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NOTE: I am giving away access to a years service from LouderVoice, the online customer ratings service to celebrate their third birthday– scroll down to the bottom of the article if you want to discover how to be in with a chance to win it!
Do you know what influences your customers to buy online?
A recent Econsultancy report noted that in the US more than half (55%) of consumers report that a product with a high rating will increase their likelihood of purchasing. While in the UK three-quarters (75%) of people aged 18-26 years of age use recommendations on social sites to help them research products prior to purchase.
Last year I had the opportunity to interview Conor O’Neill the Founder of LouderVoice.com a service which enables you to cost effectively add powerful reviews and customer feedback to your site in under five minutes, or use their custom API for even greater control and flexibility.
You can listen to the content rich replay of the podcast here – get ready to take notes (it’s one of my longest podcasts but definitely worth listening to if you are interested in this subject area) as Conor goes in depth in terms of the background research in relation the importance of online reviews in impacting buying behaviour and best practice tips for integrating online reviews into your customer management.
LouderVoice is celebrating it’s third birthday and they have generously offered me the opportunity to give access to someone access to 12 months use of their standard package.
So if you have been considering adding a ratings and review service for your customers on your website or blog, you could be the lucky person who get’s access to this thanks to LouderVoice.
But what do their customers say about working with them?
I reached out to LouderVoice customer Puddleducks, an award winning online retailer who specialise in wet weather clothing for all the family. I asked them what the top three benefits of enabling LouderVoice on their website. Here is what Aedan Ryan their Co-Founder had to say:
1. Greater customer engagement: LouderVoice reviews have allowed us to build on our Word of Mouth referrals and receive honest reviews directly from customers on our website. Reviews can be added directly on each of our product pages and can also be added as a general review of our customer service.
2. Increased sales conversions: Research has shown that potential customers value consumer reviews when making a purchasing decision and we have found that sales conversions have increased due to the integration of LouderVoice reviews on our site.
3. Added SEO benefits: The content on the site is regularly changing with customers adding new reviews. The reviews are also fed to the LouderVoice consumer website which provide powerful inbound links back to the PuddleDucks website.
So if you are interested in the LouderVoice service here is how you can be in with a chance to access their standard service for 12 months at no cost.
HOW TO WIN ACCESS TO A YEAR OF ACCESS TO THE LOUDERVOICE STANDARD SERVICE
If you would like to win access to the service just tell me in the comments below in 150 words or less why you are interested in adding reviews to your website or business blog.
To qualify you can be a business anywhere in the world but you must already be trading online and have a business blog as – one request is that you write a blog post about your experience of the LouderVoice service within 90 days of having access to the standard package. (I am requesting this not LouderVoice). You should also not be using a service link LouderVoice at this time – I want this to be an opportunity for someone who has been considering using online ratings to their website to have the opportunity.
No cash alternative will be available and if you would like to trade up to a premium level of service from LouderVoice should you win, you will be responsible for the additional fee,
You will also be required to work with LouderVoice to get this set up on your website or blog by the end of August 2010.
Go ahead – over to you – just leave your comments below. Entries to be in by midnight Ireland/UK time on Friday 5 August 2010.
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July 30th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Online habits and motivations of consumers online, the importance of ratings and reviews http://tinyurl.com/2b2ftrk
July 30th, 2010 at 9:34 am
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July 30th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Online habits and motivations of consumers online, the importance of ratings and reviews: NOTE: I am giving away a… http://bit.ly/9N4WYh
July 30th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Krishna De is giving away a LouderVoice Customer Reviews subscription free for a year. It could be yours! http://bit.ly/9kQ95T
July 30th, 2010 at 9:43 am
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July 30th, 2010 at 9:44 am
RT @loudervoice: @KrishnaDe is giving away a LouderVoice Customer Reviews subscription free for a year. could be yours! http://bit.ly/9kQ95T
July 30th, 2010 at 9:50 am
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July 30th, 2010 at 10:22 am
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July 30th, 2010 at 10:22 am
(via @KrishnaDe) Online habits and motivations of consumers online, the importance of ratings and reviews http://ow.ly/18m89b
July 30th, 2010 at 10:54 am
RT @conoro: Krishna De is giving away a LouderVoice Customer Reviews subscription free for a year. It could be yours! http://bit.ly/9kQ95T
July 30th, 2010 at 11:13 am
RT @puddleducks: RT @conoro: Krishna De is giving away a LouderVoice Customer Reviews subscription free for a year. It could be yours! http://bit.ly/9kQ95T
July 30th, 2010 at 11:16 am
RT @puddleducks: RT @conoro: Krishna De is giving away a LouderVoice Customer Reviews subscription free for a year. It could be yours! http://bit.ly/9kQ95T
July 30th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
RT @KrishnaDe: Thanks to @loudervoice a years sub to their Customer Reviews service is available to one lucky person http://bit.ly/9kQ95T
July 30th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
RT @KrishnaDe: Here's what @Puddleducks say are the 3 benefits of using @LouderVoice on their site for customer reviews http://bit.ly/9kQ95T
July 30th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
RT @KrishnaDe: Here's what @Puddleducks say are the 3 benefits of using @LouderVoice on their site for customer reviews http://bit.ly/9kQ95T
July 30th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
We have used LouderVoice services and have seen an increase is sales and rankings- highly recommended. – Suneel Sawant
August 1st, 2010 at 10:09 am
HI Krishna,
I have noticed Louder Voice reviews on the Puddleducks website before and think it is a fantastic service as well as a brilliant concept and part of that is that it is quite simple to use by the looks of things – reviews can be kept recent and as they are short, will be read by incoming potential customers.
I am in the process of getting a new site as my existing site is limited in its navigation and usability, plus I am changing my business to concentrate solely on online sales, I also have a business blog at http://www.garrendennylane.ie/blog.
I get between 9,000 – 12,000 visits to my site each month but the conversion rate at the moment is way too low. One of the intentions with the new site is to increase that conversion rate and I am confident that having a review facility by Louder Voice will also improve sales. So, yes I would love to win this prize
August 1st, 2010 at 11:51 am
Yes ratings are the best unique stats to identify the best product. Hence the reason most online shopping sites place it as the main feature. I would like to see brands choosing social networks as their marketing platforms to implement ratings and reviews. Just as Lewis has a facebook like/share option on their website.
August 2nd, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Online habits and motivations of consumers online, the importance of ratings and reviews – #smm http://ht.ly/2jIQW
August 2nd, 2010 at 6:40 pm
RT @lorirtaylor: Online habits and motivations of consumers online, the importance of ratings and reviews – #smm http://ht.ly/2jIQW
August 3rd, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Hi Krishna,
We launched our re-designed website, http://www.ummera.com, in March this year but regrettably we didn't bring over our static “Customers’ Comments” page.
The new site has the facility for customers/visitors to leave comments and we thought that this would be sufficient. However customers seem to be reluctant to use the feature, or perhaps they don't notice it.
It is very apparent that Louder Voice would give a prominence to reviews, and make it easy for happy (we hope!) customers to leave happy (we hope!) comments.
We found on our old site that feedback from customer comments was strong and was a factor in converting visits to sales. We are anxious to add this review/comment facility to our site and Louder Voice would be a wonderful prize!
We wonder if LouderVoice can capture and retain those instant “off the cuff” twitter comments before they vanish into the abyss of time?
August 4th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
RT @lorirtaylor: Online habits and motivations of consumers online, the importance of ratings and reviews – #smm http://ht.ly/2jIQW
August 4th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Interesting question about the Twitter mentions. Whilst technically it is quite straightforward to do, we have seen that it mainly adds noise in other implementations that are out there. This is particularly the case with something popular where the tweets consist mainly of re-tweets rather than new insights or feedback.
However we are looking at doing something very interesting with Twitter in the coming months and this will be rolled out to all of our customers when it is ready. After all, we are the people behind @review and @reviews on Twitter!
August 4th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Conor – thanks for responding and we're looking forward to hearing of your future developments!
August 5th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
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August 5th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
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August 5th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
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August 5th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
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August 5th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
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August 6th, 2010 at 5:16 am
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August 6th, 2010 at 7:15 am
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August 6th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Thanks for all the RTs about the @loudervoice special offer everyone. http://loud.ie/LV4Free01 . More customer news later today!
August 6th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
RT @krishnade: Win @loudervoice 1 yr subscription to their Customer Reviews service – last day to enter http://bit.ly/9kQ95T
August 12th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Delighted to hear that I have won a brilliant prize over at Krishna De's blog – a year's service from Louder… http://fb.me/EbeTg1id
August 13th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Selling on-line? Check out how reviews drive sales http://www.krishnade.com/blog/2010/online-reviews-with-loudervoice/
August 18th, 2010 at 4:08 am
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August 21st, 2010 at 9:26 pm
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August 24th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
NOTE: I am giving away access to a years service from LouderVoice, the online customer ratings service to celebrate t – http://bit.ly/bo1A7X
August 27th, 2010 at 10:05 am
NOTE: I am giving away access to a years service from LouderVoice, the online customer ratings service to celebrate t – http://bit.ly/bo1A7X
August 31st, 2010 at 12:35 am
NOTE: I am giving away access to a years service from LouderVoice, the online customer ratings service to celebrate t – http://bit.ly/bo1A7X
August 31st, 2010 at 7:00 am
NOTE: I am giving away access to a years service from LouderVoice, the online customer ratings service to celebrate t – http://bit.ly/bo1A7X
September 1st, 2010 at 8:40 am
NOTE: I am giving away access to a years service from LouderVoice, the online customer ratings service to celebrate t – http://bit.ly/bo1A7X
September 2nd, 2010 at 5:40 pm
NOTE: I am giving away access to a years service from LouderVoice, the online customer ratings service to celebrate t – http://bit.ly/bo1A7X
September 3rd, 2010 at 7:55 am
NOTE: I am giving away access to a years service from LouderVoice, the online customer ratings service to celebrate t – http://bit.ly/bo1A7X