November 20, 2008

This Holiday Season Will Shoppers Pick You or Your Competition?

For many businesses, particularly retailers, this coming month is the highest volume selling time of the year. Right now consumers are nervous about the economy, their jobs, and therefore their budgets, so expect them to be especially picky about where they spend their holiday shopping dollars this season.

The aggressive holiday sale pricing has already begun, but sellers can't rely on price alone to develop customer loyalty. Your reputation has to be good to keep buyers coming back, but it is also important in wooing first time purchasers. Think about the product reviews on Amazon.com and how they can influence whether you buy a particular item. The testimonial page of retail and service companies' websites can make a huge impact on a shopper's confidence in buying from them. It's the third party credibility.

We've covered RatePoint, the reputation management solution, before, but one feature in particular can help you get your testimonials and reviews in front of your customers with minimal hassle. You can replace your static testimonial page (the one you do or don't frequently update manually) with a dynamically generated RatePoint Testimonial page that actively pulls reviews directly from your RatePoint account. Your site then shows timely, relevant reviews all the time, with no extra work for you.

RatePoint accounts include email marketing and the survey tools to collect customer feedback. Pricing ranges from $17.95 to $99.95/month, depending on the size of your customer list.

Laura Leites, Assistant Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com

tags: customer service , ratepoint , testimonials | 0 comments