eCommerce

Negative reviews – Proof that responding works!

March 28, 2011 By Dan Thornton

Back when I was Products Editor on motorcyclenews.com, I received a steady trickle of emails and phonecalls on the same theme. Each one was from a product manufacturer or retailer who had received a negative review or forum post and wanted to know what they could, and should, do about it.

Five+ years ago, the answer was mix of the insight and common sense that I possessed at the time. Unless the review or post was libellous (in which case the legal requirement was to remove it), the best thing that company could do would be to respond publicly with a polite and reasoned answer for what may have caused the problem, and if possible, potential solutions. That way they not only reached the complainant, but also the huge audience who would view everything without necessarily posting. It also ensured that the situation was likely to be defused straight away, rather than building up steam.

Photo courtesy Lars Plougmann on Flickr (CC Licence)

If only I’d had the 2011 ‘The Retail Consumer Report’ from Harris available at the time. (h/t Mediapost and Mack Collier). The survey of 1605 U.S online adults reveals:

68% of consumers who posted a complaint or negative review on a social netowkring or reviews site got a response from the retailer, which led to 18% of them becoming loyal customers and buying more.
Receiving a response meant 33% went back and posted a positive review, and 34% deleted their original negative review.
And given that a big part of making sales and getting loyal customers is based around surprising them with things that make them happy – 61% of consumers would be shocked if a retailer responded to their nagtive comments on the social web.
Plus, nearly a third of consumers research on social networking and reviews sites when they’re shopping online.

I’ve finally got some empirical evidence to back up my conversations all those years ago! Funnily enough, the evolution of those conversations was a questions and answers section named Ask An Expert, which asked representatives from suitable companies to be available to respond to reader questions. I’d prefer you didn’t mention the amount of interest and funding sites like Quora have generated more recently!

But it’s actually an even more important approach to me now as a business owner, not only do I continue to advise clients to respond publicly to negative complaints in a polite, responsible, and most importantly, active way, but I also have a responsibility to monitor and respond to comments and reviews of the two businesses I’m running to make sure that we do the best by our clients and customers. And if after all that, you’d rather ignore my advice, Harris research and any negative reviews, then I guess pointing to the example of Craiglist and Craig Newmark won’t change your mind. I can only hope you’re not a client, and you happen to run a marketing or web design and development business!

Social networks helping me shop – a quick example

September 3, 2009 By Dan Thornton

Social networks are an invaluable part of my life now, and having just amazed myself by leaving work, catching a tube, rushing to a shop, catching another tube and still making my normal train home, I felt like sharing it as an example.

(as a side-note, the train has already been delayed by 15 minutes as it’s apparently ‘lacking a driver’)

A debate on Twitter about a news story which mentioned cycling reminded me I needed to purchase a new bike pump as the Presta valves on my tyres make it almost impossible to inflate with my old hand pump – and a quick Google confirmed that there was a cycle shop at Holborn, which is on my tube route home.

But how did I know which one to buy, which one was the best value, and what to do with it once I got home etc?

Traditional option: Phone store and speak to person with possible vested interest in selling me anything they can.

New option: Send a message to one of my network on Twitter who happens to be a keen cyclist.

The new option has given me hourly updates from someone who recommended the type of pump I needed, the brand and model he uses, and what to do with it to ensure correctly inflated tyres.

And anyone else that has seen our conversation is able to join in – plus it’s archived for anyone else searching on the internet, possibly saving other people time and effort.

Which is probably a long-winded way of saying thanks to @CliveAndrews as reinforcing the fact that I now use Google for researching facts like business contact details and location.

But I use social media for quickly getting opinions from trusted friends on almost every subject. If Clive hadn’t recommended the right product to me, I can guarantee I wouldn’t have made my train, and probably would have struggled with two flat tyres for the next couple of days at least.

And just for the record, I now have a Topeak Joe Blow Sport ‘Track Pump’ which is £5 off at Evans Cycles at the moment.

The comedy payoff for reading this far is that I underestimated the actual size of it slightly, and now have to try and carry a 2-3 foot high pump home on my bicycle!

Is the media having less effect of my purchasing?

July 10, 2009 By Dan Thornton

You might want to sit down, but I’ve just spent some money on physical entertainment media. Or to put it another way, I bought some books and DVDs for the first time in ages.

I’d actually been looking for a work-related book which doesn’t seem to be available in bookshops, so that will be an online purchase, but in the meantime, I though I’d treat myself.

Interestingly, I’d spent a while choosing the unavailable book, so was at a bit of a loose end, and ended up coming out with three purchases – and as far as I’m consciously aware, I hadn’t seen advertising or media reviews etc of any of them:

Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy is Wrong by Martin Lindstrom was bought mainly on the strength of the topic, and the foreword written by Paco Underhill, whose book on Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping I’ve previously read and enjoyed.

Code: Version 2.0 by Lawrence Lessig was purely chosen on the articles I’ve read by him and interviews I’ve watched with him.

And from the non ‘tech geek’ world, I also picked up:
Lukas Moodysson Presents (4 Disc Box Set) [DVD] – I’ve already seen three of the four films, but wanted to watch the fourth, and revisit the first two (Lilya 4-Ever is a well-made film, but is the most relentlessly bleak film I think I’ve ever seen). I’m also using it to improve my Swedish language abilities, and be able to lend ‘Show Me Love’ (the original title is better but far more offensive!) and Tilsammens to the rest of my family – and they all understand DVDs!

I thought I was all done, but there wasn’t any peer recommendation to prove this whole social media thing.

Until I got home.

The first I heard about the Xbox Live only release of Battlefield 1943 was via two friends of mine as we chatted. I hadn’t been online on the Xbox for a while due to the work/commuting/family combination, and as a result, I hadn’t been looking at gaming sites.

And within 10 minutes, I’d paid 1200 Microsoft points (About £10 or so), and downloaded the game.

It’s having a number of server issues at the moment, but the basic game is pretty good, and the online distribution of a ‘full’ game is interesting.

It’s being followed up today by the release via Xbox Live of 1 vs 100, which is an online gaming show with real prizes, which should be interesting.

Peer recommendations and loyalty aren’t new, of course. But generally they’d be prompted for me by either an event (my plumbing has broke, who can fix it?), or by media awareness (this game is coming out, is anyone else buying it?).

It seems as if the weighting has now changed, and the peer/loyalty aspect is what then might result in someone sharing a helpful media review, or just leading me straight to a purchase.