5 Ways to Attract More Customer Reviews by Linda Bustos 

 

In our neverending quest to increase conversion rates and revenue, we often focus on web design and offers, and overlook the power of customer reviews. There are many benefits of reviews, not only to your customers, but also to your merchandising and purchasing team. But attracting reviews is a challenge — even Amazon’s average sales-to-reviews ratio is 1300 to 1. Do you know what percentage of customers ‘convert’ to review contributors? What can you do to attract more reviews?

The benefits of customer reviews
1. More content.

Customer reviews reveal insights about the product that do not appear in the manufacturer’s description or even your own copywriting. This is very important in online shopping, as there is not a salesperson on hand to discuss the product. This allows customers to research their purchase more thoroughly, with honest opinions. The more review content you have, the less likely the visitor will turn elsewhere (like Amazon or a competitor) to find this information.

2. Trust.

Consumer surveys consistently show that people prefer shopping on sites that show customer reviews because it reduces their risk of purchasing a bad product. Emarketer found that consumer reviews are trusted nearly 12 times more than manufacturers’ descriptions. Consumers actively seek out sites that offer a wealth of reviews. 81% of consumers consider the availability of customer reviews to be “very important,” according to iPerceptions.

Even negative reviews create warm fuzzies about the merchant – it shows transparency and honesty. Research by Forrester has shown that after reading a negative review, 26% continue to shop for the product anyway.

3. Product discovery.

You’ve heard of the “paradox of choice,” the more results you offer, the lower conversion. Sort by star rating is a powerful tool for shoppers to make informed decisions with minimal effort.

4. SEO.

When reviews are added to a page, they use “customer speak” that other customers also type into search engine (including misspellings and specific problem/solutions, e.g. “socks good for diabetics.”) Make sure your review solution does not use frames that are not crawled by search engines. It can also help your internal site search for synonyms and misspellings you may have missed if you include them in your index.

5. Feedback.

Reading customers’ reviews help you to understand what customers like/dislike about products and how they use them, to decide whether to restock items or discontinue products, and what to merchandise as featured products on home pages and in email campaigns (e.g “customer favorites”). If you’re thin on content, read reviews from other sellers that carry the same products.

6. Backup.

If a product is really poorly made, reach out to your supplier and use customer reviews as evidence that the product is shoddy.

How to attract more customer reviews
1. Get more out of givers
Gift givers, that is. For many businesses, the holiday season is the high season, which means a big opportunity to reach out post-purchase and ask for customer reviews. While gift givers may be reluctant to review items they never took out of the box, they can provide feedback on certain categories (apparel, jewelry, etc), or review your company/service.

Tip: Always include a photo of and link to the product(s) purchased in the email.

2. Test offers vs. altruism
It’s all about the ask. It’s a no-brainer that e-tailers reach out to customers post-purchase and request reviews, but very few are actually doing it. So doing it is the first step, and testing incentives to submit reviews is the second.

Why test incentives?
You could offer a dollar or percentage discount, but you risk a “schill review” in exchange for the discount. You want authentic reviews. One way to get around this is to offer a “chance to win” a really great product or gift certificate.

But, do customers need to get something to give something? Research says no. 90% of consumers surveyed by Baaarvoice say they write reviews to help others make better buying decisions, and more than 70% want to help companies improve the products they build and carry. So appeal to the do-gooder in your customer in your request, mention how they can help other shoppers and help you improve your product line to keep satisfying customers like them.

The key to conversion is to understand what motivates your customer. Split test an altruistic appeal vs. discount/chance-to-win incentive to see what gets the best results.

3. Optimize review usability
If you want more checkouts – remove the required registration, right? Why not smash the barriers to writing customer reviews as well? Altrec bakes name and email fields into the review submission form, making the process nearly frictionless.

 

Another idea is to give reviewers tips on what makes a good review:

 

Finally, ask them to rate specific attributes. Often customers are not thinking about every attribute when writing a review, but can offer good feedback when reminded about them. Delightful Deliveries does this very well.

 

4. Place calls to action on product pages

Why wait for a purchase? Ask shoppers to review products on product pages themselves. Some site browsers will own items they did not buy from you, or even experience them in a store (this sweater fits tight, try a size larger, etc).

 

The Macy’s example incentivizes it’s product page request. Again, you could test this vs. a blurb about how kind and wonderful of a person one is if they leave a review.

5. Grab feedback in-store
I’ve never seen this done, but why not create a mobile app where customers can join, come into the store, experience products and write reviews through the app to earn points redeemable for real products or other perks? The app could link to product review forms via QR codes.

Make it a new year resolution to grow your CRO – Customer Review Optimization!

Looking for help with ecommerce strategy? Contact the Elastic Path Research & Strategy team at consulting@elasticpath.com to learn how our ecommerce strategy services can improve your business results.

 

The readers have spoken: David Jones, Myer, Qantas Airways and Optus offered some of the worst customer service this year, based on comments on last week’s blog, The Venture’s 2011 Worst Customer Service Awards.

 

 

Image: There's no other store like David Jones ... except maybe Myer. Photo: Nic Walker

Other companies were prominent. Foxtel and Vodafone featured for poor call centre and billing processes. Vodafone is a regular in these awards. Telstra had a mixed response; some criticised its call-centre and billing but others noted its customer service improved in 2011.

Few readers criticised the big banks for poor service. Perhaps that could change after the banks dragged their feet after the Reserve Bank’s latest interest rate cut.

Surprisingly, McDonald’s featured several times in the biggest decline in customer service category, with readers saying the fast food giant’s standards have slipped in 2011.

What’s your view?

• Do you agree with the companies chosen for worst customer service?
• Should other companies have made the list?
• Do you think Australian consumers expect too much customer service?
• Are you willing to pay more for better service?

The results make interest reading but let’s be honest: the Worst Customer Service Awards are not a precise survey tool. The blog format can bias results and encourage readers to focus on a small group of companies. And not all readers completed the four questions, which were as follows:

• Australian company with the worst customer service in 2011.
• Most frustrating call-centre, voice-recorded message, or billing department.
• Biggest decline in customer service standards in 2011.
• Worst example of shocking service.

What the blog does have is volume. About 36,000 people read it and 216 provided detailed comments on their service experiences. Dozens of pages of reader comments, some recounting awful service experiences, gave a first-hand insight into how some companies treat their customers.

Their comments should be compulsory reading for companies that deal with the public and continue to cut service and damage their brand. Now in their third year, the Worst Customer Service Awards have enough reader comments on bad service to fill a book.

It was no surprise that David Jones and Myer dominated the top award. I suspect service at department and discount stores has become so bad that customers simply no longer expect anything better. You find the clothes, try them, fetch other sizes and if you are lucky there’s a staffed cash register nearby where you can pay. And they wonder why sales are falling. At least they are using more staff over Christmas, according to reports.

Qantas was another obvious choice in the top category. The grounding of its fleet in October clearly influenced results, but there seems to be more to it, judging by reader responses.

Australia Post’s inclusion was a surprise. It was nominated six times in the top category for poor service. I hadn’t noticed deterioration in its service; more reader confirmation is needed.

• What’s your view: are Australia Post’s service standards slipping?

Foxtel also receive more entries than expected. I found the pay-TV operator quite good to deal with, but some readers had a terrible experience, particularly with its call centre. Are they right?

One reader felt the comments were too harsh. She said: “I had to stop reading (the comments) as I started to feel overwhelmed by the out-of-proportion reactions people have to customer service experiences. The generalisations are amazing. You deal with one or two people and an entire company is suddenly worthless … Get some perspective. I’ve had good and bad experiences this year, and take each as an individual experience that I move on from, rather than letting frustration build to the point where months later I’m still bothering to get worked up. People in service jobs are people too, and I think customers forget this.”

Fair point. Perhaps the best advice is rather than get angry, get even. Shop online. Change utility providers if they have poor service. Support smaller independent shops that provide real customer service. Let big companies know that low customer service eventually means low customer numbers.

And don’t stew on the problem for too long. Why pay an even higher price for bad service?

Brisbane Times, Lifestyle

 

Jean Paul Gaultier has joked Anna Wintour is "more monstrous" than the editor in The Devil Wears Prada.

 

 

Image: Shades of the devil? ... US Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

The 2006 movie was based on a book and followed a young woman as she started a career on a fashion magazine. Her formidable editor was harsh and unapproachable, and at the time it was speculated that she was based on US Vogue head Anna Wintour.

Gaultier enjoys watching movies about fashion, but that one wasn't his favourite. 

"Anna Wintour is a lot more monstrous than she is described!" he laughed to British newspaper The Independent, and was then asked if she is a positive figure. "She is a figure," he replied.

The designer is now the subject of his own movie, called Jean Paul Gaultier Ou Les Codes Bouleversés (Jean Paul Gaultier Or the Shattered Codes). It was made by model and his former muse Farida Khelfa, and he is delighted with the finished project.

"She knows me. She can show things even that I don't realise about myself," he explained.

Gaultier is renowned for his iconic pieces, including the conical bra he made for Madonna. He also once dressed David Beckham in a skirt, and wishes more designers would take the sort of risks he does.

"When I did the skirt, it was more like a symbol of equality for fashion for men and women... also, [to show that] men can be seductive and also men can be 'male objects'. It was not to scandalise or whatever," he insisted. "Show your sensitive and fragile part."

Gaultier also discussed the John Galliano scandal. The designer has been found guilty of making anti-Semitic and racist comments in France, which cost him his jobs at Christian Dior and his eponymous label earlier this year.

Gaultier insists it was pressure which caused Galliano's issues and hopes he will return to fashion in the future.

"John is very talented. He has done some beautiful things for Dior. I think it is completely sad that he doesn't have his own label anymore. I think it's bad. There are some people who say and do terrible things and they are not even punished for it," he said.

 

What are your experiences in the fashion industry? Does it compare with scenes from 'Devil wears Prada', or are you lucky enough to relish the role?

Brian Walker, Inside Retail

Online retail is set to take over the world of retailing. Shops will be extinct, no one will ever visit a shop again. The retail world as we know it will cease to exist.

The shopping centres, department stores, retail speciality stores are all threatened. No one will ever leave the comfort of their PCs or smart phones again.

All great reading, the stuff of best selling novels! There’s a plot, subtext and more bias than a Shane Warne leg spinner.

Our Retail Doctor Group research study in conjunction with our global partners continues to tell a rather different story:

Online is an important part of any retailers multi channel presence (as is social media).

• Online is a critically important research tool and our customers are using it increasingly.
• Online currently accounts for less than 8% of our total retail spend.
• International evidence that organic growth in e commerce is actually slowing down (Source: Neuro marketing conference – Munich 2011).
• Research shows that a strongly branded physical store network is vital to growing a good online offer.
• Wait this can’t be true, surely not? What happened to online world domination?

The first and most key point regarding online is that it is an amazingly powerful tool to capture customer data, onsell, upsell, promote and essentially keep that customer for life. Its automated ability to capture real time customer data, to establish and embed buying practices and future predictions of target customer shopping behaviour is certainly something to make use of. However we still see the vast majority of retail sales in this country in the physical channels.

So our key fitness tip is to not just embrace online retailing but to embrace integrated multi channel retailing. And we actually have real facts and research to support this! Not just a good story and a few exaggerated claims!

Forrester research quotes multi-channel shoppers spend 1.8x more than a single channel shopper and we see similar figures from leading retailers. Urban Outfitters, for example, says shoppers that use 3 channels spend six times more than single channel shoppers.

Compare these figures and research with those physical retailers who do not have an active and mined customer database. Now we start to see the huge competitive advantage (and opportunity) that multi channel retailing has.

Happy Fit Retailing!

Brian Walker is MD of Australasia’s leading retail consultancy Retail Doctor Group (www.retaildoctor.com.au). Contact 02 9460 2882 or email brian@retaildoctor.com.au.

By Alex Tilbury, National Features, News.com.au

The end of the financial year is an anxious time for taxpayers, with many bewildered by the complexity of tax reporting and stressed by the amount of paperwork involved.

Image: June 30's just four days away, so it's time to rush. Picture: Getty Images

But if you treat it as an opportunity instead of a chore, it can be a chance to increase your tax refund with some last-minute action.

June 30 is just four days away, so here are some tips to help you grab a bigger slice back from the Australian Taxation Office.

EXPENSE CLAIMS

Any purchases of work-related items such as tools or journals made before Friday can be claimed as a tax deduction from next week.

You can claim up to $300 (it's rising to $500 from 2012) of work-related expenses without the need to have written receipts.

However, once your claim exceeds $300 you must have receipts for the full amount.

With work-related car expenses, some people think that if they haven't kept a log book, they can't claim. However you can claim up to 5000km of work-related use based on a reasonable estimate of business kilometres, without needing to keep a log book.

Check your medical expense rebate after recent changes to the claiming limit and make use of the education tax refund but remember rebates differ for primary and secondary school students.

INVESTMENTS

Investment property expense claims and prepaying interest on investment loans can boost this year's refund.

AMP financial planner Tony Rigby says many services that relate to maintenance and upkeep of investment properties can be claimed as a tax deduction.

"This includes expenses such as lawn mowing, pool maintenance and other similar costs," he says.

"Certain types of financial advice and other professional services received in relation to an investment property may also be tax deductible."

Advice and investment group Mercer says the end of financial year is a time to review your portfolio to ensure you balance out capital gains and losses.

Tax specialist and Wallmans Lawyers partner Stephen Heath says interest on investment loans can be paid 13 months in advance and claimed this financial year.

DEFER INCOME

If you can defer any non-essential income until July, do it.

Aussies have become big savers in the past couple of years, but this means more of us will pay tax on our interest income, which is taxed at our marginal tax rate.

AMP's Rigby says there is a strategy for homeowners to reduce this potential bill.

"Instead of holding cash in savings accounts, it may be better for people to keep their money in a 100 per cent mortgage offset account," he says.

"As these offset accounts don't earn interest, no tax needs to be paid.

"By having the money offset against the mortgage, you will also reduce the interest paid on the loan."

SUPERANNUATION

Consider making a contribution to your dependant spouse's superannuation, which could provide you with a tax offset.

Self-employed people aged under 50 years can put up to $25,000 into their super fund and claim a tax deduction.

Those aged over 50 may be able to contribute up to $50,000. The money going into super is only taxed at 15 per cent rather than the person's marginal tax rate.

If you are a low or middle-income earner, you may be able to take advantage of the super co-contribution payment by making eligible personal super contributions to your super fund or retirement savings account.

The Federal Government will match up to $1000 of your personal super contributions.

Be careful with the timing of last-minute super contributions.

"Make sure that the super fund receives the contribution before July 1," Heath says.

"Otherwise it's a leap of faith that the trustee will record it as contributed before June 30."

Heath says people with self-managed super funds can look at making an off-market transfer of shares into their fund.

This may give them a tax deduction for super contributions plus crystallise some losses.

SUPER SPLITTING

Michelle Smith, a financial adviser at Mercer, says the lead-up to June 30 often spurs people to get their finances in order and plan their future.

"But this shouldn't just mean filling out tax returns," she says.

"It's also important for people to review their superannuation entitlements and utilise opportunities to build up their wealth and minimise tax."

"Consider superannuation splitting. Splitting super contributions can be popular in the instance where a higher income-earning spouse or defacto salary-sacrifices contributions (or makes tax-deductible contributions) and then splits the contributions with the lower income-earning spouse," she says.

"The higher-income spouse gets the tax break and the other spouse gets a larger super benefit.

"Typically, there are two main advantages with the contribution-splitting strategy."

If you retire under 60 and take all or part of the super benefit as a lump sum, then each member of a couple can access their own tax-free threshold for lump sums (taxable component) of $160,000 (for the 2010/2011 tax year). If your partner is a few years older than you, then by splitting super contributions with an older spouse, they can access super benefits at an earlier stage.

The older partner also reaches 60 first, which means the result will be tax-free super benefits at an earlier time.

BUSINESS OWNERS

New small business owners seem to worry the most about tax. They fear being unable to understand GST and this is causing anxiety.

A total of 91 per cent reveal they do not have a thorough understanding of their annual tax obligations and 84 per cent admit they are unsure about what can be claimed as a business expense, a survey for American Express has found.

Jason Fryer, head of small business services at American Express, says most new business owners wonder at some stage if they have complied with the latest tax legislation and whether they will fall foul of the Australian Taxation Office if they make a mistake.

Tax expert and author Adrian Raftery says most small business owners want to know the likelihood of being audited.

As a rule, always keep business and personal expenses separate and use a dedicated business card.

FAMILY TRUSTS

These trusts, also known as discretionary trusts, can be set up to hold a family's assets or to conduct a family business.

Generally, they are established for asset protection or tax purposes.You can lose franking credits in some circumstances if a family trust election is not made.

In other words, if a family trust makes a family trust election and then pays income out to someone not included in the family group, the distribution will be taxed at the maximum rate possible.

The ATO is getting tough on family trusts this year, so MHM Chartered Accountants principal Bradley Conn advises that you contact your accountant before you do anything major such as buy a new car or computer.

"Discuss depreciation and deductions first, rather than after as many people do, as there may be alternate ways of doing things that would be beneficial from a tax point of view," he says.

"Most people tell their accountant after, when the horse has already bolted."

Do you dread tax time? Or do you have your own tips for making end of financial year more bearable?

Whenever a female appears wearing tights or leggings as pants this topic is discussed robustly within families and workplaces all over Australia.

Ian Wallace from The Punch, weighs in on leggings this winter.

The website tightsarenotpants.com has gone as far as publishing a manifesto against tights worn as pants and even offers copyright-free templates of a logo and stickers to be used as protest material. Editor’s note: Aussie readers would be more familiar with the term “leggings” instead of tights. “Jeggings” presumably come under the same category.

The manifesto of this group states:
The wearing of tights as pants is an abomination.

Many women spend years trying to find those perfect jeans or pants that minimise their bums while making their legs look longer. And then in one fell swoop they destroy any illusion by wearing tights as pants.

It leaves nothing to the imagination. Some women try to cover up by wearing an oversize shirt or jumper - but if tights-clad butts are hanging out all over the place gasping for air through the fabric then these women are in denial about the state of their body. I am convinced they have removed the mirror from their homes.

Nola Weinstein is Fashion Editor of online website Glam Chic and she says the look flatters about .0004 per cent of the population. Her main problem with tights as pants is that they DO NOT SUPPORT and it is not a pretty sight to walk through a shopping mall and see someone’s bum jiggling all over the place.

Celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have perpetrated the trend of tights as pants, and tights have been showcased as pants on the fashion runways of the world.

Some women reading this will argue that tights are more comfy than a pair of jeans or pants and they also come in a range of colours, patterns and textures. The material and therefore the threads in tights, however, are thinner and wearers seem oblivious to the fact that people can often see through them.

A wander through the streets will confirm that tights as pants are becoming a fashion epidemic but just because a woman can wear tights as pants does not mean she should.

Women who wear tights as pants seem to select one size smaller than they would choose to wear in pants or jeans. In mathematics teachers always stress that if a smaller number is divided by a larger number there is always a remainder. That remainder is an abomination if tights are worn as pants.

If a woman wears tights as pants she must enjoy people gawking at her body parts and assessing her fitness level. Tights as pants are truly eye pollution and possibly a form of public indecency. I hope there is an end in sight as this is one fad I cannot get behind.

Ian Wallace: You won't catch him in a pair of leggings. Fashion faux pas, or are you getting into the trend?

Myer blitzed its own long history of catwalk theatrics on Friday night with a spectacular autumn/winter 2011 launch show and party for 500 guests under the elegant, vaulted dome of Melbourne's world heritage listed Royal Exhibition Building. Enjoy!

Jen and Jess fans? What do you think of the latest collection?

Getty captured some of the amazing moments of the spectacular Alex Perry show at the Melbourne Fashion Festival with Megan Gale returning to the catwalk.  

  

  

     

So what do you think? Wearable or not and has Alex Perry done Aussie designers proud this time round?

Professional Beauty.com.au 

Did you know that up to 30 percent of online bookings are made on days when salons and spas are closed?

Kitomba, the makers of salon and spa software, recently revealed their online booking traffic statistics. They found that 21 percent of bookings are made on a Monday.

“Across all our customers, in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, Monday is the most popular day for booking a hair or beauty appointment on the internet,” said Geoff Bilbrough, Marketing Manager, Kitomba.

A further 8 percent of bookings were made on Sunday, meaning nearly 30 percent of all online bookings are made on days when most salons are closed.

Customers are not only booking during the day, either. The review showed that every hour of every day, in every country there were customer’s booking online - even between the hours of 1am - 3am.

Bookings made through Kitomba’s online booking service peaked between 11am and 1pm, and only declined slowly through to 11pm in the evening.

For salon owners, having the option of online booking means you get to take bookings when you’re closed. You can also take bookings during business hours, as you can take them without having to answer the phone, which gives you more time with clients.

Kitomba Online Booking is a cost-effective way for salons to get online quickly and easily. Specifically-designed for the needs of salons and spas, the appointment book remains completely private and owners get to confirm or reschedule every appointment.

For more information, go here or call 1800 161 101.

Image: Monday is the most popular day for bookings - perhaps this is when we need the biggest pick me up!

Do you see this trend in your workplace?

 Fashion Review.com.au

  

Key Fashion Trends for the Autumn/Winter 2011 season by Myer.





Featuring Australian supermodels Jennifer Hawkins and Jessica Hart

The ‘Urban Army’ Trend
‘Urban Army’ is an extension of the military theme that have dominated collections over the past two seasons. Leather aviator jackets and military boots are items to watch.

The ‘Lady Chic’ Trend
Think 1950′s – 1960′s Hollywood fashion with mid-calf length skirts with chic knits and cardigans. Inspired by the likes of the television show sensation Mad Men. It’s all about feminine silhouettes with garments designed to flaunt the female figure.

The ‘Country Club’ Trend
Heavy wool knits and soft leathers create a sophisticated yet relaxed ‘Country Club’ look. Layer-up with natural shades of greys, camels, neutrals and blacks. Expect vests and faux fur to be this season’s must-have.

Would you wear it?