Around 95% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase, according to this article. Think about it yourself: when was the last time you bought something online without reading at least one or two reviews about the product or service in question?
The importance of customer reviews
Customer reviews are a powerful part of the marketing toolkit, for any online business. The more positive reviews you can gather, the more likely would-be shoppers are going to trust your business/brand and convert into actual paying customers.
Reviews aren’t just important for other customers to read; they’re also crucial for you as a business owner too. The process of collecting customer feedback, whether positive or negative, allows you to improve your digital products. You can incorporate new features, or upgrade old ones, to please your customers and give them what they want.
You can even create entirely new products, to satisfy a need highlighted by existing customers. Additionally, you can begin to understand online consumer behaviour - how your customers shop online, what they look for in a product, how price matters to them, and ultimately, how to win their loyalty.
The challenge of getting reviews
It’s clear that encouraging your customers to leave a review is something you must do if you want your online business to succeed. The challenge, however, is actually getting your customers to notice that you want them to review your product/service.
Should you send an email to request this? Well, you could, but with average email open rates being just 20%, there’s a good chance your email will go unnoticed in your customer’s inbox, along with all the other emails they receive every day. (That’s if your message doesn’t go straight to the junk folder.)
You could call your customers… but that’s too time-consuming, as much as a dedicated phone call would certainly be memorable. Luckily, there’s another option that can save you lots of time and is more or less guaranteed to place your business, and your product/service, firmly in front of your customers.
Introducing Tobi SMS & FREE Facebook Messenger
Tobi is the most powerful SMS and Facebook Messenger app on the Shopify platform. It enables you to automatically send instant messages to all your customers, to persuade them to leave a review. (Tobi can be used to send a whole host of promotional and customer support messages too.)
SMS messages have a 98% open rate, which when compared to email, is fantastic. When you consider that most people have their mobile phones on their person, or keep them close by at all times, you can see how Tobi can significantly improve the chances of your customer communications being read.
As well as sending SMS messages, Tobi also integrates with Facebook Messenger (which many users have on their desktop as well as their mobile phone). Around 1.3 billion people use Facebook Messenger every month and it’s becoming an increasingly effective channel for marketing.
Tobi is completely free to install and use, as is the Facebook Messenger feature of the app. The only fees you’ll pay is for sending SMS messages to different countries. It’s simple to install and set up Tobi - no expert knowledge is required.
Use Tobi to generate more customer reviews for your online business, and enjoy the benefits of increased brand awareness and trust, as well as detailed customer insights.
