Written by Raúl Carrión
Índice
According to the ONTSI (National Telecommunications and Information Society Observatory) study on e-commerce, the lack of trust is one of the main factors preventing a large number of potential customers from buying through e-commerce.
The more trust you generate, the more you will sell in your online store.
In any area of life, when we are not sure about something, what we do is look for information and ask questions. The same applies to the purchasing process in an online store. So knowing this common need in all e-commerce, we can work harder than our competitors to turn this difficulty into a differential value.
Before making a first purchase in an online store, a user asks himself three questions:
- The company that manages the e-commerce To whom will I send my money?
- The particularities of the process When will my order arrive? In which state?
- The particular product Is this product just what I need?
Most online stores will have tried to answer these questions in advance to avoid customer flight. The customer will decide whether or not to trust the word of a party interested in forcing the purchase.
Potential customers who want to verify the information provided by the e-commerce can search for it within the store itself through the comments of previous customers or go deeper by browsing through the various social networks, blogs, forums, etc. This second option involves more time and dedication, so it is usually only used for large orders or orders that are particularly sensitive for the customer.
We can therefore deduce that the first source of “independent” information to be consulted by our potential customers will be the comments of our previous customers. Here are some factors that will help us get the most out of them.
How to get more feedback on our online store?
It’s not easy to get our customers to comment positively on the store without a little nudge, especially if no one has commented yet. We cannot force them to comment, but we can remind them of the importance of their comments and encourage them to do so.
Post-purchase reminder
Once the product has arrived at its destination, we will change the status of the order to “delivered” in the administration panel, it would be great if our e-commerce platform could send the customer an email at that moment encouraging him/her to enter the store and comment on what he/she thought of the shopping experience.
If we are interested in the customer also commenting on their experience with the product, the system should automatically send the email after a certain period of time, for example, one week. The email should include a direct link to the form where the comment should be written with a one-click login system so that it is very convenient for the customer.
If we plan to encourage customers to comment on the product purchased, this email is a fantastic way to communicate it.
Incentives for commenting
As part of our promotional strategy, we should consider discounts on future purchases for our loyal customers who comment on the product sheets. It may be paradoxical to give a promotional code to a customer with a one-time complaint, but in the long run it will be beneficial for us.
It is not necessary that the discount is very large, we must take into account that it is oriented to customers who have already bought from us and therefore their level of confidence in us is higher. This is one last push to get you to comment and, of course, buy again.
Capture comments from non-customers (yet)
If we have a newly created store or so far we have not had much success with our comments, we can open the possibility to comment to users who visit us and have or have tried some of our products, even if they have not bought them from us. This time we will also increase the number of comments if we offer a small incentive.
How can you get more out of your comments?
In addition to helping us convert visitors into customers, comments can help us attract more visitors to our online store if we take into account the following points:
Improve search engine rankings (better positions)
The incorporation of comments in the product sheet generates fresh and thematically related content in our product sheets. Google will appreciate this gesture by improving the positioning for these pages.
In addition, we can further improve our positioning by subtly including in our answers the terms for which we are interested in positioning ourselves.
Improve the visibility of our ad in the Google results list
It is highly recommended to add the possibility of rating products (stars). If they are properly implemented Google can display the stars next to our result improving its visibility and therefore increasing the chances of users clicking on it.
How can I manage my customers’ comments?
Sure we have a lot of positive feedback, but we can’t have everyone like us or our carrier be 100% reliable. So one day we will have to face the dreaded negative comments. Here are some tips on how to manage these small crises correctly:
- It’s nothing personal: when faced with a negative comment, the best thing to do is to take a deep breath and try to learn from the situation. It works very well for me to let some time pass from the time I write a reply until I click the “Send” button. In most cases I soften the response by looking for a constructive way out.
- All criticism is a request for help in disguise: we must identify how we can help our dissatisfied customer.
- A well-resolved negative comment sells more than a positive comment: the main doubt of a customer in an online store is: what happens if everything goes wrong? Seeing how we have solved the worst case scenario, we resolve this doubt satisfactorily.
- Do not abuse the “you’re welcome”: we must respond to all negative comments and, on the contrary, avoid answering all positive comments, as this can be extremely tiresome.
All criticism is a request for help in disguise.
How are the seller comments?
Let’s look at some common characteristics of seller comments. Many of them are beyond our control but it is still important to know them in order to analyze the health of our online store feedback.
Updated comments
It is just as bad to have a product with no reviews as it is to have all your reviews be very old. It gives a feeling of abandonment of the project.
Appropriate mix of positive, neutral and negative comments
Excessive euphoric comments may raise suspicions of fraud.
All negative or questionable comments should be handled.
In no case should we give the impression that we neglect the needs of our customers, within 24 hours we must be able to at least indicate that we are working on solving their incident.
I hope this article will encourage you to review the status of comments in your online stores and to define a strategy to take advantage of this great resource.
