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Ask the Experts: Are These Consumer Rating Tools Helpful…

October 29, 2012
by Gradiva Couzin

Q. I own a small business with a local shop plus an online store, and I’ve been told I need more customer reviews for my shop. I’ve heard there are tools that will get the shop reviewed online. What are these tools and do they actually work?

A. Customer reviews of your business, such as seller ratings on Google or brick-and-mortar reviews on Yelp, are a growing priority for small businesses, as well they should be. Despite the importance of online reviews, soliciting customers for reviews on a regular basis can be a challenge. A “mom and pop” owner who is already overburdened with running his or her shop may find it difficult to get out there and chat up happy customers to encourage positive reviews.

Below, we’ve listed four tools designed to help businesses gather reviews. These tools are geared toward online purchases. They allow the business owner to set up post-transaction customer outreach seeking reviews. The customer reviews are posted on the tools’ own website, not on the business’s site. These tools won’t help with Yelp listings or other popular review sites with which you may be familiar.

Customer Lobby will contact customers for reviews on your behalf by phone and email. The reviews are posted on a third-party independent website that can be found in Google search results. Customers with Google+ or Yahoo profiles are also directed to post reviews there.

Shopper Approved asks customers for reviews on an online thank-you page after a purchase is complete. Each review is posted on an optimized web page that can be found in search results. The more ratings and reviews your business receives, the more pages are created. A 30-day free trial is available.

Demand Force solicits customer reviews from an automated ‘thank you’ message sent immediately after a visit to the business. The company offers a syndication service in which the data is sent to Google, so a client’s Google Plus page is kept up-to-date with new content. A free demo is available.

ResellerRatings offers a customer follow-up platform to gain reviews for your business. In addition to your business’s reviews being listed on their site, ResellerRatings has the distinction among the services listed that the reviews feed into Google’s seller ratings list for your business. These seller ratings display alongside your business in Google Shopping listings and can result in gaining stars on your Google AdWords listings.

Do these tools work? We’d have to say “Yes,” but they come at a cost. ResellerRatings in particular drew a great deal of ire when it cranked up its prices dramatically over the past year or so, given that it was one of the few third-party rating sites that feeds into Google. All of the capabilities of these tools could probably be reproduced by a do-it-yourselfer at a lower cost, with a bit of time and technical know-how. However, if you have more money than time available, these tools could be a good choice for you.

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Ask the Experts: How do Pinterest Price Banners Work?

March 15, 2012
by Gradiva Couzin

Q: I have an e-commerce site and my products have recently started getting “Pinned” by people on Pinterest. Sometimes a price shows up in the corner banner. Why do these price banners sometimes happen? Can I control them?

A: Price banners in Pinterest can be a nice feature for product pages, but site owners have limited control over them. The price banner is automatically generated when a price including dollar ($) or pound (£) is included in the pin’s description. For example, in the screenshot shown here, the description reads “$5 Face Painting”. Pinterest grabs the $5 in the description to generate the $5.00 price banner seen on the pin.

Here are a few notes and caveats:

If you have a “Pin it” button on your product pages, you can pre-fill the description so that it includes a price, formatted with a dollar sign. Of course, Pinterest users may choose to overwrite your description, but the starter text you insert will often be included.
If multiple prices are listed in the description, the last one in the list is the one utilized in the banner. For example, if the description reads: “We charge only $50 compared to other people’s $65 fee!” the price shown in the banner will be $65.
Many retailers have prices that change due to promotions or sales. This could be a concern because Pinterest pins will be susceptible to displaying outdated price information. There is unfortunately no way for a site owner to update Pinterest pins after they have been created by site visitors. If a price changes, the retailer may wish to post a comment on product pins letting viewers know about the updated price.
If you have serious concerns about prices being displayed on Pinterest – for example, if you charge different amounts to different people and really don’t want them shared – you can add a tag to your pages that will disallow Pinterest pins. The tag is placed in the <head> of your page and reads as follows: <meta name=”pinterest” content=”nopin” />

One last helpful note: any site owner can see Pinterest pins from their site at this URL: http://www.pinterest.com/source/example.com — just replace “example.com” with your own domain. This is a great way to keep an eye on your site’s Pinterest presence.

Ask the Experts: Are These Consumer Rating Tools Helpful…

Q. I own a small business with a local shop plus an online store, and I’ve been told I need more customer reviews for my shop. I’ve heard there are tools that will get the shop reviewed online. What are these tools and do they actually work?

Ask the Experts: How do Pinterest Price Banners Work?

Q: I have an e-commerce site and my products have recently started getting “Pinned” by people on Pinterest. Sometimes a price shows up in the corner banner. Why do these price banners sometimes happen? Can I control them?

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