Why Building Customer Trust Is Important To Your Business
No matter your industry, trust really can’t be underestimated in the success of your business. We’ve got the stats to prove it: according to a recent survey, when customers trust your brand, 82% will continue to use it while at least 83% will go on to recommend it to other people.
They’re impressive numbers, and they really underscore the importance of building customer trust. This week on the blog here at 21 Digital, we’re going to walk you through two simple ways on how to do it: reviews and testimonials.
Why Are Customer Reviews Valuable To Your Business?
First of all, it’s important to know the difference between a review and a testimonial. A review is an unedited opinion from your customer about your business, while a testimonial is something you’ve handpicked.
Both have the power to massively influence purchasing decisions. Your potential customers use the opinions of existing ones as the deciding factor in whether they’ll make a purchase. After all, while you might be sincere, it’s in your interests to make your business look good, whereas your customers don’t have that same obligation.
Some quick tips on reviews:
- The more reviews, the better
- A recent survey showed that companies with over 1000 reviews got almost seven times as many leads as those who didn’t.
- Balance is key:
- Companies with 10% to 30% negative reviews received 10 times as many leads as companies with all 5-star reviews. Customers find universally positive reviews a bit suspicious!
- It’s about communication
- Businesses that respond to every review (whether positive or negative) have an 86% higher rating amongst customers than those who don’t.
There’s another bonus, too! Product reviews are naturally SEO rich – while talking about your business, customers will use relevant terms, making it even easier for others to find you.
What’s The Best Way To Get Testimonials?
There are a few ways you can get customer testimonials to put on your website. If you’re pressed for time you can trigger an automatic form to send to your customers when they first make a purchase, or after they’ve made a certain amount of them.
On the other hand, you can always ask your customers yourself. (At 21 Digital, we’d recommend this second method.)
In fact, the trick is not how you ask, but the tone in which you do it. If you’ve got time, requests with the personal touch always get the best responses. Don’t speak as the company, but as yourself instead, connecting with the customer as one human being to another.
Make it clear that they’re valued, both by yourself and by the company as a whole. And don’t forget the most important bit – always get permission before you display their responses for all to see on your website!
While you’re at it, it might be worth asking if there’s anything you can do better. Customers love it when they feel they’re being listened to – and when it comes right down to it, that’s what reviews and testimonials are all about.
How Can You Get Reviews For Your Website?
Amongst some of the best ways to display reviews include the use of services like Trustpilot and Feefo. You have to pay for them, but it’s definitely worth the cost! They’re both review platforms which make a big feature of their transparency, making them powerful tools to quickly increase trust amongst your customers.
Getting reviews via Trustpilot and Feefo can also help you improve your Google Seller Ratings. Essentially, they’re an extension of Google Adwords which display star ratings next to your paid ads. Sites which display Google Seller Ratings next to their ads can expect an increase in their conversion rates by up to 28%. Great stuff!
There are a couple of conditions you need to meet to get Google Seller Ratings. The first one, obviously, is that you need to be using paid search advertising, and your campaign has to be opted in to Google Search. The others are:
- You need to have collected at least 30 reviews in the last 12 months (via platforms like Trustpilot and Feefo, for example)
- Your online store needs to have a minimum rating of 3.5 stars on Google Shopping
As with testimonials, regularly communicating with your customers – thanking them for their business and asking them what you could do better – is all helpful at increasing the number of reviews for your company.
The other way you can look at doing it is by using social media. What’s more, there are a few key things your customers will look for on your site that are the bare minimum for gaining their trust. We’ll talk more about these two subjects in next week’s blog, so stay tuned for then!
In the meantime, if you need any help with your website’s design, social media or paid search marketing, then we’re the guys for you. Click here to see a range of our core services, or give us a quick call on 01282 660 560 to see what we can do for you.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @21Digital_Ltd
Sam Fletcher heads up the agency. With over 15 years of digital experience, he manages the delivery and client relationships for campaigns across a wide range of sectors. Using his unique business insight and expertise, he’s constantly looking to improve even further on 21 Digital’s results-focused, all under one roof service offering.
