Article

Categories Customer Experience

Gaining Momentum- Customer Reviews Online

Peter Muhlmann on Trustpilot's business momentum and the ever increasing importance of online reviews.

Billions of opinions are now shared and read online, with that number increasing every day. It’s a global trend we foresaw in 2007 when Trustpilot first began. But we couldn’t have predicted the speed of growth.



For some context, Trustpilot entered the market when the first iPhone was released, and Twitter and Facebook were only young. The boom in social shareability has seen us grow to 12 million reviews for over 100,000 businesses. A new review is posted every five seconds on our sites around the world. And there’s no sign of it slowing down.

Let’s take a moment to reflect

We’re not a website uploading pictures of cat memes for people’s (myself included) entertainment – at Trustpilot, we strive to guide people to better shopping experiences. We’re at the cutting edge of a new market as it develops, which means every hurdle the industry faces, we face.

Challenges such as fake reviews have been met head on and we are paving the way with solutions through developing rules and regulations, company policies, and educating consumer and business behaviours.

While online reviews are a widely used channel of communication, they are still unregulated. As an industry, we are still learning and adapting.

I’ll be the first to admit we’re not there yet, but we’re certainly making leaps and bounds.

If I could pin it on one thing, our success has been in that we closely listened to our customers to understand their wants and needs, where their pain points lie, and adapt accordingly.

A hugely important part of this journey has been the people that have brought the business to where we are today. My role alone has changed multiple times over the years. After all, it’s a very different job heading up a company of 20 employees than one of 325 employees as we are now.

So what’s next?

The times we live in are in our favour. As consumers, we’ve never listened as much before. The aim? Double the business over the next year and become a household name. Ambitious, but we’re seeing fantastic growth in the US and UK markets and these will continue to be key priorities for us.

We have a pipeline of exciting product launches, helping customers utilise the rich data online reviews provide. Coupled with further investment in even better standards, we are continually investing in processes, teams and in new technology systems to improve quality control and fraud detection services.

It’s an exciting time, so watch this space.

 

The demand is clear – customers want to be listened to

Companies are no longer competing on value alone. In today’s digital world, businesses need to differentiate themselves by more than price. This is where customer experience comes in. Consumers care what other people think, no matter where they are. Your business is therefore no longer what you say it is; it’s what your customers say it is.

There’s a growing understanding amongst businesses about the voice of the customer. Retailers in particular are recognising this way of thinking, but it’s not just limited to your ‘traditional’ shopping experience. We’re seeing growth in areas across the services industry as more and more businesses understand the importance consumers place on the previous experiences of their peers. From undertakers to airport parking, the word is out.

FREE EVENT: Join Digital Doughnut in London on March 31st, 2015 for an evening of networking with speakers reviewing Digital Transformation


Read More on Digital Doughnut

Please login or register to add a comment.

Contribute Now!

Loving our articles? Do you have an insightful post that you want to shout about? Well, you've come to the right place! We are always looking for fresh Doughnuts to be a part of our community.

Popular Articles

See all
The 3 Most Important Stages In Your Presentation

The 3 Most Important Stages In Your Presentation

If you want to deliver a presentation on a particular topic and you have to prepare yourself for it you should make sure that you go through several very important stages in order to craft a compelling, persuasive and...

Nicky Nikolaev
Nicky Nikolaev 16 February 2016
Read more
The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

Technology has impacted every part of our lives. From household chores to business disciplines and etiquette, there's a gadget or app for it. Marketing has changed dramatically over the years, but what is the...

Alex Lysak
Alex Lysak 22 September 2020
Read more
The Carrot of a Bigger Market is More Powerful Than the Stick of Legal Action in Driving Web Accessibility Investment, New Research Finds

The Carrot of a Bigger Market is More Powerful Than the Stick of Legal Action in Driving Web Accessibility Investment, New Research Finds

Getting web accessibility right is a massive commercial opportunity. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3bn people worldwide are living with some form of impairment. The benefits of making it easier for...

Michael Nutley
Michael Nutley 30 November 2023
Read more
It’s Time For Brands to Move From Personalised, to Personal

It’s Time For Brands to Move From Personalised, to Personal

At a time when almost every brand is tailoring content and offers to individual customers based on their demographic data, purchase history, and online behaviours, are these personalisation efforts still adding value?...

Shafqat Islam
Shafqat Islam 27 November 2023
Read more
Is Email Dead, Or Are We Just Bored With It?

Is Email Dead, Or Are We Just Bored With It?

In today's digital era dominated by social media, instant messaging, and collaboration tools, one question looms large: Does email still have a role to play? Some argue that it's on life support, while others...

Julia Herd
Julia Herd 22 November 2023
Read more