Have you considered making a special offer or discounting your prices to try and drive extra sales?
If you have, or are considering doing so in the future, let me ask you to pause for a second and consider something…..
Imagine you are researching, browsing or shopping for something new.
Also, let’s say you are doing most of your research and shopping online. Now, what I want you to do whilst you are researching and shopping is notice what matters to when you are shopping and getting closer to the point where you are about to buy.
Ask yourself this…….What helps you build up enough trust with the business in question that makes you comfortable enough to buy?
Is it their reviews?
Is it their customer testimonials?
Is it the look and feel of their branding or their website?
Is it the language they use?
Is it their special offers?
Is it the purchase process?
Is it how they respond to your questions (or questions from others)? On the phone? Via email? Or, on social channels?
Is it down to what your friends told you?
…
Research shows that price, discounts or special offers don’t play as big a part in the buying process as we might think. The research goes on to show that, actually, recommendations and reviews play as big a part, if not bigger, in our decision making process than pricing and special offers.
That’s all very well and good, you might say.
But, the reality is that many firms find it hard to generate customer reviews. Not because they are not good at what they do, it’s just that generating reviews requires time and effort on the part of their customers.
That shouldn’t stop you, however. One of my clients has had great success in generating reviews and recommendations and continuing to do so. In order to do this, they give their customers an incentive to provide a review for the product and service they provide. They do this by putting every customer that gives them a review, good or bad, into a monthly prize draw.
Could you do the same?
Are incentives the missing piece of your customer review picture? Could add an incentive to drive the number of reviews that you get and, thus, give you a better chance of driving more sales?
