Customer Reviews on your site: Yes or No?

An article by Eve Dmochowska    No Comments

One of the most open and social media friendly actions you can take with your website is to open it up to independent customer reviews.

[Note: This post appeared in the Social Media Digest, 2. Download it for free now, for more articles, or subscribe for regular future delivery]

If you are like Amazon, and are selling other people’s (authors’) product, there isn’t very much risk. You are actively encouraging people to recommend good products to each other, and you will simply end up selling more of the good ones and less of the bad ones. It makes you a better e-tailer.

But what do you do if the products you sell on your site are yours alone? Here the risk is far greater. If you allow customer reviews and they end up being mostly negative, you have a serious problem on your hands.

Actually, you have two problems. One, you are less likely to sell your products than you were before you started allowing reviews. And two, you seem to be making crap products, which is a pretty bad situation.

I always say: If you want a good, positive social media presence for your brand, don’t make crap products. Sometimes it’s as easy as that.

But let’s assume that your products are good. Not perfect, but good. (And, by the way, by “products” I mean customer service too!) Dell shows reviews of all their models on their site. Some are good, and some are bad. But any potential customer is immediately reassured that Dell places the reputation of their products in their customers’ hands: a sure sign that the company is confident that it can deliver on expectations.

Of course, you should not fall into the trap of thinking that if you don’t allow customer reviews on your site, that they don’t exist anywhere else. Fact is, that just as in “real” life, conversations about you can happen with or without your participation. And it is extremely wise to always control the platform of discussion, as much as you can.

Rest assured, right from the start, that it is impossible to please everyone all the time. So your reviews will not always be positive. That’s not actually a bad thing…well balanced reviews add credibility. Also, a “bad” review might simply indicate that the customer cannot meet his needs with the product, but those needs might not be shared by everyone. In that case, a bad review prevents more unhappy customers from making a bad buying decision, and steers them to a better suited product on your site. That’s a win-win situation.
If you are going to be implementing customer reviews on your site, there are some rules to keep in mind. And they are not very flexible.

Best Practices for Customer Reviews

There is no going back. Once you enable reviews on your site, and you realise that they are not working or are counter productive because of the negativity, it will be very difficult for you to withdraw them without a serious backlash from your customers.

Reviews need to be genuine and transparent. Don’t try to load your site with positive reviews that are fake…if caught you will be roasted alive. Also, don’t ever delete a negative review that is written with honest intentions.

Moderation is perfectly fine. You are fully entitled to moderate the reviews, provided you lay out the guidelines up front. So you can request no profanities, for example, and then either delete or edit those reviews that do not meet your criteria. You can edit, or remove, reviews that are plainly incorrect such as someone complaining that your product is not WiFi enabled, when it is.

Required Registration is perfectly fine too. You can ask your reviewers to register. This adds credibility to your site, and lessens the chances of spam reviews and defamatory remarks. Just make sure your registration process is easy and painless. Collect email addresses, so you can communicate with the reviewer if you have to.

How Reviews can Help You
Make your reviews social. Allow them to be Tweeted, Facebooked or shared via other social tools. Allow people to comment on the review itself, since that too will add credibility to the review process, and will help you analyse which reviews are getting the most attention.

They can help you sell more products. It’s all fine and well for you to talk about how great your product is, but a third party positive sentiment is worth much more, and can help you increase revenue.

They send a clear message of confidence in your product. By encouraging your customers to talk about your products, you are sending a clear message that overall you are confident that the conversations will be positive.

They act as focus groups. You can quickly gauge the sentiment of the public to your product or products by monitoring the reviews. This can help you improve your products, or at least help you adjust your marketing message accordingly.