ThriftBooks gets confirmation that they’ve stayed true to their values with Trustpilot
Problem
When you sell a commodity-type product with low switching costs, trust is crucial. Building trust online helps Thriftbooks convince new customers that they can always expect a quality product when shopping with them.
Solution
Trustpilot helps ThriftBooks better gauge customer satisfaction, so they’re always informed on how their business is performing and can stay connected to the sentiment of their customers.
Result
At over 2,000,000 reviews (92% positive) ThriftBooks is the most reviewed business in North America. Their Trustpilot reviews help them constantly have a pulse on how their business is measuring up to customer expectations.
Highlights
Over 2,000,000 reviews
92% positive reviews
Most reviewed business in North America
Building trust with customers is important for every business. But for ThriftBooks, the impact of getting this right can be even stronger. Their customers need to feel confident in the quality of the product, particularly if they’re purchasing a used book. And when it comes to vintage or rare books, these are often sentimental purchases as well. The more trust they can build with customers, the more they’re able to connect readers with the specific books and editions they’re searching for.
For ThriftBooks, the US’s largest independent online seller of new and used books, the trust they’ve built with their customers is one of the biggest reasons they’ve found so much success. Their readers shop with them for a variety of reasons, including lower prices, a vast selection of over 19 million titles, award-winning customer service, a best-in-class loyalty program, being environmentally conscious, and, of course, to fuel their reading habits. But the trust that they’ve been able to build with their customers is what keeps those customers coming back and advocating for their brand.
A customer obsession that’s made ThriftBooks the most reviewed business in North America
The sheer number of reviews ThriftBooks has collected through Trustpilot is incredible. They have over 2,000,000 reviews, making them the most reviewed business in North America and the second most reviewed domain on Trustpilot globally. And for reference, there are fewer than 10 businesses on Trustpilot globally that have even passed 1,000,000 reviews. And ThriftBooks has doubled that.
A business doesn’t reach that volume of reviews without a deep obsession with making and keeping its customers happy. ThriftBooks has consistently shown that when it comes to listening to their customers, a smart business’s job is never done. Keeping a TrustScore of “Excellent” at 4.7, particularly with such a high volume of reviews, isn’t easy. It requires an ongoing commitment to building and maintaining a great customer experience, listening to your customers and improving your business wherever it’s needed.
ThriftBooks responds to 100% of all 1, 2, & 3-star reviews in under 15 hours. This means that if a customer is unhappy with ThriftBooks, the issue is resolved quickly. Customers leave the interaction feeling taken care of and likely to continue to shop with ThriftBooks in the future.
In 2018, when they were just getting started, ThriftBooks only had 18,000 reviews. The jump to over 2,000,000 reviews is quite a significant one. But when they look at the trends in their customer reviews, their customers tend to still love the same things that they loved back then. Their main values as a business haven’t changed, and those themes are still among the most mentioned topics in their happy customer reviews: fair pricing, vast selection, customer service, loyalty, and quality, pop up on a day-to-day basis.
As businesses grow, many of them lose sight of their initial values. Or those values become nothing more than a marketing platitude hidden somewhere on the website. The ThriftBooks leadership team sees it as a huge testament to their consistency that those same values they agreed on years ago are still some of the most frequent themes that come up in their customer reviews. It lets them know they’re achieving those goals and still bringing them to life for each customer.
Keeping their customer reviews at the heart of their marketing efforts
When ThriftBooks first started using Trustpilot in 2018, they saw an increase in organic traffic of 125%. They also saw a 180% increase in revenue growth the year after implementing Trustpilot, compared to an annual gain of 80% the year prior to using the platform.
This helped them understand early on the kind of impact Trustpilot has across marketing and conversion. And because of those initial signs of a positive impact in marketing and ROI, they make sure to include their customer reviews and TrustScore throughout their customer journey, to boost conversion rates each step of the way.
ThriftBooks has even used their reviews to let those customers do the talking for them, instead of spending time and resources trying to create marketing messaging that sticks. For consumers who have grown wary of messaging and advertising, letting their customers do the selling for them can help businesses come across as more authentic in their advertising. And for ThriftBooks, their customers are the ultimate advocates for their brand.
In this video ad campaign, they make use of their reviews by comparing the number of reviews they have to the number of stars in the night sky, highlighting how much they care about their customer feedback. They then have actors read out real Trustpilot reviews. It’s creative, relatable, and fun. But it’s also incredibly effective in today’s world where consumers are weary of slick messaging that overpromises and often underdelivers. Campaigns like this let their audience know exactly what kind of experience they’ll have buying books with them.
ThriftBooks makes sure to feature their customer reviews throughout their website as well, to help convert customers who might be on the fence about making a purchase. They have a carousel on their homepage as well as a dedicated testimonials page filled with their Trustpilot reviews. And for customers who do want to take a deeper dive into their customer reviews, it’s easy to click straight to their Trustpilot page to take a look.
Trustpilot helps surface the moments that matter most for ThriftBooks and their customers
With over 2,000,000 reviews — and 92% of them 4 or 5-star reviews — there’s an abundance of happy customer stories inside them. But there’s one trend that Barbara Hagen likes the most. It’s when a customer review calls out that ThriftBooks has helped them find a book they’ve been really searching for.
Many readers look for specific editions of books that have sentimental value to them. A reader might be a new parent, looking for the exact edition of that book they loved as a child, so they can share it with their child and build a tradition together. Or a customer might be looking for a signed copy or special edition to give to their loved one, the person who has spent years talking about that same book.
Reviews like this pop up all the time, and that lets Hagen know Thriftbooks is providing their customers with something really meaningful in their lives. After all, the company’s goal is not just in helping each book find a new home, but the right home. And there’s nothing more exciting than when that shows through in their customer reviews.
