### Why Trustpilot?

To understand why LJS came to Trustpilot - and why they were able to recommend Trustpilot to their clients, including Best Bee Brothers - we need to ask a more pressing question: ‘Why reviews?’

“We’ve learned how important third-party reviews are to build trust. And the most important learning we’ve had is that a perfect 10/10 score is not realistic,” says Lauren Luedeke, Founder of LJ Strategies.

“Companies like BBB are run by humans, and there are bound to be things to learn from. If customers see a perfect score they are bound to believe the reviews are fake. That is why verified reviews from Trustpilot are so important.

“Overall, customers want to see very happy customers from genuine reviews.”

LJS discovered Trustpilot while researching Google-certified third-party review systems for another client. They found such value from that experience, they were happily able to recommend Trustpilot to Best Bee Brothers. 

“LJS had such a good experience with Trustpilot the first time around, it was an easy decision to introduce Best Bee Brothers when they were ready to take the next step in the eCommerce world.”

Best Bee Brothers became a Trustpilot client in mid-2016, thanks to LJS’s recommendation. And they haven’t looked back since. They now display their reviews across their marketing, including their website and social channels:


Best bee brothers screenshot of the website

BBB Website Product Reviews (1)

Best Bee Brothers Facebook Review Integration

### How Best Bee Brothers recovered from the unreliability of Amazon

Prior to 2018, 80% of BBB’s business during the busy season came from Amazon. But in April 2018, BBB could no longer rely on Amazon and had to redirect all sales to their website. To recover, they’d have to stand out in search engines to capture more traffic than Amazon.

“We had a very minimal budget, but we were quickly able to use Trustpilot to drive more PPC and organic traffic to Best Bee Brothers,” says Lauren.
“When customers were looking for ‘carpenter bee traps’ on a search engine, BBB was on the first page all season long. The Trustpilot stars were displayed in the results to give customers ease of mind,” says Lauren.


This new jolt in popularity meant some quite astounding results:

- By the end of the season, website sales increased by 150%
- Website conversion rate shot up 25%

### Improving the product and customer relationships

Not only have Best Bee Brothers seen sales benefits from Trustpilot reviews, but their patented product has been redesigned according to the feedback customers share in reviews, making their traps the best option on the market.

Though LJS manages much of Trustpilot on behalf of BBB, the company’s customer service is called into action when a review below three-stars comes in. They’re notified in real-time, so they can respond to poor experiences and turn them around. 

### Collecting and sharing reviews with Trustpilot

To collect reviews, LJS use the Automatic Feedback Service. “It integrates seamlessly with Shopify,” says Lauren.

“The first review request email goes out seven days after an order is placed. We do this so customers can receive the product before they place a review, to make sure the package arrives properly and in good condition. The customer also receives a review reminder within seven days if they hadn’t placed a review yet.”

Alongside this, Best Bee Brothers use Trustpilot product reviews, and display reviews in cart abandonment communications to restore confidence in customers. 

With so much commitment to Trustpilot, Best Bee Brothers and LJS are securing a trusted, transparent future. Isn’t it time you joined them?


------------------------------------

__About LJ Strategies:__
LJ Strategies (LJS) helps eCommerce clients navigate the email world. LJS also assists clients with affiliate marketing to drive additional revenue for eCommerce clients and small eCommerce website builds.

__About Best Bee Brothers:__
The [Best Bee Brothers](https://bestbeebrothers.com/) are Mike and Paul Ryan of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They design and sell an effective, chemical-free, pesticide-free trap for carpenter bees, helping people minimize damage to their homes. 



Best Bee Brothers sales Trustpilot case study

How Trustpilot helped this digital marketing agency boost their client's sales by 150%

__Trustpilot: Why was trust important to you before coming to Trustpilot?__

__Elliott Clarkson:__ Trust is hugely important to us as a business. 

Our van-based technicians repair minor damage on cars all across the United Kingdom. For most people, their car is one of the biggest investments they’ll ever make and it’s their pride and joy. 

When you damage your car, knowing that the person repairing your car is competent and trustworthy is vital, especially as the public quite rightly want to question tradespeople due to the proliferation of rogue traders.

It’s always been important for us to demonstrate to new customers that they can trust us; and the most impactful way to do that is to show honest and independent feedback from the people who we have already carried out a high-quality repair for.

__TP: How do you use the Trustpilot platform?__ 

__EC:__ We’re a national business, made up of a network of local franchises. That means we have multiple businesses throughout the UK carrying out repairs under the Revive! brand, as well as our own central network of technicians.

We use Trustpilot to collect reviews once a repair has been completed. Our technicians each have a bespoke Revive! app, and send a completion notification after each repair. This notification triggers an automated review request email from our CRM using the customer’s given details. This process was set up by our IT team using the Trustpilot API to ensure that, when a review is left in response to the email, it is tagged to match up with our CRM to show the job identification number and the geographic region that the job was completed in.

That enables us to filter reviews in the Trustpilot dashboard and see reviews for each of our franchisees.

Filtering reviews means we’re able to do two key things:

1. Display regionally targeted reviews on each geographic landing page on our website
2. Monitor feedback by region and either give praise to franchisees doing a great job or help support franchisees who may be getting a higher than expected level of negative feedback

Our Customer Services team also use Trustpilot to help resolve complaints. 

On the very rare occasion that we receive a negative rating, our Customer Service team check the job identification number on the Trustpilot dashboard and match it on our CRM. They then raise a complaint, contact both the customer and technician who carried out the repair and ensure we reach a resolution quickly. 

In fact, in the short time since using Trustpilot, this process has helped contribute towards a reduction in our end-to-end complaint resolution time by almost 60%, because it allows our Customer Service team to be so proactive.

__TP: How do you use your reviews on your website or any marketing campaigns?__

__EC:__ Social proof and customer research are now such an intrinsic part of the customer journey that our Trustpilot reviews are vital to our B2C marketing and brand awareness initiatives.


Revive Facebook

When people are choosing a company to repair damage on their car, they need to know that they are selecting a reputable company who will provide a technically excellent repair and back it up with outstanding customer service.

The reviews that demonstrate those values are vital to our marketing and brand awareness initiatives as it allows potential customers to use the great experience others have had to make their choice.

On our B2C website, we have a large carousel of recent reviews displayed prominently on the homepage. We also have a mini carousel on each regional landing page that displays reviews specific to the geographic location where the customer is looking for a repair technician.


Revive homepage reviews

Revive!

We also use an integration in the Trustpilot dashboard to create socially shareable images. We pick reviews that either communicate the benefits of our service or choose seasonally relevant reviews. 

Revive Twitter 1

For example, when the weather is bad, we share reviews of people who are amazed that we’re able to carry out repairs in the rain or windy conditions. Customers saying how surprised they are that we were able to complete the job in such challenging conditions provides the social proof for those choosing a SMART repair company. That means we are able to generate more marketing leads at a time when people might not think they can get their damage repaired.

We also generate socially shareable images where a specific location or franchisee’s technician is mentioned by name. We then send those to our franchisees, so they can use them in their own local marketing which helps demonstrate that we are a national company operating on a local level.


Revive Twitter 2

__TP: What are the biggest advantages the business has seen from switching to Trustpilot?__

__EC:__ Before Trustpilot, we were collecting reviews through email and manually adding them to our website. Having the Trustpilot API linked to our CRM to create an automated review collection process has saved us hours of time every month.

The tagging within the Trustpilot API has also meant that we’re able to quickly match reviews to verified jobs which has helped speed up our complaint resolution times significantly.

However, the biggest advantage we now have is the ability to use a trusted social proof platform to demonstrate our technical excellence and outstanding customer service to people who are choosing a SMART repair company. Whether it’s through our listing on Trustpilot, the various review carousels on our website or the reviews we share on social media, prospective customers are now able to consider other people’s experiences when they choose Revive! to repair minor damage on their car.


Local carousel Revive

__TP: Are there any major customer insights your team has learned / leveraged since using Trustpilot?__

__EC:__ The majority of feedback we receive – whether positive or negative – is focused on the customer experience with our team before and after the repair, as well as the quality of the repair itself.

In that regard, the biggest insight Trustpilot has given us is reaffirming our commitment to our corporate values of Outstanding Customer Service, Technical Excellence and Integrity.

As we grow and evolve, focusing on providing our customers with the best possible experience is of paramount importance, and the insight Trustpilot gives us into their real time feedback is invaluable to us.

__TP: What are your challenges going forward as a business?__

__EC:__ The biggest challenge we have is continuing to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations as we rapidly grow our national network of SMART repair technicians.

Having Trustpilot in place means we can gauge customer feedback on the effectiveness of both our repairs and customer service in real time and quickly resolve any potential issues.
 
__TP: Tell us about your experience with our Customer Success team?__

__EC:__ The experience with the team at Trustpilot has been really outstanding. From our initial enquiry, we’ve had focused support from a single point of contact which made our customer journey frictionless.

We also found the website Support Centre and blog to be really helpful for anything from general queries to technical ones, when we were setting up the API integrations with our CRM.

Since going live with Trustpilot, we’ve had regular calls with the Customer Success team to understand how we’re using the platform. Those calls have included great advice on how to use the dashboard to dig deep into the analytics to better understand things like our review response rate and tips on how to improve it.

You could say we’ve had a five star experience with Trustpilot so far!
 
__Trustpilot: We’d like to thank you for your time! This was an insightful interview.__
 
To learn more about Revive, head to their [website](https://revive-uk.com/) or [Instagram account](https://www.instagram.com/revive_uk_/). If you’d like to find out more about Trustpilot reviews, request a demo below.


revive reviews on trustpilot

Revive! tell us how they leverage reviews to power their business forward

__Trustpilot: Why was trust important to you before coming to Trustpilot?__

__Kieron James:__ People are understandably nervous when a commercial organisation offers its service for nothing. Our most frequently asked question was “what’s the catch?” and we tried any number of ways to respond - directing people to the Ofcom website which explains that calls to 03 numbers are included in network bundled minutes and explaining that as a Communications Provider we receive a wholesale out-payment from BT (which is how we run a viable business). Explaining our commercial model is clearly not a marketer's dream, but cynicism was a genuine block.

It struck us that the very best people to confirm that there absolutely is such a thing as a free lunch was our existing customers. We considered testimonials, but felt that this wouldn’t satisfy many - testimonials are requested by the business after all. So, the best approach would be third party trust validation. At this point we started a conversation with Trustpilot.



__TP: How do you use the Trustpilot platform?__ 

__KJ:__ We make use of the platform to gather validated reviews and display them across all channels.

WHYPAY homepage

WHYPAY? display third-party validation across their website

WHYPAY TP reviews

We were able to automate this process very easily even though we don’t have a checkout process (we don’t sell anything) we were able to ensure that everybody invited to review the service had organised and participated in a WHYPAY? conference call. To do this, we send an email out to organisers, only if the cost savings on their call exceed £10. In this email we advise customers that they will receive an invitation to review the service directly from Trustpilot and so doing ensures that all our reviews are from verified customers.

We use the platform to respond to reviews (every review receives a personal response), monitor dashboard data and make extensive use of the social media integrations for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.


WHYPAY facebook

__TP: Are there multiple departments or teams using Trustpilot? __

__KJ:__ We are a small team at WHYPAY? so everybody involved has access to the Trustpilot platform and our social media accounts. Although one person manages reviews on a day to day basis, any of us can cover and we all use the same friendly, fairly informal ‘voice’ when communicating with customers - either responding to reviews or sharing them on social platforms.

It’s safe to say that our Trustpilot score is one of the most important KPIs in the business. We were always passionate about providing excellent service, but having a number to hang it on has turned this into a very positive obsession. Anything less than a five-star review is immediately circulated with a :-( emoji via internal chat - not as a reprimand, but because we’re so invested in delivering the very best.

__TP: How do you use your reviews on your website or any marketing campaigns?__

__KJ:__ Our Trustpilot stars are placed prominently below the main call to action button (Create a FREE Conference) with other widgets embedded on key pages (for example our blog posts) to ensure our stars and rating appear in organic search results on Google.

WHYPAY CTA

WHYPAY blog

We use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to share reviews (using the integration tool on the Trustpilot admin site), and we’re proud to be the very first business to use Trustpilot’s new logo in our outdoor campaign on fifteen interchange stations on the London Underground last summer.

WHYPAY underground

Our star rating is also included in our social cover images and referenced in our Twitter biography.

WHYPAY? leverage their reviews across all channels

WHYPAY twitter

__TP: What are the biggest advantages the business has seen from switching to Trustpilot?__

__KJ:__ We were a little sceptical about the promised impact on SEO performance from Trustpilot implementation. But the promise was more than fulfilled. Our team has significant experience with SEO but we have been astonished at how impactful the Trustpilot reviews (and stars in Google search results) have been. We’ve seen a tremendous uplift in positions on many keywords despite already holding page one positions.

WHYPAY SEO

WHYPAY?’s Review Snippets on Google

Having a very quick and effective way of tackling the "what’s the catch?” question in live chats - by simply directing people to our reviews and replying, “there isn’t one, have a look at what our customers say,” has also proved a real boon.

__TP: What are your challenges going forward as a business?__

__KJ:__ One of the problems we face is that many of the people taking part in a conference call are not those who are paying for the call. They are less bothered about the cost savings, which is after all the very feature after which our free service is named! For this reason, we continue to extend our telephone conference feature set, introducing tools like call recording and advanced scheduling. Our challenge is to communicate that free doesn’t mean ’no frills’. This means encouraging those reviewing our service to mention some of these features. Requesting reviews has become very straightforward with Trustpilot but our challenge in 2019 is to segment our users and to ask those using specific features to review those features when they describe the service.

__TP: Are there any major customer insights your team has learned / leveraged since using Trustpilot?__

__KJ:__ It’s been really helpful not only to look at the key metrics from the Trustpilot dashboard (reviews sent, opened, star ratings, replies, score, etc.), but also to export and analyse the reviews themselves. We’ve done this a number of times to ascertain how many users commented on ease of use versus call quality; how many mention “free” or “cost savings” etc. This narrative has been (and continues to be) of immense value to those responsible for our development roadmap.

__TP: We’d like to thank you for your time! This was an insightful interview.__

To learn more about WHYPAY?, head to their [website](https://whypay.net/) or [blog](https://whypay.net/blog/). If you’d like to get your own Trustpilot reviews, sign up for a free account below.


whypay interview Trustpilot free platform

How WHYPAY? powered their business forward using Trustpilot reviews 

cykerlpartner google seller ratings performance

GSR example highlighted

To understand how Google Seller Ratings are performing, our Trustpilot team spoke with Cykelpartner.dk's Google Ads expert, Henrik Bjerregaard Jensen. In this analysis, he takes a look at the extension’s performance on the company’s Google Ads, and compares his business’ 2018 Google Seller Ratings numbers to last year's achievements. 

Let's take a look at the results. 

For this case study’s purpose, Henrik had a look at Seller Ratings on some of the company’s ad groups, and compared the same ad groups with the results from the same period last year. 

The trend is still roughly the same with higher Cost-Per-Click (CPC), lower Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA), and a much higher on-page conversion rate from the traffic. 


GSR - 2018-17 overview final

### The effects on the Click-Through Rate went from being positive to negative

In his test, we can see that Click-Through-Rate (CTR) has been positively affected by Seller Ratings in 2017, but in 2018 it has become negative and even lower than the normal ad group. It's not something they expected at all, and the fact that it is over 28% lower than the normal ad group is very surprising. 


GSR - CTR Final

### Cost Per Click is still high, but has decreased by almost 60% 

Although CPC is still higher than the normal ad group, it is worth noting that it has fallen by almost 60% compared to 2017, where it was 14.39% higher than the total ad group. It is now only 5.90% higher. 

Even though it is a minimal change, it is still interesting to see that CPC for the total ad group has increased by $0.02, when Seller Ratings CPC actually decreased $0.01 compared to 2017. 

There may be several reasons for that, one of them could be that Cykelpartner, as well as other industries, regularly experience increased competition on Google Ads. 

More and more companies are becoming aware of Google Ads and its potential, which forces them to raise CPC in order to maintain our positions. 

“Maybe not all of our competitors have the same focus on collecting reviews as we do, which could explain why CPC is evolving in this way”, explains Henrik.

In addition, the average position has also been improved - not only for the entire ad group, but also for seller ratings. 

If everything else stays the same, Cykelpartner could end up with a higher CPC. Henrik truly believes that it’s a combination of two things: The increased competition, and the improved average position, that gives them the CPC they’ve seen in 2018.


GSR - CPC

### The conversion rate remains sky high - and increased!

However, the people who clicked on an ad with Seller Ratings keeps being much more likely to convert and the conversion rate has also increased compared to 2017, which is very positive. The fact that the conversion rate is over 25% higher with Seller Ratings than without is also very surprising, as the CTR was a lot lower. 


GSR - Conv. rate

### Overall, Google Seller Ratings performs +100% better than last year!

Ultimately, Cykerpartner’s CPA on ads with Seller Ratings has fallen by over 100% compared to the previous year - from saving 7.55% per conversion on average, to saving 15.64% per conversion on average this year. For Henrik, this is one of the most important metrics when examining his Google Ads performance and it’s a very satisfying development compared to last year. 


GSR - CPA Final

### But Google has become way pickier in showing Seller Ratings

Looking at Cykelpartner.dk’s numbers, there’s a clear tendency for Google to show Seller Ratings less often than last year, and that indicates that Google has been better at only showing Seller Ratings when there’s a high chance of the user converting to a sale based on the search term. 


GSR Shown

Although CTR is negative, Seller Ratings have also been shown a lot less compared to 2017. In 2018, Henrik sees that they were showing on average just over 20% of the impressions, and made up almost 16% of the clicks. By comparison, in 2017, Seller Ratings got 37% of views and 38% of clicks. The same goes for how often Seller Ratings have been shown in conjunction with a conversion. In 2018, this was only 19%, with last year showing in more than 43% of the conversions. Even though the numbers are really good, it's with much fewer impressions than last year. 


There is, therefore, a clear tendency for Seller Ratings to be shown fewer times - at least compared to last year. But overall Seller Ratings saves Cykelpartner.dk a massive $16.000 yearly and that only seems to be increasing!

If you want to get the Seller Ratings extension for your Google Ads, [read more here](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/how-to-land-great-reviews-and-boost-your-google-seller-rating).


Google Seller Ratings perform better than ever

Trustpilot Gin Kiosk case study

Gin Kiosk

Gin Kiosk speak about their success with Trustpilot

zhou nutrition supplements reviews

trustbox widget zhou nutrition

Screen Shot 2018-11-30 at 15.18.41

Simply: because a third-party site is trusted. 

There’s a lot of talk online about review manipulation or reviews which aim to boost or criticise companies unfairly. As Jeremy puts it, a third-party provider is invaluable.

“We use Trustpilot to gather third party, customer verified reviews. And we take our reviews seriously,” says Jeremy. 

“We've improved products and processes based on customer feedback. We see every review that comes from Trustpilot and consider every bit of feedback, good or bad.”

By gaining an open picture of how they are performing, Zhou Nutrition are able to make improvements where needed, and market their business effectively too.

“We leverage the Trustpilot marketing assets,” says Jeremy. “It helps to communicate trust by sharing testimonials of real Zhou customers, whether we put these assets into anything from videos to social media ads.” 

Screen Shot 2018-11-30 at 15.20.27

zhou nutrition reviews ad 2

Zhou Nutrition

## Becoming greater every day

The openness with their online reviews isn’t a one-way street, though. Zhou Nutrition turn to their customer reviews for product ideas and advice too.

“Our customers love our products and often mention in reviews other products they would love to see us make. Research and Development relies on Trustpilot for updates to current and future products,” says Jeremy.
But the customer satisfaction focus doesn’t end with only giving customers the products they want. It extends to tailoring their marketing and keeping customers happy even after their purchase.

“Our marketing team uses Trustpilot to establish trust and communicate expectations with our customers,” says Jeremy.

“And most importantly, our "Happiness Team" uses Trustpilot to ensure each of our customers is 100% happy with their Zhou experience. Trustpilot motivates all of us to become a little greater every day.”

## Targeting the happiest customers

Happy customers are loyal customers. So why not reward loyalty with offers? It’s the surest way to see happiness breed happiness. 

And that ultimately means you’ll have customer advocates out there, marketing your business for you with their positivity. It’s a cycle that Jeremy notices.

“At Zhou, our customers are the lifeblood of our business. We rely on their feedback both for product development but also to help us offer the best possible customer experience,” says Jeremy.

“Through our Trustpilot reviews, we like to identify VIP customers and super fans. We'll reach out to them with really special offers and even free product from time to time. 

“On the opposite end, we also identify pain points with the experience, like shipping, too frequent of interactions, and customers who are just plain unhappy with the product. We stand by our product and Trustpilot gives us the channel to identify unhappy customers and let them keep the product, and receive a full refund.”

## The main advantage of Trustpilot?

You can’t just ask people to trust you. Trust is earned, not owed. And Trustpilot helps Zhou Nutrition appeal to their customers without bragging or making false claims about their trustworthiness. Their customers give confidence to their customers.

“It's hard to really instill trust when it's your brand saying ‘trust us, we’re legit’,” says Jeremy.

“The thing is: If you have a good product and brand, Trustpilot will help you communicate trust effectively and tactfully.”

If you want to power your business forward with reviews, why not create a few account? It’s quick and easy. Just click the link below.


Zhou Nutrition reveals how Trustpilot reviews power their business forward

Birchwood

auto birchwood case study

How Birchwood uses Trustpilot reviews

planet of the vapes Trustpilot story

Patrick is the CEO and founder of [Planet of the Vapes](https://www.planetofthevapes.com/), and you could say he’s pretty experienced when it comes to eCommerce: he’s been selling online since the age of 17. He started his first store in the days of Yahoo! Auctions (remember that?) and, as an online entrepreneur for more than half his life, he’s used a lot of eCommerce solutions. Now though, planetofthevapes.com relies on Shopify Plus as their platform of choice. 

Example of Trustpilot social proof by the Vaporizer store

POTV banner

We talked with Patrick to learn how Trustpilot, Shopify Plus, and the two solutions together have helped his online business stand out among online Vaporizer shops.

“Trustpilot is a critical element of our eCommerce strategy. Trust and social proof are necessary to communicate to customers, get them over the buying line, and keep them coming back and Trustpilot gives us the tools to collect reviews, display them, and gain insights to improve our policies and procedures to better serve our customers.”

## Why Trustpilot and Shopify Plus?

When Patrick’s team started exploring review solutions in 2015, they were looking for two things: a solution Google trusted and a platform that key competitors were also using: “We wanted to be on the same platform as our competitors to show users that we are more trusted and deliver a better buying experience than they do.”

Shopify Plus was the obvious solution for their high volume, high transaction online store: “It’s a great platform that gives you the tools you need to run an enterprise eCommerce business. It’s fast, light and flexible.”

With Trustpilot, Planet of the Vapes can gather reviews, use them to find insights into how they can improve business, and feature the reviews using widgets on key pages to communicate that they’re a trusted retailer that real customers love. Trustpilot’s integration with Shopify Plus makes this a breeze. Shopify Plus can automatically send review invitations and reminders whenever a customer places a new order. As Patrick says, “It makes getting reviews easy and we get actionable insights from the reviews and reports.”



So easy, that they’ve already got more than 4,300 reviews and counting. 

And what do they do with all those reviews? Show them off of course.

“We use Trustpilot widgets on key pages to communicate that we are a trusted retailer that real customers love.”

Screenshot of the website of Planet of the Vaps

potv shot

## The Results Are In

This customer-focused strategy has been working for Planet of the Vapes. 

They’ve achieved 112% growth in 2017 and 62% YTD growth in 2018, and will soon be crossing into 8 figures in revenue. 

Trustpilot has played an important part since the company is “focused on continuously improving the customer journey and Trustpilot gives us the insights into how we’re performing and insights into areas that can be improved.” 

To that end, both the Marketing and Customer Success teams rely on Trustpilot to understand the customer journey:
“For Customer Success, our TrustScore is a critical KPI and how we measure the team’s performance. Reviews provide insights into what customers are responding to and areas of the business or our communications that need to be improved.
Holistically, we’re all looking at the user journey and that applies to marketing as well.  Our marketing team is in communication with Customer Success to understand what we’re doing right and what we need to improve on.”

Trustpilot’s onsite widgets help to close the gap in communication so that visitors who are almost over the line feel comfortable hitting Order. They customized this widget to do just that: 


potv excellent

If you’d like to know how you can achieve similar results with online reviews, please request a demo below.

How Planet of the Vapes uses customer reviews in their eCommerce strategy

__Trustpilot: How long have you been using us for?__

__John Barkle:__ We have been using Trustpilot for almost a year. We conducted a thorough research process to select the right partner for our reviews gathering process. We were looking for a system which was mature and stable enough to handle our large requests through API, and flexible enough to accommodate our custom-built CRM’s demands.
 
__TP: How do you use the Trustpilot platform? __

__JB:__  We use the slider widget on most of our category pages. A very UX balanced widget - it fits well with in any type of page. 
 
We also take a critical approach to our reputation management. It is common for marketplaces to get both positive and negative feedback in form of service reviews. We make sure we cater and reply to all feedback we receive. For this we use the service reviews section, which makes it very easy for our customer support team to respond back to customer’s concern through Trustpilot.


mydeal reviews

Product reviews and ratings are an integral part of our marketing strategy. We now have a product/seller rating prerequisite for all products/sellers to be eligible of any type of promotion. For the first time in the platform’s history, products within their respective categories are no longer ranked purely by popularity (i.e. sales volume). A weighted algorithm now exists to promote products with high ratings and good sales volume to the top. 
 
__TP: Are there multiple departments or teams using Trustpilot?__

__JB:__ Trustpilot reviews are regularly monitored by our customer service team for any concerns reported by our customers. Our marketing and inventory teams also regularly monitor these reviews to siphon out poor quality and promote high quality. 
The management team also takes a keen interest in these reviews as they provide unfiltered anecdotal information about how the MyDeal brand and its product offering is being perceived by its customers.
Our reviews primarily come from the customer’s experience with a seller on the marketplace. We have rewarded sellers with outstanding review history by giving top spots in our various marketing channels – providing more exposure and sales volume for them. We hope this creates a culture in our seller community to provide the best to our customers with the incentive of being rewarded with enhanced marketing opportunities.

__TP: How do you use your reviews on your website and in your marketing?__

mydeal trustboxes

__JB:__ We take a multi-layered approach to the application of Trustpilot reviews.
 
The paramount function of product reviews is to help our customers select the right product. Being a marketplace, we are agnostic when it comes to the products that sellers list on our platform and therefore reviews help us to identify and take down substandard products and sellers. Conversely, the reviews also help us identify products to put in lights and showcase as the very best MyDeal has to offer.
 
From an operational point of view, product reviews give all departments and indeed our seller network a deeper insight into the customer experience including customer service, order fulfilment, delivery and product experience.
 
Trustpilot reviews serve an important marketing purpose for MyDeal. We strongly encourage our customers to leave product reviews as part of a comprehensive remarketing campaign designed to deliver repeat purchases.
 
Additionally, unique user-generated content (UGC) produced through customer reviews has provided an uplift in traffic generated through long-tail keywords. Our organic sessions have doubled in the last 6 months on the product pages where we are publishing these reviews. 
 
Finally, Trustpilot is a trusted Google Partner for reviews. This means that on our Google Shopping Campaigns, the very important star ratings feature on our product listings providing better click through rate and increased sales volume. 

We are currently in the process of enhancing our use of UGC by introducing it to category pages.
 
There was a challenge though: keeping the content unique, fresh and relevant. Having hundreds of thousand pages to promote, it was complicated. 
 
However, we devised a strategy to overcome this challenge. Trustpilot API’s additional tags really came in handy for this. We tagged each deal with its most relevant category and then published reviews as content onto the respective category page.

__TP: What are the biggest advantages the business has seen from switching to Trustpilot?__

__JB:__ User-generated content and aggregated ratings (Gold Stars on Google SERPs) have provided a boost to our organic sessions direct to deal pages. On Google Shopping, we have seen click through rate improve significantly on products attracting good reviews and displaying the star ratings on the Google SERPs.




mydeal google shopping

From a branding perspective, trust is a fundamental feature to a marketplace’s value proposition. These reviews have gone a long way to achieving that objective and now underpin the overall brand strategy.

We love the way Trustpilot’s navigation is setup: the entire UX speaks for itself, and onboarding a new user on our account is very easy. With Trustpilot’s intuitive layout we don’t have to provide any training at all.
 
As MyDeal’s needs and infrastructure is both unique and bespoke, Trustpilot were pure gold in their support of our internal development team. Their years of experience were brought to the forefront and made what could have been a very tricky integration process a lot less painful than it could have been.


__TP: What are your challenges going forward as a business?__

__JB:__ The Australian eCommerce space is as crowded as it is competitive. It is also one of the most challenging verticals to inspire customer loyalty. MyDeal believes that by offering complete transparency in its product offering, it can differentiate itself as a marketplace of trust. Trustpilot reviews go a long way to achieving this objective and to improving customer retention.

__TP: Thank you for your time! It was great to learn more about your business.__
 
To learn more about MyDeal.com.au, [head to their website](https://www.mydeal.com.au/). If you’d like to find out more about Trustpilot reviews, request a demo below.


Mydeal ecommerce platform and trustpilot reviews

MyDeal tell us how they use Trustpilot reviews

How Setmore uses Trustpilot to create social proof and build trust online 

In this case study, we speak to Jillian Ross, Brand Leader at Setmore, to better understand why the business chose Trustpilot to help strengthen the business and customer connection, and how the team uses third-party reviews to boost its marketing efforts.

With Setmore, brands can connect with their customers and manage all of their appointments through one simple calendar system that gives them the freedom to grow. Their mission is to help brands deliver their magic by connecting businesses and customers. 

With 24/7 customer service, over 1,500 verified reviews, and fantastic 4.7/5 TrustScore, it’s safe to say that Setmore takes its customers’ satisfaction very seriously.

In this case study, we speak to Jillian Ross, Brand Leader at Setmore, to better understand why the business chose Trustpilot to help strengthen the business and customer connection, and how the team leverages third-party reviews to boost its marketing efforts.

## Why Setmore chose Trustpilot to engage with its customer base

Setmore understood the importance of word of mouth before implementing a review strategy. The business was receiving feedback, but had nowhere for it to live. 

“We explored different review platforms but Trustpilot stuck out. We really appreciated how painless it is for customers to leave reviews about a company on Trustpilot, that’s why we decided to give it a go,” explains Jillian.

Setmore started with a free Trustpilot business profile in 2020. After just a few months, the company decided to upgrade to send out more review invitations, and to be able to display their reviews on-site. 

After choosing to switch over to a paid Trustpilot subscription, and including the Invite module, Setmore saw a massive surge in its number of reviews.

## How Setmore displays verified reviews to build trust on-site

When we spoke to Jillian, it became clear that Setmore’s long-term goal is to add the voice of the customer to all marketing channels.

With the Convert add-on Module, Setmore positions Trustpilot reviews front and center on the website’s homepage, within email signatures, and on social channels too.

Setmore shares verified reviews on social media

The business also displays its star rating below the ‘Start for free’ CTA on-site.

The business also displays its star rating below the ‘Start for free’ CTA on its website.

“Showcasing reviews on our site is crucial as we know that people trust people and value what real customers have to say,” says Jillian.

Thanks to Trustpilot’s on-site widgets, Setmore was able to showcase social proof throughout the user journey, and build trust with new website visitors.

Trustpilot reviews can be found lower down on the website’s homepage too.

## How Setmore makes the most of Trustpilot’s tagging feature to learn and improve

Trustpilot has also helped Setmore generate a flood of reviews while enabling the team to engage directly with customers. 

The company responds to every single review, whether positive or negative. Responding to negative reviews is especially important to them, as it’s an opportunity to turn the situation around and learn from past mistakes.

Setmore responds to all types of reviews, whether positive or negative.

“With Trustpilot reviews, you get incredible insight into what your customers love and don’t love, plus what they’d want. It all helps tremendously in guiding our roadmap,” says Jillian.

In fact, Setmore [uses our tagging feature in customer reviews](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/features/review-tagging) to contribute towards the overall roadmap and make decisions on new features and integrations

“With Trustpilot, we’ve really been able to build relationships with our customers, taking the time to respond to each review.”

If you’d like to give Trustpilot a go for free, just like Setmore did, why not create your business profile today?

It’s quick and easy, just click the link below.

How Setmore uses Trustpilot to create social proof and build trust online

In this case study, we'll discuss why Food Circle Supermarket chose to upgrade their free Trustpilot plan to a paid one, and how that positively impacted their business.

[Food Circle Supermarket](https://foodcirclesupermarket.co.uk/ "Food Circle Supermarket") is not your average retailer. 

Instead of looking to produce more food, they want to try and reduce food waste and the enormous strain it puts on our planet. They do this by selling surplus products from some of the largest snacking brands in the world and help distribute any product that is short dated, overstock, has old branding, or would otherwise be wasted. 

Their business model works well because it’s a win for everyone involved. They’re able to sell the surplus products at a heavily discounted rate and ship them right to their door, saving their customers time and money on the products they need. And they’re able to help brands from having to waste surplus products and deal with the logistical headache that comes with disposing of them. 

## A customer nudge towards customer reviews 
Because their prices are often more than 50% less than what the usual price would be, it was hard for them to be seen as trustworthy to new customers. Many of them just assumed there was a catch or that it was a scam. They actually started using [Trustpilot’s free platform ](https://business.trustpilot.com/signup?cta=free-signup_plans "Free plans Trustpilot")after a customer reached out to them in 2019 and suggested they get a Trustpilot page — specifically because their prices seemed too good to be true! 

By the time they had accumulated around 200 reviews – almost all of which were 5-stars – they realized the impact that positive reviews [could have on their brand reputation online](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/6-ways-to-make-trust-your-essential-brand-differentiator "The value of a trustworthy brand reputation"). At this point they could clearly see the effect customer reviews had on building trust and they knew that upgrading to a [paid plan](https://business.trustpilot.com/plans "Plans & Pricing") would get them more review invitations and other helpful features. 

## The value Food Circle received from upgrading 
Once they moved onto a paid plan they quickly started to see value in some of the new features they unlocked. With more invitations, more reviews, and better ways to leverage those reviews, their success with Trustpilot grew. 

### More review invitations 
Getting [access to more review invitations](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/3-reasons-why-you-really-need-to-get-more-reviews "3 reasons why you really need to get more reviews") was one of the main reasons they upgraded. And within less than a year of upgrading, they went from having around 200 reviews to almost 2,000. For new customers to the Food Circle brand, this means more genuine experiences they can read about to help reassure them that Food Circle Supermarket is a trustworthy brand to spend their money with. 

### Better ways to showcase their customer feedback 
Their new plan also came with better ways to use their reviews throughout their customer journey and highlight the online trust they were working so hard to build. They started by implementing a [live carousel of customer reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/trustbox-widgets "Trustpilot widgets") right on their homepage, to build trust with any new visitors to their site. And with their industry becoming more and more competitive, any additional trust they could convey was a huge help in giving them a competitive edge. 

Food Circle Supermarket website

Food Circle Supermarket site

Since their reviews have been so overwhelmingly positive, they also want to point customers back to their Trustpilot page wherever possible. They started including their rating at the bottom of their emails with a link to direct people to their profile page and point them to all of their positive reviews. 

Food Circle Supermarket email footer

This way – regardless of the email’s call to action– anyone who is on the fence can take a look at the feedback from all of their happy customers and know they’re in good hands. 

With some help from Trustpilot’s [social media tools](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/social-media-tools "Social media tools"), it also became quick and easy to turn customer reviews into an eye-catching social post. 

Every brand knows that coming up with unique content for their social channels is extremely challenging. They’re aware that they need to post on a regular basis to keep up a social presence, even though the majority of branded content is something their audience [doesn’t actually want to see](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/browsers-to-buyers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews "The complete guide to reviews"). 

Food Circle Supermarket Instagram

Instead of wasting time trying to reinvent the wheel and post the same repetitive posts about their brand, they’ve unlocked a steady stream of visual content — that their customers are truly interested in — and that helps drive sales.

### Integrations to make their teams’ lives easier
For any business, systems that don’t integrate together can create massive headaches for your teams. Food Circle Supermarket uses Shopify, so it was really important that they find a review platform that had an [integration with them](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/shopify-plus "Shopify + Trustpilot").

As a result, they’re able to add review carousels and widgets to their site in seconds, so there’s no hassle to make changes or adjustments. It’s quick and easy.

### A competitive edge and a meaningful way to interact with their customers 
Although they’re a unique business in a relatively new market, their industry is getting competitive very quickly. Their reviews give them a competitive edge because they have such great feedback from their customers and they’re sharing it wherever they can. 

It also gives their customers a meaningful way to interact with their brand. [When there’s negative feedback](https://business.trustpilot.com/webinars-videos/learn-from-customers/reviews-happen-a-strategy-of-when-and-how-to-respond "Bad reviews happen: a strategy of when and how to respond"), they’re able to take that, resolve it with the customer, and make changes to avoid future customers having the same issues. And for their happy customers, it’s a great way to foster [engaging conversations with the people who matter most](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/why-engaging-in-consumer-conversations-can-help-you-build-a-trusted-brand "Why engaging in consumer conversations can help") so they feel heard. 

### Food Circle’s tips for getting success out of your reviews
Along the way there are a few things that Food Circle Supermarket has learned about how to make the most out of your customer reviews. It’s important to leverage your reviews across as many different marketing channels as possible. Because using the voice of your customers can be so much more effective than your own generic ad copy and messaging, it’s important to maximize results from your reviews by replacing your own voice with the voice of your customer.

The other secret to success with reviews is making the most of the onboarding team and asking as many questions as possible. Because there are a variety of uses and benefits to customer reviews, what works for one company may not work for another.

Paul Simpson, Commercial Director at Food Circle Supermarket

Commercial Director at Food Circle Supermarket

## Getting started with customer reviews
Are you wanting to get started but new to customer reviews? [Create a free account](https://business.trustpilot.com/signup?cta=free-signup_plans "Create your free account") and start collecting reviews today. 

And if you’re already using our free platform and are eager to see similar results to Food Circle Supermarket, consider an [upgrade to our standard plan](https://business.trustpilot.com/request-demo?cta=request-demo_plans_standard "Request a demo"). 

Why upgrading to more invitations and better features was well worth the investment for Food Circle Supermarket

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Honest Marketing report - Banner image

Brands that take a stand: Marketers who match consumers’ desire for purpose come out on top

[Get the report here](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/brands-that-take-a-stand?cta=banner)

Discover how Trustpilot customers use our review platform to enhance their reputation and business. From increasing conversions to improving their whole customer experience and more.

Customer Stories

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