Your website is your online presence. It should be designed to attract and welcome new visitors, and provide easy online purchasing options. But should your site also contain customer feedback tools?
New Study: Surveys Increase Sales
The numbers from RatePoint, a leading provider of customer feedback for online businesses, show that you should. Customer reviews, opinions, feedback, and suggestions can greatly improve your online sales. Why? The survey conducted by RatePoint show that online customers are more likely to buy products online when they read previous customer feedback.
43 percent of businesses surveyed noted that they experienced more sales as a result of posting feedback and product reviews. 28 percent showed more online traffic to their website. In other research published by Deloitte and Touche, 82 percent of customers who shop online say their purchasing decisions are influenced by customer reviews.
Even Negative Feedback can be Beneficial
In addition, feedback doesn’t necessarily need to be positive. Many small business owners with an online store fear that negative feedback may result in turning customers away or discouraging sales. However, the data from the survey showed that any review is six times more likely to affect the business in a positive way. The fact is that customers put more trust in a business that allows and displays customer opinions.
One thing that many small businesses owners don’t realize is the power and potential for improvement. Customer feedback lets a business owner know what is right and what is wrong with a product. Using this valuable information a small business owner can continually develop products to meet customer needs.
Ideas for Obtaining Feedback
And what better way to serve your customer needs than to ask them directly? There are many ways you can obtain customer feedback. One is including a product review section on each product web page for customers to share their thoughts. You could also ask for customer feedback with every completed purchase. And don’t forget to ask customers for testimonials, and create a webpage strictly to include great testimonial statements.
Your website should be treated like any other marketing tool. With continual review of results and improvement, you can use customer surveys and opinions to help your business make more online sales.
