The benefits of adopting a Feedback Management program are twofold: leveraging customer feedback internally, and promoting your brand.

Adopting a Feedback Management program can be doubly rewarding. As well as exploiting customer feedback internally, you can also use it to promote your brand and boost your online business. This is particularly the case if you publish them on your website. Before you take the plunge, find out why and how you can make the most of customer reviews on your website.

Customer reviews, a good selling point

Why use customer reviews to showcase your brand on the Internet? There are several reasons.

• The first: 7 out of 10 French people consult online reviews before making a purchase, and 83% believe that these reviews really help them make a choice*. Undeniably, consumer perception plays a real role in the act of buying.
• Secondly, customer reviews are a guarantee of transparency and trust for the brand image. What's more, reviews tend to boost click-through rates, sales and even basket value.
• Third: customer reviews help optimize search engine optimization, as they rank fifth out of the 8 factors observed by Google to establish a site's relevance.
• The fourth and final reason: customers feel flattered to see their reviews highlighted. In fact, 37% of consumers say they are enthusiastic about seeing their reviews published in company communications**.

Start by delivering a satisfying customer experience

Now that you've got that going for you, all that's left to do is display those customer reviews! Be careful, however, not to jump in headlong without respecting certain rules.

If you've already set up a Feedback Management program, make sure you're doing it right and delivering a good experience; it's the best way to get good reviews.

So take the time to observe the results and make sure you're handling the matter properly internally (handling negative reviews, managing responses regularly, implementing corrective actions, etc.) before you expose yourself. It's also important to communicate well with your colleagues, especially if you're working in a network. It's vital that every dealership or agency knows that reviews are going to be published. What's more, this initiative can be a good opportunity to create emulation internally. This is the case of our customer Speedywho displays customer reviews for each of its car centers.

Ensure volume and recency of notices

When it comes to content, give preference to both ratings and comments; this gives your site visitors more information. You should also make sure that verbatims are moderated (removing personal data or verbal slips, for example). This can be done either in-house or by your service provider.

Make sure you have enough reviews. If your site only displays a dozen or so reviews, and the last one was posted three months ago, that's not very reassuring... In fact, most consumers believe that the volume of published reviews and their recency play in favor of the trust they place in a brand.

Play the game by posting negative reviews

What about negative reviews? The question obviously arises, but the answer is just as obvious. If you don't publish everything, you risk being seen as a dishonest company. Consumers are very observant on this subject: 65% believe that a brand is credible if it publishes both positive and negative reviews. They are also very observant, quickly detecting if someone is trying to fool them...

Another point not to be neglected: display the answers you give to your customers. If you're in the habit (and we encourage you to be!) of replying, don't hesitate to share it on your site. This shows that your company is committed to customer satisfaction, and that it cares about them. In fact, 79% of French people read brand responses*.

Last but not least: since you've started displaying customer reviews online, keep an eye on how visitors behave on your site (time spent, basket value, number of clicks, etc.). These indicators will tell you whether your online customer reviews have generated ROI.

*Pages Jaunes / Opinion Way survey 2018

**Smartfocus survey 2016