowered than ever to take their business elsewhere, it’s not enough to simply collect customer reviews and occasionally read through them. Instead, you need to go a step further by leveraging that feedback to make meaningful changes to your ecommerce strategy.

When you leverage feedback effectively, you signal to current customers that you value them while encouraging prospective buyers to trust in your brand. After taking that extra step to make meaningful changes based on what real customers say is needed, you will have set your business up for sustainable ecommerce growth.

1. Generate More Feedback to Improve Brand Reputation

When it comes to reputation management, it’s important to remember 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and that the average customer is willing to spend 31% more with a retailer with high reviews. By generating more customer reviews, you’ll be able to assess your brand’s standing with consumers while building a pipeline of positive comments to showcase the best aspects of your company.

Collecting feedback post-purchase is a simple yet effective method of gathering comments and ratings from customers as their shopping experience is top of mind. This feedback will help lay the groundwork for improving the customer experience and is also a great way to connect with buyers by showing you value their opinions.

Many ecommerce retailers collect post-purchase comments using a voice-of-customer (VoC) feedback tool that automatically triggers a survey as soon as a buyer clicks the checkout button. However, if customers fail to complete the survey, retailers can use that VoC tool to follow up with additional feedback requests via email.

What You Should Take Away

Roughly 4 out of 5 consumers say they favor brands that ask for and accept customer feedback. Shoppers who have a positive experience with an ecommerce brand are more likely to refer it to others, and 65% of new business opportunities come from referrals and recommendations.

The bottom line is that customer comments are powerful. When ecommerce retailers take the extra step and utilize that feedback, they can enhance the shopping experience and strengthen trust in their brand.

2. Interact with Customer Comments to Build Long-Lasting Relationships

Marketing leaders agree that retaining customers is now more important than acquisition. Not only are repeat customers historically easier — and less expensive — to sell to, but loyal shoppers spend up to 67% more compared to new customers. Collecting and responding to customer comments is the first step toward turning buyers into loyal customers.

From a consumer’s perspective, companies that welcome comments care about their customers and the quality of their shopping experiences — not just selling products. Embracing buyer feedback increases the likelihood customers will return to your online store for future purchases and become advocates for your brand.

It’s no surprise that half of all digital marketers prioritize using online reviews and personalization tactics to improve retention. Gathering shopper feedback can supply you with compelling content that can be used to enrich the shopping experience and inspire confidence in your brand.

What You Should Take Away

Ecommerce retailers can use feedback to form meaningful connections with customers. Approximately 57% of shoppers say they would be unlikely to trust a business that does not take the time to respond to customer feedback. Likewise, feeling unappreciated is the top reason current customers decide to switch brands, which commonly stems from a lack of feedback opportunities or engagement by the business.

Therefore, you need to treat the feedback process as a customer touchpoint and use comments to help tell your brand’s story. By continuing to interact with customers after they’ve completed a purchase, you make shoppers feel valued and heard.

3. Use Customer Comments to Identify and Rectify Concerns

Each negative comment or rating is a new opportunity to identify and amend issues customers experienced along the path to purchase. You can leverage customer feedback to identify what shoppers like about your website, products, or services — and determine which areas need improvement.

Promptly acting on feedback gives you an opportunity to shift a customer’s experience with your brand from negative to positive
while also helping to ensure the same issue does not continue. Negative feedback can shed light on your customers’ pain points during the buyer journey. You can also share this feedback with other team members or departments to fix recurring issues, influence changes to your company’s website or internal operations, and create a better shopping experience.

A study of 1,000 consumers found that shoppers will not hesitate to share their experience with others following a purchase. If you choose not to acknowledge or rectify a shopper’s negative comments, then you risk losing that customer as well as future ones.

What You Should Take Away

The benefits of acknowledging and addressing negative comments head-on far outweigh the cost of ignoring or avoiding them. You need to read all comments, quickly identify negative feedback, and take action to rectify complaints.

In turn, negative comments will give you a chance to convert
a poor customer experience into a positive one.

4. Increase Website Traffic with More Online Reviews

Collecting more customer comments is an often-overlooked method of improving a company’s visibility across the world’s most used search engines.
Using Google as an example, the five-star scores generated in organic search results and paid ads are calculated using verified customer feedback from trusted third-party review sites.

Seller ratings are typically the first thing consumers see when searching for your company or products. Due to Google’s search engine crawlers indexing online reviews, a better star rating means your company is more likely to appear toward the top of search engine results pages
— making customer feedback a valuable SEO tool. Considering that 41% of ecommerce traffic comes from organic search, collecting more customer feedback could lead to a higher conversion rate.

As you grow your company’s presence on Google, you also improve the effectiveness of your SEM campaigns. Companies that feature Google Seller Ratings in paid ads have a 17% higher click-through rate than those that don’t.

What You Should Take Away

A 2021 survey of 1,200 consumers conducted by Bizrate Insights found 91% of respondents read at least one review before making a purchase decision, while 59% said they use Google to look for those reviews. By collecting more customer feedback, your business can improve its ranking across popular search engines — and generate more traffic to your ecommerce site.

Because Google only displays feedback from third-party review sites, using a VoC survey tool that automatically syndicates reviews to the search engine is an efficient, cost-effective way of improving ratings. As a Google-trusted resource, Bizrate Insights can offer Seller Ratings Syndication to partners at no additional cost.

Accelerate Your Ecommerce Growth with Bizrate Insights

A dedicated VoC feedback tool is the easiest way to collect more reviews from customers. Bizrate Insights’ free solutions help retailers gather feedback from verified buyers at critical points in the customer journey.

With unlimited survey collection included at no extra cost, Bizrate Insights ensures you’ll capture all the customer feedback you need to assess your company’s performance accurately. All response data is then analyzed by VitalSigns, our flagship reporting platform, and formulated into actionable insights to inform your ecommerce strategy.

Learn more about how our solutions can empower your company to meet its goals.