Customer reviews have long been the benchmark of quality for consumers with many purchasing decisions being made based around a company’s review scores. But this trend has been less apparent in the B2B space.
Award-winning cloud telephony service provider VoIPstudio is bucking that trend by encouraging online reviews through Trustpilot and after 599 reviews has a near-perfect 5-star rating.
“There are a number of reasons why. It shows Google that we’re a trusted brand and that we should be taken seriously in search rankings so it’s good from a technical perspective,” explains Rob Seymour, Marketing Director at VoIPstudio. “But it’s also great for our conversion rates. If all else was equal then customers would probably choose the company that had 5-stars over the ones that haven’t. It shows people that we’re more than happy to have a public open forum where customers will give their opinions about us.”
Converting new customers is crucial, especially when the strategy is to sell direct to the end users, and Trustpilot has been proven to work for VoIPstudio. Rob believes that translating that review score into real business is a key part of the puzzle. “We carried out a trial not so long ago where we removed the Trustpilot plugin from a landing page and within about 10 days we put it back on again.”
“It was clear from a little controlled test how much impact it had on conversions.”
Customer feedback is taken very seriously by VoIPstudio and whilst they enjoy and, have now come to expect a positive review, they are also not resting on their laurels and getting complacent.
“We stand or fall on the basis of our clients expectations and feelings about us and we are quite happy to make that known. If we do a good job then people will tell us and if we do a bad job then they’re equally free to make their feelings known. So it keeps us focused on doing a great job,” Rob continues. “On the very rare occasion that we get a negative review, we always try to respond to it and if there’s anything constructive that can come from that then we will escalate it so that it never happens again.”
VoIPstudio see Trustpilot not only as a tool for converting sales or winning new customers but use the feedback to continually develop and improve the service and customer experience.
“We want people to see how great we are and we want people to tell us how great we are but we do listen to what people say. There have been developments that have been driven by negative reviews from Trustpilot that haven’t necessarily been obvious to us such as a workflow that might be a little bit clunky so when someone points it out we’ll go and fix it,” adds Rob.
Trustpilot isn’t necessarily the forum to directly win new business and new customers but can be integral to the conversation with a customer as they go along the journey to engaging with a new supplier. Rob explains that although people don’t tend to use Trustpilot directly but these conversations happen elsewhere and the Trustpilot reviews help the customer gain trust that they won’t let them down. “We hear bad things about other organisations whose practise is a little bit sharp and whose services are perhaps not so great. So we have been able to target their clients very successfully because they maybe take them for granted and don’t always do what they promised.”
Whilst a handful of companies within the industry have embraced review scores such as Trustpilot, it’s still comparatively uncommon when considering it with retail within the consumer space and Rob believes that it has a lot to do with standing up to scrutiny.
“I don’t really know why more companies don’t use online reviews but I think it comes down to how much confidence you have in the service you provide. If you’re not doing a great job and just about getting away with it then there will be a reluctance to encourage reviews. Why would you open yourself to that sort of scrutiny? That’s possibly why some companies don’t do it.”
“We’re honest about how we are and we want to build long-term relationships with our clients so we’re happy for them to review us.”
It therefore seems, for VoIPstudio at least, that reviews on sites such as Trustpilot and Google could be a valuable tool to not only win new business but also benchmark your service and find ways to continually improve but Rob cautions that companies must be open, honest and proactive with their customers. “Maintaining our review scores is part of the culture within the business and we keep our eyes open to what the customer is saying. Everyone’s focussed on what they do and the service is easy to use. It massively beats peoples expectation of a £4 a month service and the support team will walk the customer through any problems that they may encounter.”
