Free Merchant Account Tip: Include Customer Reviews on Your Ecommerce Site
"Thanks to this company I saved 43% of my payment processing cost! I must say I signed up for a company that is indeed concerned about their clients' business. More power"
"A-1 Customer service! I couldn't ask for a friendlier or more helpful customer support staff. Thank you"
"Jack and Jill Water filtration company has assured the cleanliness of our water supply. We no longer have to worry about the health of our children"
As a merchant how can you benefit from testimonials/customer reviews?
Whether you believe it or not, in the Internet market, testimonials, customer feedback, or reviews still affects the decision of a browser into a customer.
Testimonials are written for or against a certain product or service. It can convince customers to buy - a last nudge, or pivot for them to finally decide to purchase from you. This bit of information has been tapped by various online ecommerce sites, and they've found that indeed, customers value other reviews by others. How could a single(or a group) review affect the decision of a customer to purchase?
The grass is greener on the other side of the lawn - because they use product X!
Nobody says it better than another person who isn't the owner of the store and who isn't bound to benefit from the sale of a product. Let's say Customer A wants to avail of a free merchant account. Customer A sees a slightly disparaging comment or review from Customer B about this certain free merchant account provider, this can more likely discourage Customer A from buying OR it can establish the authenticity of your business (means you're not a scam after all - unless the review claims you are!).
Of course not all reviews you get from your customer are positive or negative. Positive reviews are good - especially if:
- You didn't write it yourself - if you can't help it (customer can sniff scripted reviews like a hound dog)
- It addresses a certain issue that other customers can relate to
- The approach isn't that patronizing. It should be sham-proof.
Now don't go frowning on negative reviews. Negative reviews can help you in more ways than you can fathom:
- A combination of negative and positive reviews can make your product more real. Customer know what to expect and you won't have to deal with more negative responses from buyers who only viewed the positive reviews.
- There's always room for improvement - a cliche perhaps, but negative reviews can definitely help you improve whatever shortcomings your product or service may have. A free merchant account provider can get bad reviews for its busy customer support hotlines and although this can hurt business, they can allocate a portion of their capital towards improving their customer support. Effort well spent.
- A bad review makes obvious the flaws of your product. If you have a product that is faulty, a customer review can help you asses whether you'd like to continue production of that item or not - saves you time and effort and more importantly, saves you a lot of money.
Worry not about bad reviews - they can help you improve your business and according to studies, people are more likely to write positive customer reviews than negative ones(unless you make a really bad product). In addition, customer reviews can help you determine what to alter in your product or service to make it more worthwhile for your customers to buy from you. Turn the negative into something positive.