Your customers are the backbone of your business. Their needs impact everything from products and services to marketing and sales.
If you want to exceed their expectations, you need to walk in their shoes. That means asking them what they think of your brand, from the start to the end of their journey with you. But more than that – you need to take on their feedback and put it at the heart of your strategy.
What does that look like in practice? And what are the business-boosting benefits?
Read on to discover 14 benefits of collecting Feefo verified reviews, backed by real-life examples.
Andertons Music Co. is a family-run musical instrument retailer with more than 50 years of experience serving the UK and overseas.
As part of its digital strategy, Andertons has been trialling the effectiveness of paid Facebook adverts and, more notably, product retargeting. Due to having an enormous product catalogue and the restrictions on targeting in Facebook’s native advertising platform, costs were beginning to exceed the key performance indicators (KPIs) the business had set.
If Andertons was going to start effectively using this channel, it needed a solution to ensure its ads were more relevant, engaging, and targeted. The ads needed to increase click-through rate (CTR), reduce spend, and ensure a positive return on ad spend (ROAS).
After implementing Advertising for Facebook with Feefo and split testing against ads without, it reported:
Jack Cooper
Digital Marketing Manager, Andertons
British Airways Holidays (BAH) was looking to boost customer advocacy and trust in its brand. As part of its reviews strategy, it saw the value in focusing on the small moments that make a holiday. So, it wanted to collect genuine User-Generated Content (UGC) that it could use in its advertising campaigns.
Content was collected by adjusting a questionnaire sent out for ratings and reviews. Extra questions and functionality were added depending on the holiday the customer had taken, too. This structured way of collecting the content meant it was filterable, and the most relevant could be chosen for use in BAH’s marketing.
BA Holidays has now dropped stock images previously used and instead dips into its own pool of UGC for content - giving a more authentic and trusted feel to the messages.
Julia Paviour
Digital Marketing & Content Manager, British Airways Holidays
Luxury tour operator CV Villas used to send printed questionnaires to customers at the end of their holiday. But this was a laborious task and only covered certain destinations.
The company needed a review provider and solution to gather feedback from every destination it offered and for each part of the customer journey - not just the end.
Feefo’s Feedback Request Manager allows CV Villas to automatically send review requests at multiple stages of the customer journey. Customers now receive opportunities to review their experience after they’ve booked their trip, whilst they’re at their destination, and when they return back home.
Today, the company now has a complete view of its customer experience, all generated automatically through feedback requests. And traffic to its website has increased by 26%, and conversions increased by 31% since working with Feefo. If you were to express that in terms of increased revenue, you’d see the power of the insights you can get simply by asking customers for their thoughts.
Pete Brudenell
General Manager, CV Villas
British frozen food retail giant Iceland wanted an efficient way to tap into the business insights contained within customer reviews.
It recognised that identifying any issues would allow it to improve its service. But it also saw the potential to use the feedback to inform its messaging, increase customer engagement, and ultimately drive more sales.
Customers were asked to provide reviews on every aspect of the company, including customer service, its online processes, home delivery, and product preferences.
With an accurate understanding of the issues that mattered most to their shoppers, Iceland could set about using what they’d learned to create highly targeted marketing campaigns.
Iceland was set up with our Customer Sentiment Insight tool. Using powerful AI technology, it automatically analyses the content of Iceland’s customer reviews. And it gives a clear and accurate view of what is happening within the business in real time.
This, in turn, made it easy for Iceland to start targeting unique ad campaigns to suit customers.
Iceland has also used the insight gathered from all the Feefo feedback and insight to successfully guide the direction of its marketing activity and trial new services. For example, 99% of Iceland’s customers believed that the home delivery service was excellent. With this information, Iceland was able to promote this unique selling point to customers who weren’t aware of what the home delivery service entailed.
Rachel Lewis
Customer Response Co-Ordinator, Iceland
Kia Motors UK led the industry by becoming the first to harness the power of consumer opinions from verified customers.
It knew the perception of the Kia brand was lagging behind the transformation in its vehicles over the past few years. This was affecting sales and revenue. And it saw owner reviews of its latest models as a more effective way of speeding up the change in brand perception than traditional advertising methods. Kia also looked to ratings and review collection methods to help get on consumers' consideration lists for new car purchases.
Feefo provided car reviews from verified owners that were integrated across the Kia UK site. Visitors to the site could read reviews and filter them by groups of similar consumers e.g. families with children. They could also get rapid, trustworthy answers to any questions or concerns directly from a community of engaged car owners.
The results
Kia was using its reviews to drive people to its showrooms, where its salespeople could do what they did best - sell.
John Bache
Head of Customer Communications, Kia Motors UK
LV= had a mission - to become Britain’s best-loved insurance company. Its first step to achieve this was to simply take the time to make sure its customers’ voices were heard. And heard not just internally but by prospects and current customers alike. So, it decided adding independent custom reviews to its website and using them in marketing campaigns would show a confidence in its products and transparency in its business.
In an industry low on trust, this approach of opening up to unedited customer comments was a bold one. But as well as boosting transparency, the company saw it would also:
To help make this leap, LV= called on us to help collect and analyse the reviews it needed.
LV= ran an A/B split test of emails, and those that included Feefo reviews saw an increase in click-through rates to quote from 53% to 67%. And test for Home Insurance that included Feefo badging had 28% more conversions. This led to a 1.5% increase in sales figures.
In addition to these results, the wider brand perception LV= has benefited from is immeasurable. The public now perceives the company as open, honest, and caring about its customers.
LV= also uses the insights it gets from the invitation-only, verified customer reviews to improve its customers’ experiences with it as a company. For example, customer reviews have led to a change in the reduction of requirements for additional customer documentation - a commonly highlighted irritant in its feedback.
Nigel Saxon
Senior Digital Engagement Manager, LV=
Founded in 2001, the Kent-based car company has a network of over 120 dealers.
With UK car owners among the most knowledgeable in the world, Mazda recognised the importance of establishing credible, independent reviews of its cars and dealers. These reviews would act to reassure customers during the purchasing process and build brand trust. So Mazda needed to have third-party impartial reviews that would have credibility with potential customers.
Since putting its reviews strategy in place, Mazda has seen a significant improvement in its digital performance. From a platform perspective, its website bounce rate improved by 8%. The company has seen additional SEO improvements too - with an increase in the number of keywords entering the top 10 positions. It’s also seen a platform conversion rate improvement of 7%.
As well as benefiting from confirmed customers’ post-purchase reviews, Mazda also found our Surveys tool particularly useful. It’s used it to gain greater insights from its customer base and support Mazda’s digital strategy.
The insights collected from customer feedback have also helped Mazda validate its omnichannel strategy and identify future requirements for its dealer network. This includes the need to have independent reviews of Mazda vehicles, which the company can then display across its national and dealer websites to provide customer dealer, brand, and product reassurance while browsing online.
Simon Culley
Omni-Channel Retail Manager, Mazda Motors (UK)
An award-winning travel company, Meon Valley provides a full travel support service for leisure, business, and emergency assistance travel. Its customers range from private clients to global brands.
Other than the ‘thank-you’ letters it regularly received, Meon Valley had no accurate performance indicators or a clear view of how its service was perceived by its customers.
The company needed a comprehensive way of collecting customer reviews. It wanted to connect with its customers. It wanted to track and improve sales performance and find out if it was actually delivering the exceptional customer experience that it promised.
The switch to Feefo’s verified-only model increased the reviews Meon Travels was getting ten-fold.
It was able to feature the real opinions of genuine customers on its site, as well as in its Google search ads too. Displaying their Feefo star rating in their Google ads significantly contributed towards a 24% increase in click-through rates This helped to build trust in the Meon Valley brand amongst prospective customers and greatly improved ad performance. This, in turn, led to a 23% increase in sales.
The quality of customer reviews is now used to help measure sales team performance. And the insights gained have been used to inform future improvements to the sales process.
Ed Texier
Group Marketing Manager, Meon Valley
William Russell is an independent provider of international insurance for expats, families, and businesses. It knew it had a good reputation for customer service within the insurance industry. But it recognised it wasn’t doing enough to persuade new customers that it was the best choice for specialist expat insurance.
The company knew how much time people spend researching, comparing, and looking for reviews and recommendations. So, it needed to introduce customer reviews on their websites.
Product pages are now supported by reviews, helping improve William Russell’s visibility in Google’s search results. And click-through rates have been boosted by 170%. It’s also seen a 31% rise in the number of website users generating a quote online and a 253% increase in qualified leads.
Members are now more engaged too. This boost in confidence has resulted in higher conversion rates online – with average daily conversion rates increasing by 71%.
Natalie Harris
Policy Services Manager, William Russell
Flight Centre Travel Group is one of Canada’s largest travel retailers. And it focuses on the leisure, corporate/business, luxury, and group travel markets - and lots more in between.
It’s always had a strong commitment to service and has consistently been great at delivering it. The problem was Flight Centre didn’t have a way of proving it, though.
So, the company needed a centralised, automated process to gather and analyse customer feedback. It could then use this to promote, maintain, and build on its service excellence.
The review invitation sent out for Flight Centre Canada includes a Net Promoter Score® (NPS) question.
Recognised around the world, NPS is something a company can measure and then act on by asking customers what seems, at first sight, to be a deceptively simple question:
‘How likely are you to recommend the company to a friend or colleague?’
All the customer has to do is tick a scale from zero to ten - with zero ‘being not likely at all’ and ten being ‘extremely likely’. This allows us to place the customer into one of three categories. Promoters - your most loyal customers. Passives - people who have had a good experience with you but aren’t totally loyal and could be tempted away by your competitors. Detractors – people you’ve let down and who may tell others about their bad experiences.
Analysing your NPS results can then help you measure your customers’ loyalty, fix problems your customers may have had, and develop strategies to move up your NPS scale.
Flight Centre Canada’s NPS scores bear witness to what it already knew. It’s great at delivering the service its customers want and expect. In fact, its NPS scores are amongst the highest in the travel industry. So, the company now uses its NPS feedback to promote itself to customers - old, current, and new.
Marc Mulrooney
Customer Experience Manager, Flight Centre Canada
Beko is the UK’s best-selling home appliance brand. Despite this, Beko felt it could improve brand awareness and public perception of quality. So, it decided it needed to collect and display ratings and reviews on its website.
Beko also saw this as an opportunity to drive sales conversion and gain customer insight. It understood that implementing verified ratings and reviews would bring more potential buyers and a greater level of trust. It also looked to strengthen customer engagement and that offering opinions and ratings on product pages could reduce the need for shoppers to go elsewhere.
Gaining an increased insight into the sentiments of its customers was another factor for Beko. Collecting a large amount of ratings and reviews would allow it to measure customers’ concerns and gather feedback about its products.
Soon after appointing Feefo, Beko had access to a wealth of reviews about its products, which it displayed on its website. Armed with these reviews, Beko launched a £6 million advertising campaign which was co-branded with Feefo and included its product ratings.
Since implementing reviews on its website and in its advertising, conversion uplift doubled. Image and quality perception issues have become a thing of the past, too. It has also scored its highest-ever points on YouGov’s weekly brand tracker for these factors.
George Mead
Brand Marketing Manager, Beko
First Intuition is a classroom and online training supplier specialising in accounting certifications.
Customer service is at the heart of everything for First Intuition. Providing a bespoke and flexible personal service is one of its key USPs, something that stands the business apart from competitors. First Intuition sought a way to showcase this differentiator while simultaneously improving its user experience as well as boosting traffic and sales.
To improve the experience of First Intuition’s website visitors, the company displayed verified reviews from Feefo prominently on every single page of the site. This gave new and existing customers a trusted source of information about the service and encouraged them to spend longer on-site and visit more pages, before converting.
We also helped First Intuition achieve Google Seller ratings to drive more qualified traffic to its website.
By displaying genuine customer reviews on site, First Intuition saw an uplift of 32% more page views per session and a 10% increase in time spent on site, year-on-year. First Intuition also found this trusted information helped to retain users, and in the first month of integration, site bounce rates decreased by 18%.
Other results First Intuition has seen include:
Rosie Jackson
Marketing and Operations Manager, First Intuition
Independent insurance broker Heath Crawford needed to give prospective customers confidence in the industry-leading service it provides. So it had to find a way to collect feedback that it knew was genuine.
Gathering real reviews from genuine clients has been an excellent way to enhance the company’s reputation in the industry. And it has helped build a reputable brand that people can trust. It’s been a fantastic way for Heath Crawford to learn more about their clients to help inform their business decisions, too.
Its NPS® results bear testament to the impact these business decisions, based on genuine feedback, have had on the company. It has scored a ‘world-class’ 86 compared to an industry average of 79.
Prominently displaying Feefo feedback on its website has given prospects a reason to buy. It has also played a big part in helping it retain existing clients. Heath Crawford maintains an impressive 94% customer retention rate.
There’s also been a 59% year-on-year increase in web traffic.
It’s also grown by 13% since simply asking its customers what they think.
Not only that, the company has also won a Feefo Platinum Trusted Service Award, our highest accolade, four years in a row.
Oliver Leyens
Director, Heath Crawford
With over a decade of experience, Astutis is a leading health, safety, and environmental training business. It also offers consultancy services to organisations around the world.
It wanted to collect feedback based on real, personal experiences from its customers. Without it, there was no way of identifying what aspects of the business customers liked and what areas needed improvement.
Competitors in the same space were using open review platforms, where anyone can leave a review - regardless of whether they’d used to company or not. Consequently, some struggled publicly with issues caused by fake feedback. So Astutis chose a verified-only review platform, like Feefo, where only confirmed customers are invited to leave reviews.
Astutis could now have real-time conversations with its customers. Each month, the company reaches out to customers who have provided feedback and thanks them personally for their reviews. This has enabled the business to develop closer customer relationships, as well as retrieve further, more in-depth feedback and insights for case studies and testimonials.
Since partnering with Feefo, Astutis has been using the insights it’s learned to make considerable changes to the content of its products and shape how its services look today. It’s also created a new job role to monitor, analyse, and communicate feedback with the wider business to help ensure the company can further strengthen customer relationships.
The results speak for themselves. There’s been a 30% increase in online courses, and sales have grown by 5%.
Ruth Williams
Global Head of Marketing and eCommerce, Astutis
Getting stars and quotes play a considerable role in what reviews can do for your business to help it stand out from the crowd. But with the right review provider behind you, customer feedback can deliver insights you can use strategically across your company to give you the competitive edge needed to succeed.