Various studies show that customers trust independent customer reviews more than recommendations from friends, acquaintances or experts when making a purchase decision. Trusted Shops helps you to quickly and efficiently collect authentic reviews and in this way increase the trust your customers have in your offer.
To collect reviews with Trusted Shops, you have two options: automatic and manual invite dispatch. In the following article, we explain both variants.
Automatic invite dispatch
So that you can concentrate on your core business, collecting reviews should cost you as little time and effort as possible. For this reason, we offer you the option of automatically collecting reviews. Once the automated invite dispatch has been configured, your customers will receive review requests according to the review request settings you have applied, without you having to do anything else. We therefore recommend that you set up the automatic invite dispatch in the first few days of your membership with Trusted Shops.
Automatic invite dispatch via the Trustbadge®
The easiest way to organise the automatic sending of invites is to use the Trustbadge for dispatch. Only two steps are necessary for you to set up the dispatch via the Trustbadge.
Step 1: Integrate the Trustbadge into your shop
The Tr
ustbadge not only displays your Trustmark and star ratings, but also performs an important task in communicating with your customers. It asks your customers for permission to send them a review invite and sends the invite when permission is granted.
In order for the Trustbadge to fulfil this important task, you must integrate it into your shop. The integration of the Trustbadge takes only a few minutes and is possible without programming knowledge. We even provide you with our own plug-ins for numerous shop software systems, with which you can integrate the Trustbadge into your shop in just a few clicks. In this article, we explain how you can successfully integrate the Trustbadge: Integrate Trusted Shops into your shop
Step 2: Set up your invite rules
As soon as you have integrated the Trustbadge into your shop, you have the option of flexibly adapting the dispatch time of the review invites to your needs. First, analyse your requirements:
- What products or services do you sell?
- What are the delivery times for your products?
- Does it make sense to give your customers some time to test the product before sending out a review invite?
The answers to questions like these are of central importance when choosing the appropriate sending time.
Once you have decided on when you want to send your automated review invites, you can set up and activate automatic invite dispatch on your eTrusted platform. What you need to do to achieve this is explained in this article. How to send invites to my customers automatically?
Automatic invite dispatch using the eTrusted APIs
In addition to our straightforward standard solution, the Trustbadge, you also have the option of using our APIs to automatically collect reviews. APIs are programming interfaces between your systems and ours and are suitable for specific requirements. For example, with the help of APIs, you can collect reviews at various touchpoints and in this way gain valuable information about your customers. In addition, you can evaluate the collected information in your own systems and use it for process optimisation.
Manual invite dispatch
In addition to the automated dispatch via the Trustbadge or the eTrusted APIs, you can use our Review Collector to manually send review invites to your customers. This option is particularly worthwhile in your early days with Trusted Shops. With manual invites, for example, you could ask your regular customers for reviews for past orders and in this way quickly collect your first reviews.
To use the Review Collector, you need a file with the desired customer and order data in CSV file format. In this article we explain how to make and format such a file: How to create a CSV file to send manual review invites? Within the eTrusted review platform you will also find a sample file that you can use as a template.
Once you have created your CSV file, you can upload it to the Review Collector and send out the review invites. Here we explain where you can find the Review Collector within eTrusted and how to use it: How can I manually invite customers for review with the Review Collector?
By using the Review Collector, you confirm that you have obtained the express consent of all customers concerned for the data transfer to Trusted Shops and the receipt of review invites. For more information on this topic, see Consent for review invites.
With the Review Collector, you collect reviews manually. This means you have to invest worktime to be able to use the feature. We therefore recommend that you only use the Review Collector in addition to, and not instead of, automatic dispatch. Only the automatic invite dispatch, guarantees that your customers are continuously invited to submit reviews without manual effort on your part.
Where can I view my collected reviews?
No matter which channel you use to collect reviews – all reviews received will be aggregated in the Review Inbox of your review platform eTrusted. Within the Inbox, you can view and analyse your reviews. In addition, you have the opportunity to reply to or report reviews at this point. In this article, we explain how you can use the Inbox for your review management: What are the main features of the Review Inbox?