Motorpoint is the UK’s leading independent retailer of nearly new and used cars. Founded in 1998, the business has 20 stores across the UK and offers customers a multi-channel car buying experience. Motorpoint prides itself on offering drivers a hassle-free way to find their next vehicle.
Recognizing the importance of customer trust in the used-car market, Motorpoint sought to improve its existing trust signals. The review platforms they’d trialled weren't efficient, making it challenging to gather quick feedback and showcase customer endorsements.
Trustpilot was the recognized review platform that was most popular with the Motorpoint audience and allowed Motorpoint to integrate with other platforms, collect reviews, and promote its 4.6 TrustScore within marketing efforts.
Integrating Trustpilot on the website homepage increased conversion rates by 7%, while email CTR improved by 11%. Motorpoint’s Trustpilot page achieved 200k Google impressions, and 81% of reviews received were 5-stars.
“From our internal research, we know that customers are more likely to believe reviews surrounding trust and quality when endorsed by those who had previously bought a vehicle from Motorpoint. This had the greatest impact on conversion when featured on the website homepage when motorists were either browsing stock or researching for their next car,” says Alex.
The journey so far
In 2016, Motorpoint transitioned from simply responding to reviews on Trustpilot to actively collecting and promoting reviews across all purchase channels, both in-store and online, in an effort to validate its commitment to quality service.
A multi-channel strategy was soon implemented. Motorpoint requested reviews at various touchpoints, including in-store purchases, phone interactions, and post-sale follow-ups.
“Most notably, we prompt our customers 30 days after they’ve bought a car from us. The reviews we collect at this point are particularly useful as they highlight our strong post-sale offering, helping us stand out from our competitors,” says Alex Howland, Digital Marketing Director at Motorpoint.
In-stores, Motorpoint’s Trustpilot rating was displayed on price boards and interactive screens “to act as an added trust signal for those browsing,” explains Alex.
Trustpilot was prominently featured online on its homepage, store pages, and testimonial page. In marketing efforts, Trustpilot was leveraged in email campaigns and social media ads. These ads featured reviews that resonated with the specific campaign or store locale.
These positive customer testimonials highlighted on the homepage were impactful in converting browsers to buyers, increasing conversion rates by 7%.
Sometimes traffic is a good thing
Motorpoint's extensive eCRM (Electronic Customer Relationship Management) program wielded a powerful email marketing campaign featuring Trustpilot in every send, helping them greatly improve their online traffic.
The Motorpoint team ramped up their targeting to prevent repetition and showcase the variety of reviews received. In email sends, reviews were hand-selected based on the email subject and store location.
“We also used the filters within Trustpilot to ensure anyone clicking through to read more reviews viewed content most relevant to them,” says Alex.
Overall, the team found that including longer, more informative reviews worked best in day-to-day email marketing and resulted in an 11% increase in CTR.
“From an eCRM perspective, we can use the invitation data to understand at what point in the post-sale journey our customers are most likely to leave us a review and quantify the value of including additional CTAs in the wider journey. For example, using Trustpilot analytics, we found that sending out reminders helped us increase the number of reviews we could collect by almost a third,” says Alex.
Meanwhile, Motorpoint developed a testimonial page with embedded TrustBox widgets for customers searching for reviews at the research stage. “We find that integrating the widget works well when building out landing pages in Salesforce – to support new store openings,” said Alex.
This action also enabled the team to capture significant traffic that would otherwise have gone directly to review platforms – keeping car buyers on the Motorpoint website.
Improving their TrustScore
“We used our TrustScore extensively across our website and in print and digital marketing,” says Alex Howland, Digital Marketing Director at Motorpoint.
So, how did they do it? Alex revealed the tactics employed.
Firstly, collecting reviews and inviting customers to share their experiences post-sale is a priority. Secondly, using customer feedback via Trustpilot helped them find areas of improvement, something they stayed on top of.
“This has been significant because when we don’t ask customers to tell us about their experience, we found that those who had a positive experience were less likely to write a review. By using the invitation API, we collected thousands of positive reviews that would otherwise have been lost,” says Alex.
The route forward
Choosing Trustpilot was clearly the right decision for this major car retailer, mostly because expectations were surpassed.
“Trustpilot helped us validate our trust-led messaging and reassured customers at every stage of the car buying journey. Being able to filter our reviews by topic and location means that the reviews customers see within our marketing efforts are most relevant to them,” claims Alex.
It doesn’t end there. While Trustpilot is a mainstay in marketing, the team is also exploring the possibility of expanding into sub-brands within the Motorpoint Group itself.
Get a free demo with our experts on how to use trust to boost your business.
