Even negative views improve brand image

Procter & Gamble announced last month that it would start using consumer reviews on its brand sites for the first time. The FMCG company now lets people post their views on its Head & Shoulders and Ariel websites about how the products perform.

It’s no surprise the consumer goods giant has seen the value in this. Customer endorsements are important tools for any marketer. They can help brands distinguish themselves from competitors, boosting sales and keeping the tills ringing. Positive feedback attracts other customers, while negative comments help companies refine their ranges and develop better variants to tempt shoppers.

Customers, in turn, use other people’s advice and reassurance to help them make purchase decisions. In the past decade, the emergence of online feedback on etail sites, blogs and forums has provided consumers with more resources than ever to base their decision-making on.

Pollsters Opinium Research questioned 2,008 adults in the UK in July this year for Feefo, an independent feedback forum that works with a number of etailers, to assess just how much impact feedback had on purchase decisions.

The research found that 53% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product if it has good online reviews from past customers; and 51% look for good service reviews about the store staff.

Feefo marketing director Ed Lennox explains that with less disposable income due to the recession, customers are looking to ensure they make the right purchase decisions first time and stores have to make every effort to encourage repeat purchases.

“With dark clouds hovering over the economy, the need for reliable, honest, trustworthy feedback is at its greatest. Consumers want to know that the shops or the products they are interested in have a trustworthy reputation. You don’t always get to hear customers complaining about issues out loud, so feedback systems are the only way to help address this,” he argues.

Customer complaint

Websites such as eBay, Amazon and YouTube have been active in demonstrating the benefits of publishing both negative and positive feedback. One YouTube video received more than 3.5 million hits after an angry musician posted a song about United Airlines damaging his guitar and the lack of response he received to his initial complaints.

Lennox argues that consumers are savvier now and look for feedback before they venture to the high street or to etailers. He adds: “The days of spontaneity and blind purchases are long gone. Retailers and etailers are seeing the benefits of talking to customers, and being open has both positives and negatives as part of the overall brand experience.

“Marketers are under pressure to find cost-effective ways of ensuring customer retention and such openness will benefit them in the long run.”

Not every brand has always succeeded in this. Critics argue that some feedback on sites is not as honest as it first appears. It was recently speculated that sellers on Amazon Marketplace were trying to bribe customers into removing their negative comments, although this has not been proved.

Reliable online feedback is particularly important to encourage people to spend in areas where they might otherwise be nervous. Feefo’s research shows that 31% of internet users are still reluctant to shop online due to a lack of trust. This lack of faith is a tricky thing for smaller online brands to overcome, especially as they compete in a crowded market with larger, trusted brands.

Similar concerns have been expressed by the Office of Fair Trading, stating that a quarter of the population has a lack of faith in the companies that sell products online. Lennox admits this is a tough barrier to crack, but customers are willing to read independent reviews and decide for themselves whether the risk is worth taking.

Shopping experience

“For any marketer, every piece of feedback you get allows you to improve your service, refine processes and improve a customer’s shopping experience. For smaller retailers, the challenge becomes how loudly you amplify the honesty of your feedback. It needs to be viewed as raw, unedited and clearly not a thinly disguised advertisement,” he warns. He adds that companies that are open and display the bad as well as the good feedback will benefit.

While all retailers will benefit from taking note of feedback and building up consumer trust, customer endorsement may particularly benefit online businesses hoping to see sales growth. Online retailers seem to be taking note; the latest figures show July’s internet sales rose by 15.7% on June, to a total of £4.2bn. This was a year-on-year growth of 16.8%. Despite this growth, online retailers have often been around for less time than offline ones, so they are less familiar to shoppers. “Trust is earned over time, not given easily,” notes Lennox.

Feefo’s research found that 31% of consumers are more concerned about getting a good deal than worried about buying from a shop they have not previously heard of. Only 13% of respondents feel stung by buying from etailers they hadn’t heard of, with just 11% admitting they have in the past purchased from a bogus shop and been unable to reclaim money.

Feefo says this is one of the reasons that etail is thriving, despite the economic downturn. According to the Interactive Media Retail Group and Capgemini, website features that are likely to keep customers satisfied involve “provision of advice” and “reassurance about purchases” – this includes recommendations and customer reviews.

It appears that whatever Britain’s economic woes, consumers still wish to feel they are buying viable products from reputable brands – not just the cheapest option. The use of unedited testimonials and other forms of customer feedback is helping brands build a relationship with people that goes beyond merely taking their money.

Those companies able to convince people that not only do they listen to their advice but act on it, are set to boost their profits in the long run. While it is likely that the country will take a while to recover completely from its economic woes, brands can overcome a threadbare bottom line immediately through careful use of feedback.

Lennox says: “Producing a dialogue with customers rather than the usual corporate diatribe means that the customer feels valued. Customer loyalty starts with a problem and a voice in the wilderness. If you listen and respond positively, you not only save the sale, you win the customer for life and many of their friends forever too.”