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Learn From Your Customers - Trustpilot Blog

Reviews - Learn From Your Customers

Woman with glasses looking straight ahead

Consumer insights are an interpretation of human behaviour used by businesses to gain a deeper understanding of how their audience thinks and feels. Learn how to use them to better understand your customers, meet their needs, and grow revenue.

Listening empowers you to learn from and talk to your customers in order to create ever-improving experiences.

Businesses with quality data are more likely to collect actionable customer insights, which can help them grow their bottoms line in the long run.

## So what are consumer insights, exactly?

A consumer insight is an interpretation used by businesses to gain a deeper understanding of how their audience thinks and feels. Analysing human behaviours allows companies to really understand what their consumers want and need, and most importantly, why they feel this way. 

When consumer insight research is conducted properly, it should improve the effectiveness of how a company communicates to its customers, which is likely to change consumer behaviour, and therefore increase sales.

But [collecting good consumer insights can be challenging](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/introducing-trustpilots-new-machine-learning-tool-review-insights), so here is what you need in order to collect and use consumer insights properly:

__1. Good data quality__

Data quality is vital to the collection of consumer insights. Without high-quality data, your conclusions or results might suffer.

__2. A dedicated analytics team__

The role of your data analytics team is essential in order to understand how your customers think and behave. If you don’t have the right analytics team, it’s hard to understand what the data is telling you.

__3. Consumer research__

It’s important to understand and acknowledge consumer behaviour and consumer insights should help you engage with customers emotionally. In order to do that, [it’s essential not to ignore the results of your consumer research](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/how-staysure-uses-the-power-of-ai-to-build-customer-trust), whether you agree with them or not.

__4. Database and segment marketing__

Database marketing is a form of marketing using databases of customers to generate personalised communi cations. These databases can lead to personas, different sets of audiences or segments. As consumer insights remain theoretical, database marketing is another essential element to your research when it comes to testing and learning. Indeed, test actions are necessary if you want to turn insights into facts.

## But what’s the difference between market research and consumer insights?

__Market research__ can be defined as an effort to gather information about customers or markets. It provides information about market needs, market sizes, competitors and customers. It is the “what” of customers and markets. 

Market research delivers statistics and knowledge. 

__Consumer insights__ deliver the same, but tend to come with recommended actions that will help you amplify the company’s growth. This means the team in charge of consumer insights will deliver both data and narrative, allowing you to make use of the data.

Long story short, research tells us what is happening, whereas consumer insights tell us why it’s happening, and will allow us to make changes to our business in order to improve customer satisfaction, customer retention, and increase our bottom bottom line.

If you’re still unsure how you should be using these insights to influence your business and better engage customers, we’ve got you covered.

## Using consumer insights to amplify your marketing efforts

__Consumer insights help analyse the competition__
Whether or not you are the market leader in your industry, looking at how consumers talk about products and services in your industry can reveal a lot about consumers’ needs, and what you can implement to improve your own product, service, or business. 

Being aware of consumers’ conversations when it comes to other products can be extremely valuable, regardless of whether or not they mention or are aware of your business.

### Consumer insights help improve the customer journey


The customer journey’s 5 different stages: awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy. Mapping your customer journey will help you understand your customer’s experience and should highlight any gaps you may have.

The customer journey’s 5 different stages: awareness, consideration, purchase, retention and advocacy.

Consumer insights can also help companies map their customer journey and identify any gaps where there might be some, as well as find what works best, and what can be improved for a better user experience and customer journey, from awareness to purchase and advocacy.

Forbes covered [a great example](https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2017/12/15/leveraging-customer-data-to-create-relevant-customer-experiences-2-examples/#731b07d961d3) of how consumer insights was used. Wayfair, a multi-billion dollar online home goods retailer conducted consumer research and analysed their data, and realised they needed to improve their overall customer experience. So they built an app that lets users take pictures of items they see and like giving the information needed so Wayfair can offer recommendations.

Not only did this research allow the business to improve customer experience, but the app now also provides the company with new insights into customers’ styles and needs. As a result, Wayfair saw a 50% increase in customer retention the year the app came out.

### Consumer insights help personalise your marketing

Mass marketing is a strategy in which a company decides to ignore targeted marketing and speak to a whole market instead. The example below illustrates mass marketing perfectly.

An example of mass marketing advertising: toothpaste advert

An example of mass marketing advertising

Today, companies offering a service or product used by many still tend to use mass marketing, like this toothpaste advert. Indeed, by definition of mass marketing advertising, mass-market products do not necessarily need to personalise their communications in order to sell more. 

But in a world where competition is so tough, personalisation has become a necessity for many retail brands out there. Targeted and personalised help communicate a better, clearer message, and therefore attract and retain customers.

That’s why consumer insights can help businesses understand why people buy certain products over other ones and what’s driving those preferences. 

This can help you refine your personas, and determine the best way to speak to your different audience segments. Here are a couple of examples of personalised marketing.


Very personalised website homepage

An example of personalisation

*Very* uses personalised messaging based on sign-in information and seasonal weather data to make a more intimate connection with the site visitor.

Spotify billboard displaying social proof and personalised content

Spotify’s new billboard campaign uses internal consumer data to create unique singular stories that highlighted how personal listening to music can be.

Netflix's personalised homepage

Netflix, on the other-hand, uses algorithms based on previous viewing behaviour in order to recommend the right kind of content to viewers.

Whether it’s with algorithms, internal data, or a mixture of internal and external data, consumer insights help refine the way you communicate to your customers - these brands all use consumer insights to better understand their audience and personalise their marketing and offerings.

Insights are essential to learn about and understand your audience better, as well as find deeper, more actionable insights to improve the way you market your business. 

There are many ways you can use insights to boost your company’s bottom line - so we’ve put this list of steps together to get you started!

### Getting started with consumer insights

- Establish what you want to learn: before conducting research, make sure you know what (and how) you’ll get your data. 
- Identify your resources: How will you obtain data, who’s going to collect it, who’s going to analyse it? Make sure you have enough time and employees dedicated to getting and using your consumer insights.
- What’s your collection method?: How you’ll collect data is extremely important. Are you targeting a specific audience? Existing consumers? Will you use a survey? A focus group? These are important questions. Trustpilot's Review Insights tool is a great way to get started.
- How will you use the data? Make sure your efforts are not going to waste. It’s important to plan and think ahead. Once you have the data, start thinking about what departments, processes, strategies, and initiatives might be affected and what the plan is for that.

Lastly, get started! Obtaining consumer insights is hard work but can pay off in the long run. Find out how Trustpilot reviews can help you collect great insights, learn about Trustpilot's [Review Insights tool here](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/introducing-trustpilots-new-machine-learning-tool-review-insights), or create a free Trustpilot account today to get started.


What are consumer insights and how do I use them? An introduction

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What type of metrics measure customer success

We all know customer satisfaction is important, but with many different variables it can be tricky to measure. Learn some of the different metrics to monitor and work on for an improved customer experience.

These are more long term questions, but customer satisfaction levels are also constantly changing, so brands need to keep an eye on them in the short term as well. If levels dip, action needs to be taken immediately to prevent further decline. If they rise, figuring out what changed and replicating it across your business can lead to even more success. 

And even if your customer satisfaction has long been in decline, it’s never too late to try and create a better experience for your customers — the kind that will help you gain more loyal customers and see more success in the long run.

Measuring customer satisfaction can feel a little intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be. And it’s okay if there are some areas where you’re falling short. But if your customers are unhappy it’s much better to understand why and resolve the issues than to keep your head in the sand and hope the problems magically disappear. 

So, where to start? There are a few important customer satisfaction metrics to help you understand how you’re doing already and find areas for improvement. Even a tiny improvement in the following focus areas can mean a better experience for your customers, and a better bottom line for your business.

## Customer satisfaction metrics to guide your business
Depending on your business, some of these will probably make more sense for you than others. You don’t necessarily need to focus on all of them, but committing to monitoring a few of them can bring you great results for your business. The more of them that you can focus on, the more your customer satisfaction will likely improve. 

### Customer retention and churn rates – do they stay or do they go? 
[Customer retention](https://www.salesforce.com/eu/learning-centre/customer-service/customer-retention/#:~:text=To%20calculate%20your%20customer%20retention,E%2DN) looks at which of your customers stay with your business over any given period of time. You can figure out how to calculate yours [here](https://blog.totango.com/2021/03/how-to-calculate-and-improve-your-customer-retention-rate/ "How to calculate and improve your customer retention rate"). 

Because acquiring new customers is generally more expensive than retaining your current customers, customer retention rates can have a huge impact on your bottom line in both the long and short term. 

There are a few different [strategies for boosting customer retention](https://www.shopify.com/blog/customer-retention-strategies "What is customer retention? 5 strategies to keep customers"). Starting a customer loyalty program can be an excellent way to incentivize customers to keep spending with your brand and so can offering a discount towards their next purchase at the end of their transaction. Better email engagement programs and win back campaigns sent to customers who have already moved on can help as well. 

### Repeat purchase rate
To figure out your repeat purchase rate,simply divide your total number of customers by your return customers. This is an excellent way to measure customer satisfaction because if you have a large number of customers returning that indicates that your customers are happy enough with your product or service to keep coming back. The numbers speak for themselves.

Unless you’re selling something where people truly only need one or can use the same product for a long period of time, a low repeat purchase rate is typically a bad sign for your business. It means it’s time to ask why your customers aren’t coming back. 

If you’re suffering from a lower repeat purchase rate, there are plenty of [ways to help improve it](https://blog.smile.io/how-to-calculate-purchase-frequency/ "How to calculate purchase frequency and how to improve it"). And even if yours is doing pretty well, any improvements to this will still translate into large financial gains for your brand. 

### Customer lifetime value
Closely tied to repeat purchase rate, your [customer lifetime value ](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/how-to-calculate-customer-lifetime-value "How to calculate customer lifetime value")is the total amount of sales your business will typically see per customer. And it stands to reason that the better your customer experience, the more business you will likely see from each of them. 

This is a great metric to keep an eye on as you put more of a focus on customer satisfaction. If you do it properly, you’ll be able to watch it grow over time as your focus on their experience has them coming back more and making larger purchases. 

Once you get to a point where you’re seeing higher lifetime value from each customer, you can really put all your focus on acquiring new customers, because the ones you have are already happy with your brand and extremely loyal to it. 

And here’s the real beauty of working to improve your customer satisfaction levels: the happier your existing customers are, the easier (and cheaper) it will become to [attract new customers](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/browsers-to-buyers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews "The complete guide to marketing with customer reviews").

### NPS – are your customers promoting your brand? 
Your NPS – [Net Promoter Score](https://blog.capterra.com/what-is-nps-net-promoter-score-explained/ "What is NPS? Net promoter score explained") – measures how likely your customers are to recommend your business to a friend. This is done with a brief survey asking your customers how likely they are to recommend your business on a scale of 1-10. Chances are, you’ve encountered this survey question embedded right into a software product you frequently use.

Answers between 0-6 reveal your detractors, 7-8 are your passives, and 9-10 are your promoters. Subtract the percentage of detractor responses from the percentage of your promoters and you’ve got your score. 

This can be a great option for businesses because it’s a relatively simple survey that your customers are likely already familiar with — and possibly more likely to engage with. It also takes just a moment to fill out. You can also [get a lot more out of it](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/what-is-nps "The ultimate guide to your NPS score") by leaving a spot for your customers to be able to leave qualitative feedback about how your business could improve. 

Re-calculating your NPS score over time can help you see how your customer satisfaction levels are rising or falling, so for best results you should do this once or twice a year.

### Customer reviews for qualitative and quantitative feedback 
Customer reviews go straight to the source about how your customers feel about you. And because they consist of both star ratings and the actual review, they also provide you with both quantitative and qualitative feedback. 


Customer review Swappa

Reviews can also tackle two different customer service issues, right at the source. [Responding to reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-to-respond-to-negative-reviews "How to respond to negative reviews") and resolving customer issues helps keep individual customers happier. But taking it a step further and making changes to your business based on [common trends in your reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/introducing-trustpilots-new-machine-learning-tool-review-insights "Review insights: using the wealth of insights in your customer reviews to better your business") helps ensure that future customers won’t have the same issues. 

Because of this, customer reviews are both a metric for customer satisfaction and a tool to help you engage with your customers and offer them better customer service, all at the same time. 

Customer reviews are a powerful customer satisfaction tool for one other reason. They offer your customers a place to engage with your brand – and for you to build trust in your brand by engaging with them. Your customers are going to be talking about your brand online either way, but collecting and responding to your customer reviews allows you to be a part of that conversation. 

### CSAT scores for a quick and simple pulse check 
[CSAT scores](https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/customer/what-is-csat/ "What is a CSAT and how do you measure it?") are another method of direct customer feedback. You survey your customers and give them a 1-5 scale to rank how satisfied or unsatisfied they are with your business. You take the number of customers that gave you a four or five – satisfied or extremely satisfied – divide by your number of survey responses, and multiply by 100. That gives you your percentage of satisfied customers. 

These can be emailed to your customer base as surveys, come as a popup at the end of checkout, be sent through SMS, or any other way you communicate with your customers. 

CSAT scores are a great way to get a general pulse of how your customers are feeling, but the main limitation here is the lack of qualitative feedback. CSAT doesn’t help you figure out where you’re missing the mark for your unsatisfied customers or how you could improve their experience going forward. 

## When you grow your customer satisfaction, you grow your business
Not all of these customer satisfaction metrics are going to be right for your business so it’s important to take a look at each of them and decide what’s right for you. Once you have an idea of which ones – and we definitely suggest more than one – make sense, then you can get started. 

We know that negative feedback is never fun, but shying away from it only hurts your business in the long run. Confronting your negative feedback head on is the only way to improve your business moving forward and create a better experience for your customers. 

If customer reviews seem like a good metric to measure and [improve your customer satisfaction](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/training-education/how-kaplan-internationals-customer-satisfaction-skyrocketed-with-trustpilot "How Kaplan International's customer experience skyrocketed with Trustpilot"), we’re here to help. [Click here ](https://business.trustpilot.com/request-demo "Trustpilot request a demo")to speak with one of our specialists and start collecting reviews from your customers today. 


What type of metrics measure customer satisfaction

What types of metrics measure customer satisfaction? 

Use the insights in your customer reviews to better your business

Use the insights in your reviews to better your business

Your reviews contain powerful insights that can be the key to improving your business and making your customers happier. Learn more about using these insights to your advantage. 

Some companies believe that with so many different customers, it’s impossible to please all of them — and pointless to try. When it comes to [customer experience](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/the-role-of-customer-experience-in-outperforming-industry-peers "The role of customer experience in outperforming industry peers"),  neither of these extremes are true. 

You’ll never be able to please every single customer, but if there are areas where the majority of your customers are unhappy then you should be listening. And if there are areas where the majority of your customers love what you’re doing, you should make sure to lean into that and keep it as a focus for your brand. 

Think of your customer reviews as a wealth of [consumer insights](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/what-are-consumer-insights-and-how-do-i-use-them "What are consumer insights and how do I use them? An introduction") that hold the key to success for your business. But the more reviews you have, the harder it can be to try and guide your decisions with such a vast amount of – often conflicting – data. 

That’s why our team developed a tool called [Review Insights](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-insights "Review Insights") — so businesses like yours can easily uncover the consumer insights trends within your Trustpilot reviews. No heavy lifting required! 

## Consumer insights answer questions before you ask them 

Terms like data and insights might seem vague, which can make it hard to relate them to your brand. 

Having website or checkout issues during large volume shopping periods? New trends in your reviews could help you be aware of these as soon as possible so you can get back up and running and minimize any lost revenue. 

Relying on a lot of customer service reps or sales reps? By adding tags to your reviews it can automatically tie each review to an individual rep, so you can spot trends within feedback around each of them to understand where training is needed and how well they’re each performing. 

Struggling to get pricing just right? In depth insights into how your customers are mentioning pricing in their reviews could help you understand if you could raise your prices a little for a better bottom line, or lower them a little so you can appeal to more customers, grow your customer base, and stop losing potential customers to prices that may be a little unrealistic. 

There are so many ways that trends in customer reviews have [helped companies improve their businesses](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/7-ways-reviews-can-provide-actionable-consumer-insights-and-better-roi "7 ways reviews can provide actionable consumer insights and better ROI for your business"), and the list is constantly growing. 

## Go deeper than a simple star rating 
When you use Review Insights, our AI is automatically sifting through all of your reviews. It easily spots all of the trends in them that might help you improve your business. You’ll even receive a monthly consumer insights report that simplifies these trends, easily guiding decisions in different areas of your product, customer experience, and more. 

Trends in customer reviews

Looking at reviews in terms of star ratings can only get you so far. Often 4-star reviews will be mostly positive but contain one or two negative comments. These negative comments show you the areas where your business came up just a little short of delighting your customer. 

### Insights can change your customers from satisfied to ecstatic

The negative comments in otherwise great reviews are a gold mine for you in terms of knowing what you need to do to turn your satisfied customers into ecstatic customers. But going through these reviews manually to do this exercise would be an absolute nightmare. 

Review Insights can detect many different sentiments in each review, and it knows whether each is positive or negative. It’s smart enough to understand that there are positive sentiments in negative reviews, and vice versa. 

Once the tool pinpoints the negative sentiments in your 4-star reviews, you’ll easily see where you’re coming up short and what you need to do to turn those 4-star reviews into 5-star reviews. This means more customers raving about your business and influencing those around them to try out your brand. 

## A look into your business from the most important angles, at any given time

Depending on the nature of your business, some terms will come up in reviews more frequently than others. 


Looking at different common terms in your reviews

Whether it’s your shipping and delivery, pricing, or something more specific to your business Review Insights gives you a snapshot into exactly how each different aspect of your business is performing, at any given moment. It also shows you how they change over time. Watching these terms month over month gives you a quick snapshot into areas of your business that are improving and areas that are declining. 

This helps you spot problem areas that you need to be focusing on. With Review Insights quickly identifying potential issues for you, you're able to handle and correct them before the problem gets any larger.  

### Be alerted as new trends emerge 
The thing about review data is that it’s constantly changing. As your business changes, your reviews change with it. This is why it’s so important to keep monitoring these trends, instead of just checking how your brand is doing here and there. 

This allows you to stop negative trends as they’re happening, instead of finding out about them after you’ve potentially lost business. 


Watch as new trends in your reviews emerge

Fortunately, Review Insights does this for you. On top of monthly consumer insights reports, you’ll also receive detailed reports as new trends emerge within your reviews. This allows you to adjust your business operations to keep your customers as happy as possible. 

## The data is already at your fingertips. Tap into it with Review Insights 
Using reviews as a way to engage with your customers is excellent for your customer experience, especially with customers that are unhappy. But fixing the larger trends behind why many of your customers are unhappy removes the problems before they even begin. 

With [Review Insights ](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-insights "Review Insights Product Features")you can better understand your customers, so you can give them exactly what they want and keep them coming back for life. 

Ready to get started with Trustpilot? [Creating an account is free](https://business.trustpilot.com/signup?cta=free-signup_header_home "Create your free account") — and our experts are [just a call away](https://business.trustpilot.com/request-demo "Request a demo") if you’d like more information.

Review Insights: Using the wealth of insights in your customer reviews to better your business

Highlighting areas of improvement 

In this article, we'll show you how to improve customer service on your eCommerce site in order to increase your retention rate, improve your reputation, and increase your revenue.

And while many businesses utilise tactics like lowering prices, increasing deals, or offering discounts, they fail to realise the one area that can make a huge difference - customer service.

Good customer service has now become vital. Consumers are looking for friendly, customer-centric brands who care about what their customers think and feel. Review data from our upcoming research report shows that one-star and 5-star reviews most commonly mention ‘customer service’

Great customer service keeps your customers happy and loyal, brings your business more insights on what currently works and what can be improved, and helps you acquire new customers.

An Adobe Digital Shoppers Index report found that return and repeat shoppers make up over 40% of an eCommerce site's revenue despite only making up 8% of total shoppers. Repeat shoppers also generate five times more revenue per visit than first time shoppers. A great way to increase the chance of return and repeat visitors is by focusing on customer service.

This article will show you how to improve customer service on your eCommerce site in order to increase your retention rate, improve your reputation, and increase your revenue.

## Developing and improving your eCommerce customer service

### 1. Make your contact information easily accessible

Every page that contains information about your company, your products, or your services should contain your contact information, or at least an easy-to-find link to your ‘Contact’ page. You should also include contact information in the main navigation tab, the footer and consider adding your phone number or email address to both your ‘Contact’ and ‘About Us’ pages too.

These changes will reduce the amount of effort and friction customers or browsers will experience if they need support or have some kind of question. By giving them a way to get their issues sorted onsite, you’re decreasing the chance of having a visitor navigate away from your site and increasing their chance of making a purchase.

To provide more direct access, consider a pop-up or a permanent banner on the side. That way, if one of your customers feels the need to contact you while checking out your website, they can do so on the same page they’re browsing.

The Glossier 'Contact Us' page is both informative and helpful

Glossier Contact Page

Include your details in your FAQ section too. If your customers can’t find the answer to their question, they’re more likely to contact you straight away. If they can’t, then they might navigate away.

__What to include on your contact page:__

- Company name
- Address (consider including a map)
- Phone number
- Email address
- Contact form
- Opening hours
- Closing dates
- VAT number

### 2. Ask for feedback

To pinpoint the exact areas where you can improve your customer service, collecting customer feedback is one of the easiest ways to do it. Direct feedback will help you understand what your customers like and don’t like, what can be improved, and how to do it.

By asking for feedback, you’re showing your customers that you care about their satisfaction, and that you are constantly working towards ensuring potential customers are having a fantastic experience. Collecting feedback is necessary in developing your eCommerce business, reduce customer churn (or attrition), and boost loyalty.

__Different ways of asking for feedback:__

- On the phone
- By email
- By SMS
- With third-party review platforms
- Survey customers

Your customer feedback can also present an opportunity beyond customer service. By giving you insight and quantitative information on your reputation, you can leverage it as social proof for your marketing channels, increasing its performance.

### 3. Provide real-time help

When your site visitor is confused and upset, it’s better for your business to offer help as soon as it can, and that usually means instantly. It’s a great way to differentiate yourself from the other eCommerce companies, improve your customer service, and increase the chance of having that potential customer leave your site having made a purchase.

On-site live chats are a great customer service tool that allows you to engage with your existing or future customers via your website. Real-time customer service helps reduce churn, and boosts customer loyalty by increasing their chance of returning.

According to Kissmetrics, “44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.” Answering questions directly on-site means customers are more likely to have their issues resolved quicker, which keeps them engaged and interested in your business for longer.

95% of unhappy customers are more likely to return to your website if you have resolved their issue quickly and efficiently.

Nike Store offer a live chat function right on their product page

It’s also recommended to hire a community manager in order to look after your brand’s social accounts. Someone taking care of your social media accounts full time will help you assist angry customers on Twitter and Facebook, and will help you showcase how much you care about your customers’ satisfaction. It’s also a way to provide immediate help if a browser or customer has a question or concern.

With nearly half of digital buyers saying that reading customer feedback on social media influences their buying journey, you wouldn’t want to miss out on great customer service on social channels, would you?

### 4. Use your own customer's voice

With over 84% of consumers not trusting advertisements anymore, and 80% of people trusting other consumers’ feedback as much as personal recommendations, it’s become essential for eCommerce companies to use user-generated content (UGC) as much as possible. If you’re wondering how UGC plays into customer service, it all starts with the community.

Letting your customers review your product or service gives potential customers the opportunity to look for answers to their questions without having to get in touch with your customer service team. By leveraging reviews, you’re letting your customers create useful and unique content that will help people looking for basic answers. And by displaying them either via a third-party site or directly on your site, you’re showing visitors that you do care about your customers and their experience.

Encouraging UGC is also a great way to build communities of customers and create brand advocates. Loyal customers who are part of a brand community are generally willing to help new customers.

Dusk showcase reviews and user-generated content on their homepage

Estrid display their customers' most common questions on their FAQ page

Integrating your customers' most common queries on your FAQ page will help you address common pain points to reduce the number of customer calls. It’s a great and easy way to integrate unique content to your website while helping customers in the middle of their journey. It will save both you and your customers a lot of time.

### 5. Make your on-site experience seamless

All eCommerce companies should invest in their own website’s experience. After all, a poor site navigation experience makes for a poor customer experience, and you’re likely to lose out on potential customers as a result.

Let’s start with the search bar.

It’s important for customers to find what they’re looking for quickly and most of all, easily. Consider investing in a search bar that anticipates your customers’ questions or keywords as they type. McDonald’s website has a perfect example of this.

ASOS autofill their search bar with commonly typed keywords

Moving on to navigation… It’s important to speed up your website. 30% of people would abandon a website if it took more than 6-10 seconds to load.

Crazy, right?

The less consumers spend time looking for what they need, the better. If possible, try to make every product page accessible within 3 or less clicks, and make the checkout process as easy as possible with few ways to navigate away from the page.

## Great customer experiences are a must

A great customer experience means your customers are less likely  to come across a problem during their customer buying journey, which saves you time and money when it comes to the work your customer service team will have to do in the long run.

Using your own customers’ feedback to improve your customer experience and satisfaction is the best way to improve your overall customer service in the long run, and keep customers happy and buying.

To learn how Trustpilot reviews can help improve your customer service, request a free demo below.

5 Ways to improve your customer service on your eCommerce site

Trustpilot Consumer Insights: Buying habits to know for a successful festive season

As the eCommerce space continues to become busier, standing out from the competition is getting increasingly harder – especially in the second half of the year. In this article, we'll give you tips and tricks to help you succeed during the holiday season.

The global pandemic has pushed consumers to spend almost entirely online. A survey of US consumers by McKinsey & Company gives a detailed breakdown of [the shift to digital shopping channels](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-great-consumer-shift-ten-charts-that-show-how-us-shopping-behavior-is-changing) throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the survey showed a 15 to 30% growth in US consumers who made purchases online across a broad range of product categories.

Mastercard also found that [online sales increased by a whopping 54% in February 2021](https://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-sales-rise-up-february-pandemic-mastercard-online-shopping-2021-3?r=US&IR=T), compared to the same month last year. Even though most global consumers were forced to shift to online shopping due to national lockdowns, it is believed that the eCommerce boom we’ve all experienced in the last year is here to stay. 

As the eCommerce space continues to become busier, and as shopping behavior continues to shift, standing out from the competition is getting increasingly harder – especially in the second half of the year. So to help you prepare for success, we’ll discuss:

- The state of reviews and what we expect in the second half of the year
- Consumer behavior and buying habits from the last two holiday seasons
- Industries and categories you can expect to see trend in the next few months
- Successful strategies you can put in place for the  the last few months of 2021

Without further ado, let’s dive into it!

## The importance of online reviews in the second half of the year

To understand the role of online reviews in the last two quarters of the year, it’s best to start with an overview of the state of reviews as a whole. 

Service reviews left on Trustpilot.com between January 1st 2019 and December 31st 2019. Here, we can observe a significant increase in service reviews from October onwards.

Here, we can see that over 2.7 million global service and product reviews were left in December 2019, up from 2.4 million in October and November 2019. In January 2020, over 2.5 million reviews were left, a 200,000 review drop from December 2019, due to the end of the busiest shopping season of the year. 

Overall, in 2019, we saw a 47% growth in reviews from January to December.


Product reviews left on Trustpilot.com between January 1st 2019 and December 31st 2019. Here, we can observe a significant increase in service reviews from July onwards.

In 2020, things weren’t too different. Over 4.5 million global service and product reviews were left in December, up from 3.7 million in November, and 3.4 in October, and 58% more reviews were left in December 2020 than in January 2020.

4 million reviews were collected on Trustpilot.com in January 2021, a 500,000 drop compared to the previous month, demonstrating once again that the second half of the year continuously gets more reviews than the first half.


Service reviews left on Trustpilot.com between January 1st 2020 and December 31st 2020. Here, we can observe a significant increase in service reviews from October onwards. 

Product reviews left on Trustpilot.com between January 1st 2020 and December 31st 2020. Here, we can observe a significant increase in service reviews from October onwards.

So what does this tell us? Well, we saw a whopping 58% growth in reviews from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020. If the past two years are any indication, the festive months clearly have a positive impact on how many reviews are left on Trustpilot.com, which suggests that shoppers rely even more heavily on third-party reviews to make sure their holiday shopping goes as smoothly as possible.

During the months of November and December – with holidays and events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday – consumers tend to descend upon retailers to spend significant amounts. With such a major opportunity, it’s safe to say that competition increases dramatically at that time of year. 

Retailers who commit to their consumers are bound to see better results. It’s during that time that reputation, reviews, and expectations matter most, which is why it’s in your business’s best interest to collect and showcase third-party reviews from September onwards.

We’ve observed that consumers leave more reviews in the second half of the year. But what types of businesses are they looking to read and write about?

In the next section, we’ll look into the categories that received the most profile views and the most reviews on our platform during the last two holiday seasons.

## Consumer shopping behavior and buying patterns from the last two holiday seasons

We also took a deep dive into our global review data to identify the categories that received the most profile views and the most reviews on Trustpilot.com during the last two holiday seasons.

With our findings, we’ll forecast which industries we can expect to see do well in 2021, and which categories could be the most popular for gifting this holiday season. 

### The most researched categories of the 2019 and 2020 holiday season

When looking at the five most popular categories in October, November and December of 2019 and 2020, it is interesting to see that the top five industries were the same year after year.

In the final quarter of 2019 and 2020, the categories with the most profile views on Trustpilot.com were shopping and fashion, electronics and technology, money and insurance, home and garden, and entertainment, in that order.


Industries with the most profile views in Q4 2019

This comes as no surprise as some of the top holiday buys often include:

- Clothing and accessories
- Phones, headphones, sound systems and TVs
- Homeware items such as festive decorations, and tableware for entertaining
- Games, films and music for guests and family entertainment

However, it is interesting to see that money and insurance was the third most popular category in the last two holiday seasons. This could be due to consumers looking into better alternatives to manage their money while planning their holiday season shopping budget. It could also be due to consumers looking for better money and insurance providers for the new year.


Industries with the most profile views in Q4 2020

When comparing the total amount of business profile views between the last quarter of 2019 vs. 2020, we can see that the volume of traffic received in 2020 was, however, much higher than in the same period of the previous year.

This was anticipated, due to the shift in shopping patterns during the global pandemic and the lift in service and product reviews left on Trustpilot.com during the same period (as observed in the first section of this article).

Overall, looking at our consumer data, we should expect to see a continued growth in the amount of profile views in the second half of 2021. 

__*Based on the last two years, we can forecast to see the same five categories  this festive season, in the same order as the previous holiday seasons.*__

### The most reviewed categories of the 2019 and 2020 holiday season

When we compare the categories with the most reviews in the last quarters of 2019 and 2020, they’re pretty similar for the most part. 

Shopping and fashion, home and garden, and electronics and technology all make sense as top gifting, and therefore top reviewed, categories. 


Service reviews by industry Q4 2019

The business services category is where we see a change. It’s the only category that changes rankings from 2019 to 2020, from the third most reviewed category in 2019 to the top reviewed category in 2020.

Service reviews by industry Q4 2020

Business services include shipping and logistics. This explains both why it’s so high up with the other gifting categories and why it saw such a huge jump in reviews in 2020. 

Because most of us were forced to do our pandemic holiday shopping online, the world was relying on shipping and logistics companies a lot more than during regular holiday seasons. This category also includes office supplies – something that many of us were shopping for throughout the pandemic – as we looked to make our work from home setups more comfortable and productive. 

Although we can’t be sure where business services will fall for the last quarter of 2021 – with new COVID-19 variants it’s impossible to know how many of us will be back in or out of lockdown through the next few months – it’s safe to say that the other top categories will likely remain the same. 

If your industry falls into shopping and fashion, home and garden, business services, or electronics and technology you should plan on receiving a large amount of reviews towards the end of the year. We highly recommend monitoring your customer reviews during high volume times, as this can help you fix issues as you go and improve customer satisfaction. 

But whether your business falls into these categories or not, you’ll need to focus on delivering great customer experiences and customer service to succeed this holiday season. 

## 7 Strategies to help your business be prepared for success in the second half of 2021

Let’s get into the good stuff. What are the concrete ways that consumer trends are going to affect your brand in the second half of 2021? And how can you best prepare so that you can see great ROI and happier customers? 

We’ve rounded up our seven biggest predictions on how brands can best position themselves for success as 2021 comes to an end.

### 1. A holistic approach to mobile users can only help you succeed

Each year, the amount of eCommerce sales completed on mobile devices increases. By some projections, this year’s  eCommerce sales could make up for [72% of this year’s sales](https://www.statista.com/chart/13139/estimated-worldwide-mobile-e-commerce-sales/). As long as you provide an excellent mobile experience, your brand will be in place to benefit from this trend. 

But a mobile-first world isn’t just limited to how your site looks on a mobile device – although that’s extremely important as well. SMS open rates are as high as [98% compared to just 20% of emails](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/roi-showdown-sms-marketing-vs-email-marketing/). 

Why not let your customers opt-in for text message updates on their orders and shipping instead of just email? This is an excellent way to communicate more effectively with your customers while they wait for their order. 

### 2. The pandemic surge in online shopping is here to stay 

Although many customers will do more brick-and-mortar shopping this year than they did last year, online shopping will still be where a lot of the holiday purchases take place.

One study found that [38% of consumers](https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-e-commerce-fits-into-retails-post-pandemic-future) still intend to do more of their shopping online, while visiting retailers that provide excellent in-store experiences. For brands that have brick-and-mortar stores, this means focusing on improving your in-store experience as much as possible. 

Brands that sell both online and in-store are likely in the best position to succeed this holiday season. 

### 3. Free shipping is a great way to stand out from the competition 

More and more consumers [expect free shipping](https://smallbiztrends.com/2021/06/consumers-expecting-free-shipping.html). 

66% of US consumers expect it on every purchase they make online and a whopping 80% expect it when ordering above a certain amount. 

If you’re able to offer free shipping, this is one of the best things you can do to stay competitive at this time of year – especially to keep up with eCommerce giants such as Amazon and Walmart. 

### 4. Shoppers still expect free and painless returns

Shopping online – where customers can’t try on or see the product in real life – means that some amount of returns are going to be inevitable. 

Similar to free shipping, today’s consumers expect to be able to easily send returns, without any cost to them. 

We recommend trying your best to offer this to your customers. Why? Well, because if a customer receives a product that they aren’t totally satisfied with, and need to jump through a lot of hoops to return it, they’re more likely to be dissatisfied with your customer service levels. 

This could mean never shopping with you again, writing a negative review, or telling their friends and family not to buy from your brand in the future.

### 5. Less uncertainty means higher spending 

Last year, many families were unsure of the future of the pandemic, layoffs, and more. As a result, this affected how they chose to shop for gifts, and how much they were willing to spend during the festive season. 

With economies starting to [bounce back](https://www.wsj.com/articles/turbocharged-u-s-economy-attracts-foreign-investors-11624263520) and less uncertainty around the future, this isn’t as likely to be the case this year. 

This means [more opportunities for your brand to win business](https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-economy-grows-by-48-in-second-quarter-as-post-lockdown-reopening-drives-spending-spree-12379320), if you provide an excellent experience and product or service for your customers. 

### 6. Let your customers shop how they want and offer curbside pickup 

As more and more consumers have gotten used to the convenience of ‘Click and Collect’ or ‘BOPIS’ – buy online pickup in-store – and [curbside pickup](https://news.yahoo.com/why-curbside-pickup-is-here-to-stay-for-some-retailers-162847022.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAM9ZTFzJO5_8xXB0zzDty-f1J8DxEr6WQ-6J9U1IAcVasUMPv4RsFkJughRDZiEh9Wmz1KzaTo7kC554yX5fTK8TlQVtsVUcom_kfbdmz5Kpt0739sL2aVF0asykvwZbcGUyfVm1WXIxvLr3VWbzorYgZBsLRI0XVAPBe5LG8sDn), this will continue to be a great way for brick-and-mortar retailers to let their customers choose what kind of in-store experience they’d like to have. 

If you’re not already offering this, it’s worth looking into now before the holiday rush starts. If you are offering this, look into different ways you can [improve your pickup experience](https://blogs.oracle.com/marketingcloud/post/improving-all-5-steps-of-a-curbside-pickup) for shorter waiting times and a better experience for your customers. 

Even small improvements can translate into large increases in customer satisfaction. 

### 7. Supply chain delays mean an earlier start to the holiday shopping for some, and increased need for clear communication 

[Supply chain delays](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/03/shipping-crisis-strikes-black-friday-shopping-amid-europe-china-floods.html) have been a big part of 2021 and they don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. This means that many consumers will try and get their holiday shopping out of the way earlier than usual, to avoid delayed deliveries. 

However, this could also present a potential problem for brands out there, as some customers might not think ahead and still expect their gifts on time – even if they order at the last minute. 

The best way to minimize fallout with these customers is to be extremely transparent about shipping expectations. Be clear about when the last day to order – if you want to receive your gifts in time –- is, and try to keep customers in the loop as much as possible throughout the shipping process. 

Customers are often understanding about waiting times, as long as you’ve communicated this beforehand. If you overpromise and underperform – leaving customers unexpectedly empty-handed on Christmas day – you’re likely to get more negative reviews, and never see those customers again. 

## Consumers will be looking for ease of use this holiday season

If the last two holiday seasons have shown us anything, it is that reviews and online shopping are continuing to grow year on year, partly because of the shopping behavior shift we all witnessed in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic, but also because of the need for ease of use and convenience (avoiding crowded shops, home delivery, easy return policies, more product or service choice…). And although many customers could opt for brick-and-mortar shopping this year, online shopping will still be where a lot of the holiday purchases take place.

Business services, shopping and fashion, electronics and technology, money and insurance, home and garden, and entertainment were the most researched and reviewed types of businesses on Trustpilot.com during the last two festive seasons. Whether your business is part of these industries or not, your success in the last quarter of the year will be strongly influenced by some of the strategic choices you make. 

And with a lot of people willing to spend higher amounts this year, our top tip to be prepared for the busiest time of the year is to continue to provide great experiences to everyone.

- Continue to offer ease of use: think [free shipping](https://thegood.com/insights/offer-free-shipping-right-way/) and free returns, as shipping or return costs are some of the top reasons for cart abandonment, especially at this time of year.
- Omni-channel experiences are key. Offering a seamless experience from shop to mobile or desktop is more likely to convert shoppers as today’s consumers like to navigate through different channels before making a purchase. In fact, marketers using three or more channels in any one campaign earned a [287% higher purchase rate](https://v12data.com/blog/25-amazing-omnichannel-statistics-every-marketer-should-know/) than those using a single-channel campaign.
- Communicate clearly and set expectations before purchase. This is especially important during the last quarter of the year, when consumers are in a rush, or looking to get their orders before a set date. Set expectations straight away. This can be done through your website, social media or via email marketing too.

It’s become apparent that today more than ever, consumers need to be able to trust in the brands they shop with. Finding ways to implement our seven strategic tips will give your brand the best chance to succeed this holiday season, [alongside a strong review strategy](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/browsers-to-buyers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews).

*Don’t have a review strategy just yet? *

Don’t panic! There’s still time to [create a free Trustpilot account](https://business.trustpilot.com/signup) today, or book your Trustpilot demo below.

keeping customers happy and buying

keeping customers happy

In this article, we'll remind you of one of the cornerstones of marketing: your existing customers actually offer the ripest opportunities for further monetization.

But what if we slightly shifted the underlying idea here? What if we focused as much - if not more - energy on retaining customers as we do on attaining them?

What if we could shift our strategies to create more loyalty among those whom we’ve already earned instead of over-investing or risking resources in trying to find so much new? We're going to remind you of one of the cornerstones of marketing: your existing customers actually offer the ripest opportunities for further monetization. 

Retention, therefore, represents the most lucrative investment for savvy eCommerce teams looking to break away from the accepted status quo as we move further into 2020.

## The benefits of customer retention

A little time spent on retention activities can have a big payoff. If you haven’t heard about the benefits of client or customer marketing, let us remind you why it’s deserving of much more than a half-hearted acknowledgement.

- It’s 6x-7x more costly to acquire than retain customers, and by boosting your retention rate by just 5%, you can drive 25%-95% more profit.
- Loyal customers spend 31% more with a brand than the average consumer.
- You have only a [27% chance of a customer returning after one purchase… but a 54% chance of them returning after a second or third purchase](https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/blog/first-time-buyers-active-customers-infographic/). 

These incredible statistics reaffirm this essential truth: *__retention__ deserves __attention__ and __intention__... at least as much (if not more) as acquisition*.

This strategic mindshift *must* be made if you want your marketing to be efficient and effective. 

Today, we're going to show you how to make this shift, sharing several techniques you can implement *right now* to start boosting your retention rate and revenue immediately.

## How to retain more eCommerce customers 

When it comes to retention, depending on your [higher-level marketing objectives](https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/blog/rethink-your-marketing/), it’s all about inspiring first-time buyers to purchase again, executing personalized repeat and post-purchase campaigns, taking advantage of trigger- or event-based opportunities, and encouraging loyalty.

### A prerequisite – setting the stage for personalized interactions with customers

Go about your retention efforts as you might a new friendship. The best brands know how to take that relationship up to the next level, creating a trusted, go-to friend. The point I’m after is this: you’re creating a real, ongoing relationship with each individual customer.

It’s critical that you take the time, energy, and effort to intimately learn about the interests and preferences of each of these relationships that customers willingly enter into when they choose your brand. You must to get to know one another better… “personalized courtship” is a requirement of a successful retention strategy.

Those of an acquisition-only mindset may rarely stop to think, “How can we lovingly engage those we already have?” But since you’re reading this article, we’ll assume that’s not you. You want the loyal friend!

*How?*

Start with a good newsletter and preference center.

Don’t overlook the power of your newsletter! It’s perhaps the most versatile vehicle in any eCommerce marketer’s arsenal. With a list of opted-in subscribers, a quality newsletter with variable widgets and access to the right automation technology, you can create a world of incredible value… that reaches contacts over and over.

Preference centers (and connection to your CRM or martech solution) are a must-have so that new and long-time subscribers are able to set and amend the frequency and types of content they want to get from you. 

Once you get opt-ins and you begin to get to know customers, moving each through the funnel and attaining that initial purchase, it’s time to begin working with retention techniques. 

*Note: You shouldn’t be throwing around these tactics at random. Ensure they’re a strategic part of your [customer lifecycle marketing](https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/blog/lifecycle-marketing/) strategy and that they [align with your business objectives](https://bit.ly/2IHaowp).*

### 1. First-time buyer to second time

Congrats — your new contact has made their first purchase! Now it’s time to send post-purchase content to this new customer with personalized recommendations based on what they just purchased. 

Even after one purchase, you can begin to identify customers’ purchase patterns and behavior and drive them toward their second purchase to help them advance in their loyalty status. 

The value of post-purchase emails for first-time buyers can’t be overstated:

brands work hard and smart to convert customers

Getting a first-time buyer to repeat isn’t easy (and you may not get a second chance), so we recommend spending some time thinking about how you want to set up these automations. 

You’ll want to use what you do know at this stage to make personalized offers (related items) including a personalized incentive to drive them toward their next purchase. 

Emarsys customer and fashion retailer, Luisaviaroma.com, saw a 37.5% increase in post-purchase campaign conversions. Outnorth, an outdoor Scandinavian clothing brand, saw a 25% uplift from first-time buyer programs!

Unfortunately, many brands still struggle to convert customers from first-time to repeat buyers. 70%-80% of a typical eCommerce business’ customers are single-order customers! So, you have to ensure that you optimize the post-purchase experience to drive that second purchase. 

*How?*

Use the information and customer preferences you do have at this juncture in the relationship to do follow-up personalization.

It’s important to follow up in a non-intrusive way where customers are opted-in to receive communications from you (whether email, SMS, mobile app, etc.). Additional cross-sell opportunities are the best way to generate revenue post-purchase. 

Bad post-purchase emails offer the same product customers already bought and are too salesy — and more retailers are doing this than should be the case. Good post-purchase content includes helpful content, relevant offers, and timely information related to previous purchases. Make the purchase process a seamless experience, positioning cross- and up-sells as an added convenience to enhance the quality and improve the function of whatever was just bought. 

### 2. Honor special events and milestones

These triggered, special event emails take advantage of a milestone or notable event in your relationship with the customer. 

They can be sent during a number of occasions and show customers that you know and care about them. Of course, each of these should be personalized with as much information as possible: date of initiation with your brand, length of time together, memories or acknowledgements of past purchases, and more.

*How?*

- [Create automations](https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/blog/video-understanding-marketing-automation/) for birthdays, anniversaries, holiday or seasonal messages, loyalty status, back-in-stock, price drop, and apology (if necessary).
- Birthdays. Who doesn’t love a wonderful discount coupon for their birthday? The aforementioned Outnorth saw a 270% uplift from birthday campaign programs! The most effective birthday discounts utilize personalized codes (as opposed to one-size-fits-all).


personalized birthday email

Birthday email

- Anniversaries (with your brand). A lot of retailers take advantage of anniversaries (one year, two year, etc.) of customer-hood. You can help loyal customers celebrate with custom emails!

- Holiday-related or seasonal emails. Celebrate in style — and provide seasonal availability or hours information.

Seasonal email (sale) from anthropologie

Any good relationship works best when each party feels known and cared about. This is the core of retention marketing and the automations that make customers feel cared for! 

Sometimes, it’s the little things in marketing that can have the biggest impact.

### 3. See if there’s an opportunity to engage on other channels

Even though email should serve as the core, you should always provide implicit opportunities for customers to opt-in or follow you on other channels like SMS, social media, and on your website, to receive browser notifications, for instance. 

*How?*

“Cross-promote” channels.

The goal of diversifying your various touchpoints with each customer within your database is to effectively broaden the scope through which you can market to – or form deeper relationships with – each one. You have a better chance of a customer seeing and converting when they interact with you via email, follow you on social, and enable push notifications through your app than one who’s only receiving weekly emails.

One example of how to do this is to offer a discount within emails to opt-in to SMS updates. Provide in-store signage with incentives for downloading your mobile app. And, of course, enable all of these options on your website with a nice incentive in exchange.

Once you get to know your customers better, you can more overtly and openly request, announce, or show them why connecting with you via multiple channels is a benefit.

### 4. Use other tactics in tandem – and move more customers to become loyal buyers 

There are many other techniques and tactics you can implement at various stages within the buying cycle in a retention-oriented context in order to increase AOV, order frequency, and engagement.

*How?*

Here are three additional ideas for boosting retention. 

__1. Set up browse abandon and abandoned cart emails that will work.__ 

[Abandoned cart emails](https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/blog/10-recommendations-for-abandoned-cart-emails-gizem-terzi/) effectively give contacts a second chance to buy. They:

- Allow for revenue recovery by bringing the customer back to complete the purchase
- Can be fully automated so there’s no need to think about them once they’re active
- Can include dynamic incentives based on the value of the cart

Why is that so important? 

Well, recovering just a tiny percentage of your customer base could markedly increase revenue. 

__2. Create and execute GDPR re-permission campaigns.__

If your organization relies on consent as the lawful reason for processing personal data, you must make sure that data you hold is GDPR-complaint in order to continue using it.

You must also have an audit trail of how, when, and where consent was obtained, so that you can provide evidence if required. If you can’t identify how, when, and where consent was obtained, the best option in order to be compliant is to *ask (to communicate with contacts) again*.

You can do this most effectively with [re-permissioning campaigns](https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/blog/definitive-chapter-guide-re-permissioning-campaigns-gdpr-examples/) — where you’ll again seek the permission from contacts to email, text, or otherwise message them.

__3. Re-engage and retarget database contacts who show signs of leaving (or have already left) to get them buying again.__

When a customer begins to defect, it’s important to do what you can (without seeming creepy) to win them back. 

Why? You have history with these contacts — so it’s worth trying to make it work with them, as opposed to starting anew (in reality, you’ll obviously have concurrent acquisition campaigns running), but this is about salvaging what you’ve worked so hard to maintain.

Re-engagement or win-back campaigns show the customer, via their favorite channel (usually email) that “we miss you” and often ask “where have you been?”

Leverage personalized content here.

These emails can include personalized codes, product recommendations, and local information, too.


We Miss You Email

### To sum up...

As tempting as it is to focus exclusively on new customers, it’s your existing ones that offer the most value. 

You’ve got to give (personalized experiences) to get (more business). And we get it! At the end of the day, we all need more customers engaging at higher rates to drive profitable growth for our businesses, and to do retention in the first place.

The best strategies will ultimately find a healthy balance. 

Retention marketing is about getting to know existing buyers, what they want, like, and prefer, and then giving it to them. This is the recipe that will drive higher conversion and retention rates.

If you'd like to learn more about how online reviews can help you keep your customers happy and buying, [check out our Complete Guide to Reviews here](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/browsers-to-buyers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews)!


*Lindsay Tjepkema* is Marketing Director, Americas at Emarsys and host of the [Marketer + Machine podcast](https://www.emarsys.com/en/podcast/). She and her team deliver resources that empower marketers to seek out solutions and strategies that will allow them to focus on what they love – strategy, content, and creative – not technology. Although her true love is tech marketing, Lindsay's experience is built on time spent leading in-house teams, in agency settings, and independently running her own marketing consultancy.

How to keep existing customers happy & buying

7 ways reviews can provide actionable consumer insights and better ROI for your business

There are a lot of valuable insights in your customer reviews. We've rounded up 7 different ways they can help you improve your business. 

Monitoring changes in your star rating can help you stay on top of how your customers are feeling and make sure you’re giving them the best experience possible. 

But when it comes to making sure your customers are happy, is your job ever really finished? Even the smallest changes to how you operate and communicate with your customers can translate into pretty large boosts in customer satisfaction, resulting in more loyal customers and better ROI for you. 

Your customer reviews contain [powerful consumer insights](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/what-are-consumer-insights-and-how-do-i-use-them "What are consumer insights and how do I use them?"), and tapping into them can [shed light](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/increasing-loyalty-by-using-customer-feedback-insights-from-trustpilots "Identifying areas for development with consumer insights") on changes you can make to ensure a better experience for all of your customers going forward. 

Some of them – like shipping issues – might seem obvious, but there are also some surprising ways we’ve seen businesses tap into the goldmine of insights within their reviews to improve their operations — and their ROI.  

## Top 7 ways businesses can improve by using the trends in their reviews

### 1. Finding the pricing sweet spot

Many larger brands pour money into consulting on their pricing strategies and struggle to find the perfect balance between making a profit and keeping customers coming back. If you’re a smaller brand, this might not even be an option for you. Whichever you are, the insights in your reviews can really help you here.

If you search your reviews for terms like pricing and overpriced and you’re seeing a lot of negative reviews then it’s definitely worth looking into. Lowering prices on some of your products might feel like it will mean less revenue for your company, but if enough of your customers are taking the time to complain about your pricing they probably won’t be shopping with you again. 

This negative feedback online could also be deterring new customers from shopping with you. We can’t tell you what’s right for your business, but lower prices could mean more return customers as well as more new customers. 

### 2. Effectively managing shipping expectations  
This one might seem a little obvious, but filtering your customer reviews to look at the ones containing terms like shipping and delivery can shed a lot of light on your current shipping practices. For some customers shipping will always need to be as quick as possible, but often the underlying issue here is a breakdown in communication. 

Customer review quick shipping

If you have a large amount of customers writing negative reviews containing these terms, adjusting the shipping policies on your site or putting them in a more prominent location might help ensure that customers have better expectations of when they’ll receive their orders. 

This will lead to a lot less annoyance on their end and fewer negative reviews for you. 

### 3. Identifying website issues 

Having an issue on your site – even if it’s only live for a few hours – can really impact your bottom line if customers are getting frustrated and give up on their purchase. This is especially true during busy periods like the holidays or black friday. And if there are issues, you can rest assured that frustrated customers will likely be talking about it in their reviews. 

We’ve noticed that many successful businesses closely monitor their reviews during these high volume periods so that they can make adjustments in real-time and fix bugs as soon as possible. A [better onsite experience](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-to-improve-customer-experience-on-your-website "7 ways to improve customer experience on your website") means happier customers and [higher sales ](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/how-great-sites-convert-visitors-to-customers "How great sites convert visitors to customers")all at once, so identifying and quickly fixing these issues is key. 

### 4. Improving and recognizing your workforce  
Does your business rely on a lot of customer facing sales or service reps? Some review providers make it [easy to add tags](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-tagging "Review tagging") to your reviews to automatically track which salesperson or service rep assisted that reviewer.  This can give you unbiased insight into how your different reps are doing. Once you have that insight, it’s easy to level up your workforce. 

If you have employees consistently getting negative reviews, you can schedule training for them to help them improve. And by highlighting employees who consistently receive rave reviews, you can improve their morale or even gamify their performance with a leaderboard for your team, encouraging better performance from everyone.

### 5. Overcoming sizing challenges

This one is very common — and extremely important. With many brands serving multiple countries all with different sizing systems, communicating size conversions is a struggle many clothing brands face. Fortunately, with clearer communication, it can be easy to fix. 


Customer review sizing

If you’re getting a lot of negative reviews that include terms like size and fit, you might want to update the language – and make sure it’s hard to miss – on your site to note that certain products run smaller or larger. 

Including sizing guides can be really helpful as well. Clearer communication around sizing shows customers what to expect, and can improve your customer satisfaction while minimizing returns. 

### 6. Managing third-party support ticket vendors 

Many businesses use third-party vendors for submitting support tickets on their site and this can mean that a big portion of your customer experience is somewhat out of your hands. Outsourcing support is largely a great thing, but having limited control over the support experience can be scary for conscientious brands. 

Monitoring your customer reviews is a great way to easily spot any issues in your support ticketing process. By searching your reviews for terms like ticket and support you can identify how often these issues are occurring and figure out whether it makes sense to keep working with that specific vendor. 

### 7. Putting customer service first 

Customer service is often the biggest thing that customers will either love or hate about a brand. Because of this, it’s extremely important to keep an eye on how your customers feel about yours at all times. 

Reviews make this [incredibly easy](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/3-ways-reviews-can-help-you-deliver-excellent-customer-service "3 ways reviews can help you deliver excellent customer service"). Not only do they help you get a general idea of how you’re doing, because customer service can elicit such an emotional reaction – whether positive [or negative](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-to-respond-to-negative-reviews "How to respond to negative reviews") – reviewers often detail exactly what happened. This helps you know exactly what kinds of experiences your customers are having, and how to improve those experiences in the future. 

## Let Review Insights be your roadmap to better business results

To sum it up, there are a lot of valuable insights hiding in your customer reviews. But for some businesses, monitoring all of these things at once can feel overwhelming. 

Our [Review Insights](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-insights "Review Insights") tool can help by doing most of the heavy lifting for you. Instead of digging around for patterns and trends in your reviews, it will automatically uncover problems and [areas of improvement for you](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/ecommerce/lovebook-reveals-how-review-insights-bring-them-closer-to-their-customers "LoveBook reveals how Review Insights bring them closer to their customers"). It’s constantly working in the background to help you improve your business for your customers and it delivers your insights to you in easily digestible dashboards and reports. 

Ready to get started with Trustpilot? [Creating an account](https://business.trustpilot.com/signup?cta=free-signup_header_home "Create your free account") is free — and our experts are [just a call away](https://business.trustpilot.com/request-demo "Request a demo") if you’d like more information. 

7 Ways reviews can provide actionable consumer insights and better ROI for your business

Customer service + customer experience in a post-pandemic world: what businesses should focus on in the coming months 


In this article, we unveil our CS and CX findings from the pandemic and arm you with important tips and tools to master the art of customer experience and customer service.

Today, a successful customer service and experience strategy should be enjoyable from the customer’s point of view, whilst leading to more conversions or repeat business. 

But building great customer service and outstanding experiences also means investing in your own customers and making sure their journey is seamless, from the top of the funnel to checkout and after-sales service.

It’s safe to assume that customer experience (CX) and customer service (CS) are two things that every business has thought about before, yet, they still often get pushed down the list when more important things come up – especially in times of crisis.

In the last few years, consumers have become empowered like never before, and brands no longer get to control their reputation. Today’s customers share their experiences with others, and not paying more attention to your CS and CX could cost your business its reputation.

CS and CX are unquestionably key to any business’s success. But how has COVID-19 impacted the importance of good customer experiences online?

To better understand the importance they have taken in the last few months, our team took a look at global review activity on Trustpilot.com between January 1st 2019 and July 1st 2021.
In this article, we’ll unveil our findings and arm you with important tips and tools to master the art of customer experience and customer service.

## The growth of online shopping and customer reviews

In 2020, the [online retail sales growth hit a 13-year high](https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2021/01/online-retail-sales-growth-hit-13-year-high-in-2020/). The total online retail sales growth for 2020 was also up 36% year on year – the highest annual growth since 2007.

There’s no doubt that the love for digital is growing. And review platforms are growing with it too.

In January 2021, the amount of service reviews left on Trustpilot.com was 53% higher than the amount of service reviews left on our platform in January 2020, demonstrating once again that the growth of online reviews is directly linked to the growth of online shopping, and especially during the pandemic.


Amount of service reviews left on Trustpilot.com between January 1st 2019 and July 1st 2021

A recent survey showed that [89% of consumers check reviews online before making purchases](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/the-critical-role-of-reviews-in-internet-trust), and HubSpot found that, in 2020, [69.5%](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/the-importance-of-trust-in-uncertain-times) of companies also admit that reviews, social proof and word-of-mouth directly generate revenue.

Online reviews have truly become an integral part of the customer journey, but how does this impact the role of CX and CS in the consumer buying process?

### The impact of COVID-19 and eCommerce growth on CX and CS

In times of uncertainty like we’ve been experiencing lately, shoppers are likely to be reading  more online reviews than usual before engaging with any online businesses.

During the pandemic, we found that the keyword “service” was mentioned in 21% of 1 and 5-star reviews on Trustpilot.com (left between January 1st 2020 to January 1st 2021). Customer experience and customer service have undeniably become two very hot topics during the pandemic, as many shops and businesses have been forced to close and people have had to do more of their shopping online. 

There’s no denying – the growth of online reviews is closely linked to the importance of customer service and customer experience.  

Delivering great customer experiences means you’re more likely to increase customer satisfaction, reduce consumer doubt, and boost conversions in the long run. Did you know that [89%](https://c1.sfdcstatic.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/documents/research/salesforce-state-of-the-connected-customer-4th-ed.pdf) of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience? And [nearly three out of five consumers](https://d1eipm3vz40hy0.cloudfront.net/pdf/cxtrends/cx-trends-2020-full-report.pdf) report that good customer service is key for them to feel loyalty towards a brand.

Customer experience can also influence on-the-spot purchasing too, as [49% of buyers](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/10/25/1300518/0/en/Segment-Survey-Finds-Consumers-Will-Spend-More-When-Their-Shopping-Experience-is-Personalized-but-Most-Retailers-are-Missing-the-Mark.html) have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalised experience before.

As much as consumers understand that times of crisis mean it’s not business as usual, communities coming together and word of mouth travelling much faster are likely to keep consumers’ expectations at a high level this year and next.

To better understand just how important customer service has become in the last 18 months, we spoke to Velstar, a Shopify Plus eCommerce agency:

“COVID-19 has brought with it extended lockdowns, economic uncertainty and sustained attention on health. Combined, these factors have reshaped customer behaviour forever. Expectations have heightened, as priorities have shifted, which means what was previously considered great customer experience is no longer acceptable. Today, customers demand a seamless shopping experience that suits their needs and makes them feel like a valued customer. Brands must adapt to these new expectations and reassess their approach to customer experience if they want to remain competitive and keep shoppers coming back for more. The survival of their business depends on it,” explains the Marketing Manager at Velstar.

Unquestionably, today’s consumers are empowered like never before, and delivering great customer experiences can help businesses drive loyalty and revenue in the long run, and downplaying the importance of CS and CX in difficult times is no longer an option for businesses out there.

## Consumer behaviour is shifting towards customer-centric brands

In the current competitive landscape, companies have to work harder than ever to stand out from the competition. And while discounts and low prices can help you acquire new customers, they certainly won’t help you retain them. 

[76% of people](https://www.aspect.com/company/news/press-releases/customer-serve-thy-self-new-study-reveals-millennials-desire-for-self-service-digital-interaction-to-change-customer-service-forever) say they view customer experience as the true test of how much a company values them, and while most companies like to say they are “customer-first”, too many of them either do not listen to customers, or don’t have ways to make their feedback actionable.

Trustpilot research found that [61% of people](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/bad-reviews-why-people-write-them-and-what-they-expect) who leave a bad review expect a company to publicly respond to their feedback, and 25% of people said how well companies respond to criticism can help transition them from detractors to overall promoters of that brand. There’s no doubt that responding to reviews – good or bad – and the way you respond can have an impact on your overall reputation.

To support this theory, we analysed our review data to try to understand whether there is a clear [correlation between customer-centricity and customer satisfaction](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-ai-can-help-you-get-a-better-trustscore).


Reviews with replies and TrustScore

We sorted this graph by the average TrustScore as well as the amount of reviews that businesses have replied to on Trustpilot.com. Here, you can clearly see that the businesses with the highest TrustScores have replied to the most reviews. This suggests that listening to your customers and responding to their feedback could be one of the best ways to achieve a better reputation and true customer satisfaction.

Reviews collected and TrustScore

On the second chart, we can observe that most of the businesses with high TrustScores have collected more reviews, which suggests that actively requesting for feedback is important when it comes to being a customer-centric brand. The quantity of online reviews you collect could potentially have a significant impact on your overall brand reputation, and businesses requesting consumer feedback and responding to more reviews could eventually see better results than businesses who do not.

It is clear that consumers tend to gravitate towards brands who care. Improving your customer experience by listening and responding to reviews is one of the first steps towards success, but actively collecting reviews also matters when it comes to improving your brand’s overall user experience.

## The future of CS and CX

In 2020, many customers had no choice but to turn to the Internet for their shopping needs as non-essential stores were forced to close during the pandemic.

While the growth in eCommerce is mostly due to global events, Statista believes that [online sales will continue to grow](https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/) for the foreseeable future. So what trends can businesses expect to see in the coming months? 

### Smaller, customer-centric businesses will beat the eCommerce giants

In the last year, we’ve also observed a growth in interest in [purpose-driven and ethical businesses](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/trustpilot-consumer-insights-companies-that-give-back-and-consumer). Consumers have taken a bigger interest in companies that really care about each of their customers. 

This will undoubtedly impact the importance of customer service and customer experience. Consumers choose to shop online for a variety of reasons, such as choice, convenience, payment options, as well as good shipping and return policies.

Whilst many people have had little choice but to shop online in the last year or so, in the near future, customer experience and customer service will determine whether a consumer chooses to shop online or in-store. 

In the coming months, it’ll become essential for businesses to consider [how they can deliver value to shoppers](https://www.salesforce.com/uk/blog/2020/12/why-cx-is-more-important-than-ever-to-fuel-business-growth.html) and customers online. After all, customers are a company’s most precious asset. 

If an eCommerce business doesn't treat its customers well, its reputation will spread, shrinking the customer base, and making it harder to acquire new customers in the long run.

That’s why smaller businesses who deliver personalised experience and thoughtful customer service will often attract and retain more consumers than the eCommerce giants who can sometimes be seen as not being as customer-centric.

### CS and CX will take a new role this holiday season 

[In our 2020 holiday report](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/browsers-to-buyers/trustpilot-consumer-insights-2020-holiday-readiness-guide), we found that the most common 2-word phrase found both in 1 and 5-star reviews in Q4 was “customer service”. 

Today’s uncertain climate means customer experience and customer service have become key to any brand’s survival and success.

This holiday season, there’s no doubt that great customer experiences and great customer service will help brands drive revenue and stand out from the competition.

To get a better understanding of just how much consumers rely on customer service to do their holiday shopping, we took a look at the amount of service reviews left between August 1st and December 31st in 2019, and in 2020. 

Amount of service reviews left on Trustpilot.com between August 1st 2019 and December 31st 2019

Amount of service reviews left on Trustpilot.com between August 1st 2020 and December 31st 2020

Here, we can clearly see that we’ve experienced an increase in service reviews from October time in the last two years. However, in 2020, the amount of service reviews left on Trustpilot.com in the last 3 months of the year was considerably higher than the previous year (about 1 million reviews more!).

We suspect this is due to the fact that most people were still stuck at home, with the majority of shops still closed, and that many consumers had to do their holiday shopping online. 

This year, as restrictions slowly continue to ease and after months of online shopping, some consumers could be tempted to do their 2021 holiday shopping in-store. 

That’s why we predict that [customer service and customer experience will have an even greater impact on holiday and Christmas revenue](https://www.protocol.com/Sponsored-Content/why-retailers-need-to-put-customer-experience-over-sales-this-holiday-season) in 2021. Brands who can truly showcase great customer service and great customer experiences to their online customers will be more likely to win business than brands who do not show any signs of customer-centricity.

Downplaying the importance of customer experience and customer service is no longer an option for businesses out there, as the voice of the customer continues to get louder, and as restrictions continue to ease and competition gets tougher.

## 4 Easy ways to improve your brand’s CS and CX

Now that we’ve established the importance of great customer service and customer experience, here are four actionable tips you can implement to deliver better experiences.

### 1. Focus on your shipping and return policies 

During the pandemic, most eCommerce businesses started offering free shipping to drive more conversions. So chances are, if you’re charging for shipping, you're losing some of your sales to your competitors. In fact, according to Barilliance, [9 out of 10 consumers say free shipping is their biggest incentive](http://marketingland.com/e-commerce-report-9-10-consumers-say-free-shipping-no-1-incentive-shop-online-180280) to continue shopping online. 

Whether you choose to offer free shipping based on the order amount, for customers with an account only, or during a specific time-frame, shoppers will appreciate the effort.

When consumers do their shopping online, they’re also more likely to opt for a brand with a great returns policy. Brands who choose not to offer improved shipping & returns policies could be seriously missing out, especially during the holiday season.


Check out our other customer service tips

### 2. Optimise your checkout page to reduce cart abandonment

Did you know that the average cart abandonment rate across all industries is [69.57%](https://sleeknote.com/blog/cart-abandonment-statistics#1)?

In the last year, as online sales have continued to grow exponentially, consumers have been exposed to all kinds of checkout experiences. Some of them, better than others. 

As today’s online shoppers continue to grow more and more confident, chances are they will abandon their cart if your checkout experience isn’t up to the industry standards.

Having to create a new user account is one of the biggest reasons for cart abandonment ([22%](https://www.barilliance.com/cart-abandonment-rate-statistics/)). Paypal also found that [24%](https://www.paypalobjects.com/webstatic/mktg/pdf/PayPal_Checkout_Best_Practices.pdf) of consumers abandon their transactions at checkout because the retailer doesn’t offer their preferred payment choice.

Make sure you regularly review your checkout page, and start implementing more checkout options to drive more sales during the busiest shopping season of the year. 

Find out more about how to improve your overall customer experience

### 3. Collect and showcase online reviews

Today, [91%](https://www.vieodesign.com/blog/new-data-why-people-hate-ads) of people say ads are more intrusive than 3 years ago. One of the best forms of marketing a business can partake in is trustworthy social proof and third-party validation. 

In short, letting your customers do the talking is the key to success, because their opinion is more likely to be heard and considered by their peers than your own.

Today’s buyers trust customers more than they trust companies. When marketers harness social proof, it can drive more leads than when a business says “we’re the best brand out there”.

Consumers behave a little differently when the holiday season rolls around, and rightly so. As observed earlier, shoppers all over the globe look for and leave reviews more often in October, November, and December.

That’s a great time for eCommerce businesses like yours to focus on a review strategy. By focusing on showcasing and collecting reviews, you’re more likely to show up in a good light for consumers researching their options online.

Implementing reviews throughout the consumer journey is also a less intrusive way of building trust with potential consumers. So reconsider selling hard, and let the voice of the customer build the confidence everyone needs at this time of year.

### 4. Use feedback to improve your customers’ experiences

While having lots of reviews is certainly great, the benefits of these reviews are limited if you’re unable to learn from them. 

First of all, part of the process of learning from your customers is listening and responding to their feedback. Responding to positive and negative reviews can help you learn from your audience. It can also help you turn negative experiences into positive ones. 

Did you know that [95%](https://www.vendasta.com/blog/50-stats-you-need-to-know-about-online-reviews) of unhappy customers are more likely to return to your website if you have resolved their issue quickly and efficiently and [64% of global consumers](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/the-critical-role-of-reviews-in-internet-trust) would prefer to buy from a responsive company over one that appears perfect?

Secondly, your customer reviews and feedback can help you detect your customers’ needs, complaints or praise quickly and easily. 

Using your customers’ feedback to identify trends and areas of improvement that you can focus on will help you improve your existing customer journey, as well as your customer service.

Once you’ve identified any gaps, you’ll be able to list what works well, and what can be improved to deliver better customer service, and a better user experience, from awareness to purchase and advocacy. 

From there, you can make changes to your website: start with the easier steps – the ones that you can easily change in time for the busiest season of the year, and establish a strategy for the bigger items.

Find out more about learning from your reviews

## Great customer experience and customer service is a must-have for consumers

Our data shows that customer experience and customer service are two [very important aspects of the overall user journey](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/5-reasons-why-customer-experience-is-the-pulse-of-every-business).

But in the last few months, the [global shift to online shopping](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/understanding-covid-19s-impact-on-business-imagining-a-post-pandemic-world) has meant that CS and CX have become a real necessity – not just a nice-to-have – for businesses who wish to outperform industry peers.

Brands who choose not to invest time and effort in these two areas could get left behind in the next few months, and especially during the holiday season, when competition gets tougher.

Finding ways to implement our tips will give your brand [the best chance to succeed over the crucial seasonal trading period](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradbirnbaum/2020/09/30/how-to-meet-customer-expectations-this-holiday-shopping-season/?sh=58d52a793fb9).

If you’d like to find out more about how reviews can help you get your customer service and customer experience just right, why not request a free demo below? It’s quick and easy.


Trustpilot Consumer Insights: Customer service + customer experience in a post-pandemic world – what businesses should focus on in the coming months 

review insights can lead to a higher TrustScore

Your TrustScore is given to you by your customers. It is an instant validation of your brand, of your product, and of your service. In this article, we give you tips to improve your overall score and reputation.

But the score needs to be earned and maintained, as it is an ever-changing representation of the experience customers have with your brand. And in order to maintain a high-score – one that can encourage new customers to come through - businesses need to be active and build loyal customer relationships that will translate into higher sales and better long-term revenue. 

To help businesses achieve success, Trustpilot has built an AI-powered tool that delivers [actionable insights](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/what-are-consumer-insights-and-how-do-i-use-them) from the emotional sentiment of both negative and positive reviews. But AI is just a tool, and businesses are those who need to collect feedback and act on it.  

## Why your TrustScore matters

A [TrustScore](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/201748946-TrustScore-Explained) is not just an average score of your reviews. To keep it relevant, we include multiple factors which are driven by the influence of the newest customer experience. And it is easy to understand why we calculate it this way - because it is important for customers to know if businesses are actively working on improving their service.

In a recent survey, over 5,900 consumers expressed a unique trust value in Trustpilot’s TrustScore. The more reviews a business has, the more consumers are likely to buy from it. Did you know that [87% of customers said they would not consider buying from 1 or 2-star rated brand](https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/online-review-stats/)?

The surprising finding was the impact of a score change and its correlation to trust. We discovered that by improving a 3-star review and turning it into a 5-star one, the likelihood of consumers buying from that company increased by a staggering 198%! This translates into more sales, more revenue, better customer relationships, and better long-term value for your brand. 


how many users would buy from you if your score improved

The correlation between TrustScore and Conversions

This, however, can not be achieved by hoping and wishing that customers will start leaving good reviews for no specific reason. 

Businesses who manage their reputation and work to improve their TrustScore are usually proactive in their efforts: they constantly engage with their customers, and most importantly, they act on their customers' feedback to try and get better. 

## How Staysure.co.uk maintains an 'Excellent' TrustScore with over 140,000 reviews

[Take the example of Staysure.co.uk](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/how-staysure-uses-the-power-of-ai-to-build-customer-trust), a UK-based insurance company that has collected over 140,000 reviews, most of which from happy customers.

The business chose to start using Trustpilot’s new AI tool - [Review Insights](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/introducing-trustpilots-new-machine-learning-tool-review-insights) - which analyses reviews almost instantly.

Using the insights identified by the AI-powered tool, Staysure.co.uk can now easily understand major customer concerns, and act to solve their issues before they become bigger problems. 

## Can an AI tool really help improve your TrustScore?

Yes and no. 

Yes, because we have built [Reviews Insights](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-to-achieve-your-company-goals-with-review-insights), an AI-powered sentiment analysis tool that can deliver meaningful insights based on what your customers are saying in their reviews.  

No, because the tool delivers reliable data-driven reports, but does not deliver shortcuts for business improvements.

The best, and the only way to improve your business results is to act on customer feedback. If your customers are expressing their negative sentiment with your brand, then you should ask yourself: “*Why are my customers having a bad experience and how can I change that?*”

customer sentiment tool trustpilot

Review Insights example

## So, what can you learn from Review Insights?

Our sentiment analysis tool can go through every single review and discover major topics for you to analyse. The goal is not necessarily to improve your Trustscore, but to improve your customer experience.  

If customers have a good relationship with your brand, they will happily write 5-star reviews, and will therefore influence a positive change in your Trustscore. 

But first and foremost, [Review Insights is a tool that can help you prioritise actions](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/features/review-insights). How you use the insights will determine the results you’ll get.

- __Review Insights as an early-warning and risk detector__. The AI-powered sentiment analysis is done in real-time, which makes it a unique source of information. You should prioritise sudden negative changes to learn what has gone alarmingly wrong. But, it goes both ways. A big positive change means you are doing something great! 

- __It can help transform bad reviews into great ones__. If you understand [why your customers are leaving 3-star reviews](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/bad-reviews-why-people-write-them-and-what-they-expect), you can easily start improving your customer relationships, and maybe incentivising a positive change towards 5-star reviews. Small changes can deliver great results. 

- __Empower your teams with meaningful and data-driven reports__. Reports from Review Insights can give your teams unique insights about customer needs, and offer solutions to improve their experience. 

- __Team performance monitoring__. We have seen customers using Review Insights as a tool for measuring the performance of their Customer Service teams. The sentiment can show customer satisfaction of your customer service, and used with [tagging in reviews](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/203840856-Tagging-and-pre-tagging-service-reviews), can help companies understand which teams need an incentive to perform better, and which teams need training. 

- __Validation of a new product or service__. Used with tagging, companies can track what customers like or dislike about a new product, and act timely to improve it or [respond to customers to manage expectations](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-to-respond-to-negative-reviews). If the feedback is positive, customer feedback can give you better ideas on how to make a good product even better.  

For customers, there is nothing more powerful and telling than a company’s TrustScore. The score itself is just a result of what businesses are doing in the background to maintain great relationships with their customers - a relationship built on trust, built on feedback, and sometimes helped by an AI. 

### To sum up...

- Your TrustScore defines the trust customers have in your brand. 
- It is useful for new customers to recognise you above your competitors.
- Research with 5,900 consumers suggests that star ratings are really influential. 
- AI can now help businesses increase their TrustScore by using actionable insights to improve their customer relationships. 

If you'd like to find out how Review Insights can help your business, why not request a free Trustpilot demo? It's quick and easy, just click the link below.


How AI can help you get a better TrustScore

How COVID-19 hit the travel industry and what to expect in the coming months

The travel industry was one of the hardest hit during this global pandemic. So to better understand the changes observed between 2019 and 2021, as well as what travel could look like in the future, we took a look at consumer activity on Trustpilot.

According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), popular travel destinations welcomed [900 million fewer international tourists](https://www.unwto.org/taxonomy/term/347) between January and October 2020, compared with the same period of 2019. During the same period of time, international arrivals also dropped by over 74%.

This collapse in international travel represents an estimated [loss of USD 1.3 trillion](https://www.unwto.org/taxonomy/term/347) in export revenues – more than 11 times the loss recorded during the 2009 global economic crisis.

There’s no doubt that the travel industry was one of the hardest hit during this global pandemic. To better understand the changes observed between 2019 and 2021, as well as what travel could look like in the next few months, the Trustpilot team took a look at global consumer activity on our platform between January 1st 2019 and March 1st 2021. 

Here are the findings...

## 1. The global state of travel before COVID-19

To start, we’re looking at travel service reviews posted on Trustpilot.com between January 1st 2019 and February 29th 2020. This data should help us get a better understanding of how the travel industry was doing before the pandemic started.

But first, let’s define what a service review really is. 

A travel service review is a review in which a customer describes the quality of their overall experience using the travel brand’s platform, or interacting with a customer service team.

Travel service reviews on Trustpilot.com from January 1st 2019 to February 29th 2020

Service reviews pre pandemic

Travel Service reviews pre pandemic

When looking at global service reviews, it is clear that in 2019, there was a stable number of service reviews collected each month by travel brands.

In fact, the average number of travel service reviews collected each month between January 1st 2019 and February 29th 2020 was 111,792. 

According to the above graphic, the busiest times of year were from July to October 2019 – probably due to summer holidays – and from January to February 2020 – which could be due to people going away on winter vacations. 

The service review data above reveals that the travel industry was operating in a healthy manner in 2019 and the beginning of 2020. However, another type of review which is worth looking into are product reviews. 

In the travel industry, product reviews are reviews in which customers describe the quality of the holiday itself – from the accommodation to the flight, food, or activities.

Travel product reviews on Trustpilot.com from January 1st 2019 to February 29th 2020

Product reviews pre pandemic

Travel Product reviews pre pandemic

It’s worth mentioning that the amount of product reviews left on our platform is lower than the amount of service reviews we receive. So naturally, here, we’re looking at a much lower volume of global product reviews left on Trustpilot.com from January 1st 2019 to February 29th 2020. In fact, during that time frame, the average number of product reviews written each month was 2,583.

We see a significant delta between winter and summer months here, proving that consumers are more likely to leave a travel product review during peak vacation season – which in this instance, is during summer months.

To complete our analysis of 2019 data, we also looked at Trustpilot Business Profile pageviews for travel companies between January 2019 and February 2020.

Travel Business Profile Pageviews on Trustpilot.com between January 1st 2019 and February 29th 2020

Monthly company views pre pandemic

Interestingly, the amount of traffic to Trustpilot travel business profiles tracks the exact same pattern as the global travel service review data shown above. 

The stability observed in the traffic to travel brands’ Trustpilot profile pages, with seasonal peaks in summer and winter months, substantiates our previous conclusion that the travel and tourism industry was running successfully prior to Coronavirus, receiving a healthy amount of service and product reviews, as well as profile pageviews. 

We now know just how well the travel industry was operating prior to the pandemic. This data will help us understand exactly how much the travel industry was affected during the global pandemic of 2020 and 2021.

## 2. The impact of the pandemic on the travel industry


Travel service reviews on Trustpilot.com from March 1st 2020 to March 1st 2021

Service reviews during pandemic

Travel Service reviews during pandemic

When looking at global travel service reviews during the pandemic, it appears that March 2020 was relatively normal, and received a similar amount of service reviews than in March 2019, probably due to most countries not having any real restrictions implemented yet, and the natural delay between the experience and the review.

From April 2020, as travel restrictions started appearing across the world, we observed a significant dip in global travel service reviews left on Trustpilot.com.

Interestingly, travel service reviews spiked again from June to October 2020. This could be interpreted as the end of the first global lockdown, as some countries eased restrictions and people were able to travel internationally again.

However, even though we observed an increase in reviews left in the summer of 2020, the average number of travel service reviews collected during the pandemic (from March 1st 2020 to March 1st 2021) was 67,417 per month – a whopping 39.7% less than the average number of service reviews pre-pandemic!

Travel product reviews on Trustpilot.com from March 1st 2020 to March 1st 2021

Product reviews during pandemic

Travel product reviews during pandemic

Even though travel service reviews notably decreased in 2020, global travel product reviews left on Trustpilot.com were hit hard in 2020. The average number of global travel product reviews left on our platform from March 1st 2020 to March 1st 2021 was 470 per month – 81.8% fewer product reviews than the year before.

One of the reasons behind why product reviews were hit so hard could be that whilst service reviews were still being left from customer service interactions (travel refunds, travel vouchers, etc.) at the beginning of the pandemic, people weren’t experiencing any new travel products such as activities, food, or accommodation.

Here, we also observe a mirrored pattern in the data, as global travel product reviews dipped in the Spring of 2020 and rose again in the Summer – when restrictions eased. 

This data demonstrates that most people probably stopped travelling because of government measures and restrictions, rather than fear of the virus – an encouraging sign for the future of travel.


Travel Business Profile Pageviews on Trustpilot.com between March 1st 2019 and March 1st 2021

Monthly company views during pandemic

Finally, we looked at the amount of traffic to Trustpilot travel business profiles during the global pandemic. 

Surprisingly, the pattern here is very different to what we observed with our service and product review data from March 1st 2020 to March 1st 2021. 

Here, we can clearly see that the traffic to travel business profile pages on Trustpilot.com was comparable to the data observed in 2019, pre-pandemic. This could be because people were still dealing with refunds, rebookings, travel vouchers and more, in the first half of 2020.  

After the summer months, it is apparent that traffic dropped severely, possibly due to less demand in those services.

The Trustpilot travel review data clearly indicates that the travel industry was given a very turbulent year. However, there are some signs that suggest recovery will be strong once government restrictions are lifted globally.

To get a better understanding of what the future of travel could be like in a post-pandemic world, we take a look at current travel trends in our third and final section, and discuss what travel businesses can expect in the coming months and years.

## 3. The future of travel and tourism in a post-COVID-19 world

As our data suggests, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a large impact on the global travel industry, and even if we hope recovery will be strong, it is possible that travel will not look the same for the foreseeable future.

As we slowly dip our toes back in, we anticipate some worldwide shifts with people being more inclined to travel responsibly, and to really consider their destination before booking a trip.

In 2021 and beyond, travelers will most likely [seek quality over quantity](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/heres-how-covid-is-changing-travel-according-to-the-experts), and put more thought into their bucket lists. Whether people take less trips or travel to smaller communities to support local businesses and form human connections, there’s no doubt that more planning will go into each trip. Chances are that eco and wellness tourism might also be on the rise. 

As most countries continue to distribute the vaccines, there’s also talk of a “[global vaccination passport](https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-18/Are-vaccine-passports-the-next-turning-point--YIXmh0bnBC/index.html)” – a certificate identifying those who have been vaccinated, and allowing for easier travel to participating countries.

One of the other big trends that has started to emerge is [the importance of familiarity to a destination](https://www.euronews.com/travel/2021/01/13/what-will-travel-look-like-in-a-post-covid-world). During the summer of 2020, people stayed closed to home, with 9 out of 10 Europeans choosing a continental destination for their summer holiday. Experts believe that escapism – but close to home – could define the future of travel in 2021 and beyond. 

For many, this may mean [road trips are the only feasible option](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/heres-how-covid-is-changing-travel-according-to-the-experts). And with staycations continuing to rise, travelers are more likely to be driving across their own country, or may even choose to travel by car rather than by plane when crossing international borders.

No matter what kind of holidays people opt for, traveling smarter will play a huge role in the future of tourism, and given the lingering worldwide uncertainty, booking at the last minute could become the new norm. 

In the last year, many travelers have seen flight cancellations, trips left in ruins and refunds taking longer than usual. When looking to book future trips, consumers will be looking for businesses they can trust and rely on in case of an emergency. That’s why capturing and showcasing customer reviews should still be a priority for all travel companies.

Reviews will continue to play a critical role in how travel brands boost their reputations and drive business success. But many travel businesses are still missing the larger opportunity. 

Reviews are not just something to monitor and manage. In order to succeed and thrive following the COVID pandemic, travel brands will need to think more strategically about the role review data can play in helping them achieve their business goals. Travel businesses who do not seize this opportunity could risk getting left behind.

There's no doubt that trust and third-party validation can help travel businesses secure a trusted and transparent future in a post-pandemic world.

If you'd like to give it a go, why not set up a free Trustpilot account today? It's quick and easy, just click the link below.


Trustpilot Consumer Insights: How COVID-19 hit the travel industry and what to expect in the coming months

Consumer behaviors around mental health and wellness and what this means for businesses

Consumer behaviors around mental health and wellness have been changing rapidly. What does this mean for your business?

Studies in the past few years have shown that [970 million people worldwide](https://www.singlecare.com/blog/news/mental-health-statistics/) have a mental health condition or disorder, and that anxiety [affects more than 284 million people](https://www.singlecare.com/blog/news/mental-health-statistics/ "Mental Health Statistics 2021"). And these studies were from before the pandemic, which has taken a massive toll on mental health for all of us. 

As mental health takes more of a focus, there are products and apps popping up left and right aiming to convince consumers that they can give them better peace of mind, and both happier and healthier lives. There’s also been a recent positive change in attitude towards wellness and mental health, which normalizes people getting the help they need to manage their situations. 

Regardless of what industry you’re in, being conscious of this changing landscape can benefit your company. So, how is consumer behavior reflected in mental health trends? And how can you make sure you’re adapting your business accordingly? 

## Mental health and the complex stigmas that come with it

Historically, there’s been a pervasive stigma around mental healthcare and seeking help for mental illness. These stigmas have also disproportionately affected different demographics based on [gender](https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/men-less-likely-women-seek-mental-healthcare-during-covid-19 "Men less likely than women to seek mental healthcare during COVID") and [race](https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/news/addressing-mental-health-black-community "Addressing Mental Health in the Black community"), making it even more challenging to seek help. Although each group is affected differently, the stigma around acknowledging mental health issues and seeking help exists for everyone. But there are positive signs that this is changing. 

[This study](https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/05/mental-health-survey "Survey: Americans becoming more open about mental health") by the American Psychological Association surveyed different age groups on their attitudes towards mental health and the results show how attitudes have improved for the better. 


The American Psychological Association surveyed American Adults on their attitudes towards mental health disorders 

American Psychological Association survey on attitudes towards mental health disorders

With 87% of adults agreeing that mental health disorders are nothing to be ashamed of and 86% saying they believe that people with mental health disorders can get better, this shows some recent strides towards acceptance around mental health issues.

The American Psychological Association survey included questions about stigma and fear around mental health disorders

American Psychological Association attitudes about mental health

Portions of the study, however, highlight the work still needed to be done to fix attitudes and stigma around mental health. With 39% saying they would view someone differently if they knew they had a mental disorder, and 33% saying people with mental health disorders scare them, this illustrates how challenging and complex it is to rid a society of stigmas and how much work there is still to be done. 

And chances are, your customers may be appreciative if you’d join the conversation in a meaningful way that makes sense for your business. 

## Consumer behavior gravitates towards services and products that support mental health and wellbeing 

So, how do these mental health trends translate into online searching and shopping behavior? And what do they mean for businesses hoping to do right by their customers by taking a stance on the hard topics?

### How consumers are researching health and wellness products and services

To learn a little more about how mental health plays into the way consumers have researched their purchases lately, we looked into how often consumers included phrases like *mental health*, *wellness*, and *well-being* in their reviews on Trustpilot during different time periods. 


Total number of reviews with related terms on Trustpilot from last year, compared with the year before that

Reviews about mental health by year comparison

Reviews about mental health year comparison

When we look at the most recent 12 months compared to the previous 12 month period, there’s a staggering 335%  increase of reviews mentioning these terms. Because the pandemic began around a year ago, this isn’t necessarily surprising. For most of the duration reflected in the column on the right, we were living with stresses in our life that none of us had ever experienced before. 


Total number of reviews with related terms on Trustpilot from the most recent 6 months vs the previous 6 months

Reviews about mental health 6 month comparison

But when we zoom in on life during the pandemic and look at the most recent 6 months compared to the 6 month period before that, we’re still seeing an increase in the number of reviews containing these phrases. 

And you might have assumed that the first 6 month period in the chart above — when the pandemic was beginning and many of us were adjusting to a completely new way of life — would have led to the most mentions of mental health in online reviews.  But this isn’t the case. 

This indicates that mental health and wellness — and the consumer demand for products that help with these things — are on a more permanent trend upwards as awareness towards mental health issues increases and seeking help becomes more common, regardless of current events.


Total number of reviews with related terms on Trustpilot from most recent 90 days vs the previous 90 days

Total number of reviews with related terms on Trustpilot from the most recent 90 days vs the previous 90 days


Reviews about mental health on Trustpilot

Now, if we look into the most recent 3 months compared to the 3 month period before that, we’re still seeing a pretty large increase of 172%. This chart is the most telling of all, as this period was centered around when the vaccine began rolling out. 

Even with the end of the pandemic finally in sight, consumers are still putting more of an emphasis on the effect products or services have on their mental health — likely to help other shoppers find businesses that won’t give them new gray hairs as part of the customer experience.  

### Mental health trends with apps and the quick shift to online support 

Reviews are just one indicator of these trends in consumer preferences and needs. The shift to increased online interaction has created demand for both new apps and online services around health and wellness, and pushed previously in-person services like therapy and psychiatry online as well.

As with many other industries today, apps are one of the most effective ways for brands to interact with their customers and keep them engaged. Mental health and wellness are no exceptions. The global market size for apps geared towards mental health was valued at [40 billion USD in 2020](https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/mhealth-app-market "mHealth Apps Market Size") and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.7% from 2021 to 2028. This has only been accelerated by the pandemic. One study found that in the UK, [downloads for mental health apps increased 200%](https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252494669/Covid-19-has-led-to-a-25-increase-in-health-app-downloads-research-shows) from the summer of 2019 to the summer 2020. 

There are apps full of self help guides and tips on living with depression, meditation apps, and apps that help you get better sleep. There are even [apps filled with fun games](https://www.happify.com/) that are actually scientifically designed to reduce stress, build resilience, and overcome negative thought habits. Regardless of anyone’s personal situation or needs, there is likely an app out there to [help them find more peace and well-being](https://www.verywellmind.com/best-mental-health-apps-4692902 "The 8 best mental health apps").

Although online therapy was already starting to become popular, the pandemic created an extremely stressful situation for all of us — that also cut in-person interactions out of the picture. This led to an explosion in online services for therapy and psychiatry. 


Reviews are a great way to help you find online therapy companies

Customer review therapy

Customer review of therapy provider

[Ginger](https://www.ginger.com/ "Ginger - On-demand mental healthcare"), an on-demand therapy and mental healthcare app, [saw their utilization rates rise](https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/demand-for-virtual-mental-health-soaring-here-are-notable-trends-who-using-it-and-why "Demand for virtual mental healthcare is soaring") to their highest ever last September, in the middle of the pandemic. Usage of their text-based mental health coaching was up 159% and virtual therapy and psychiatry were up 309% compared to their pre-covid averages. 

And it’s not just that current customers are using these services more. Doctor On Demand reported that throughout last fall there were large increases in new patients seeking teletherapy – [up over 50% throughout October](https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/demand-for-virtual-mental-health-soaring-here-are-notable-trends-who-using-it-and-why "Demand for virtual mental healthcare is soaring") and even higher than the initial spikes when the pandemic hit last spring. 

All of this is to say — the strong consumer appetite for mental health and wellness support is likely here to stay. No matter what industry your business belongs to, it’s a good idea to keep this consumer trend top of mind. 

## How to stay relevant to the consumer trend of wellbeing and mental health

The rise in awareness around mental health and demand for more wellness focused lives will not only impact companies in the wellness or mental healthcare industries. [Some of the biggest workplace predictions](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2021/12/28/4-post-pandemic-mental-health-trends-and-predictions-for-2021/?sh=5e31c855de5b "4 post pandemic mental health trends to watch") for employers coming out of the pandemic revolve around employee wellness and happiness. 

### Employees aren’t the only ones who notice an employer brand 

For starters, companies will likely put more of a concrete focus on employee well-being into practice, instead of just talking about it as a way to build their employer brands. An increase in work-from-home policies, more PTO — or encouragement to actually use your PTO – along with free access to meditation and wellness apps, and better benefits packages in terms of mental health and therapy will become more prevalent in the workplace as employers try to alleviate stress for employees and compete for top talent. 

Scott Shute, Head of Mindfulness and Compassion Programs at LinkedIn, believes that the emphasis for employee wellness should and will [come from leadership teams as well](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2021/12/28/4-post-pandemic-mental-health-trends-and-predictions-for-2021/?sh=5e31c855de5b "4 post pandemic mental health trends to watch"), not just human resources. Regardless of talk around wellness programs and work-life balance, if compassionate leadership and advocacy for these programs isn’t coming from the very top of the organization in a very clear way, they likely won’t be successful in the long run. 

For organizations looking to take better care of their employees, there are an increasingly large amount of companies [popping up to help with this](https://snacknation.com/blog/corporate-wellness-companies/ "Top 40 best corporate wellness programs"). From wellness retreats or multi week training programs, to gamified models that encourage some healthy competition between employees rewarding them for healthy behaviors, there are solutions to meet every organization’s wellness needs. 

### Fresh tips for getting your business involved with wellbeing and mental health

No matter your industry, there’s a number of meaningful ways your business can offer support to those struggling with mental health and wellness. Here are some ideas to get you started:

#### Shine the spotlight on any areas where you’ve improved the well-being of your customers 

It can be tempting to think that this has nothing to do with you if your business isn’t in the mental healthcare or wellness industries, but that actually couldn’t be further from the truth. More often than you think, businesses can help their customers’ mental health in the most surprising ways. It’s likely that this furniture manufacturer had no idea their beds could impact someone’s mental health in such a positive and real way. 


Products can sometimes help customers in surprising ways 

Review of product that helped with anxiety 

Do you have reviews like this from customers talking about how your product has improved their wellbeing in an unexpected way? Consider putting together an email or social campaign featuring these reviews and tailor the message around your dedication to improving the lives of your customers.


This business helped alleviate their customer's anxiety 

Review of service that helped with anxiety 

#### Showcase your commitment to the mental health of your employees

If you do have employee wellness programs in place, show that off and use it to your advantage. Talk about it on your social channels and make it a part of your brand as a whole, not just your employer brand. Many customers want to [shop with companies](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/6-ways-to-make-trust-your-essential-brand-differentiator&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1616532559978000&usg=AOvVaw28Xs6-FQ6YDwbMi_OG4Jx8 "The value of a trustworthy brand reputation") they feel align with their personal values. 

If you’re focusing on the wellness of your employees that can go a long way in terms of your brand reputation. These things matter to many customers as well, not just your employees. 
Collaborate with local wellness companies 

Collaborating on promotions and activations with local wellness companies can be a really great way to promote wellness for companies with a product offering or service that has nothing to do with mental health or well-being. Partnering with a local yoga or meditation studio to offer discounts on each other’s offerings with each purchase is a great way to gain new customers for you both and encourage wellness regardless of the industry you’re in. 

## It’s time to lean into mental health trends

One of the most important changes that may come out of this is that because of the pandemic consumers [have become more comfortable](https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/health-care/consumer-health-trends.html "2020 Health care consumer survey") sharing data around their health. The more they’re willing to adopt tools and share their data, the more these tools can be improved and better solutions can be designed for anyone struggling with their mental health. 

There are numerous examples recently of how data, AI, and mental health can come together to shape real solutions for people who are struggling. Since the pandemic began, the Department of Veteran Affairs is increasingly [relying on AI-based analytics](https://ai.healthcareitnews.com/ai-powered-healthcare/ai-based-program-enhances-mental-health-monitoring-veterans "AI- based program enhances mental health monitoring for veterans") to monitor the mental health of veterans. And because of how mental illness can affect each patient in such different ways, AI isn’t just helping identify mental illness in patients, it’s helping [minimize the trial and error](https://towardsdatascience.com/machine-learning-and-mental-health-7981a6001bd5 "Machine learning and mental health") required in developing individual treatment plans for mental illness as well. 

Between breaking down stigmas and improving treatment plans and solutions, perhaps the future might look a bit brighter for all of us. 


Trustpilot Consumer Insights: Consumer behaviors around mental health and wellness and what this means for businesses

Trustpilot Consumer Insights: Consumer behaviors that changed in 2020, and what to expect in 2021

2020 changed the way consumers search and shop. To better understand the shift in consumer behavior, and what kind of trends businesses should expect to see emerge in 2021, we took a look at global consumer activity on Trustpilot. Here are the findings.

It’s safe to say that the period of self-isolation we all had to go through changed the way consumers search and shop, whilst businesses have had to adapt to new channels of communication, [new consumer behaviors](https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/how%20covid%2019%20is%20changing%20consumer%20behavior%20now%20and%20forever/how-covid-19-is-changing-consumer-behaviornow-and-forever.pdf), and new audiences.

With all of the [constant adjustments brands have had to make](https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/how%20covid%2019%20is%20changing%20consumer%20behavior%20now%20and%20forever/how-covid-19-is-changing-consumer-behaviornow-and-forever.pdf) in 2020, what can businesses expect in 2021?

As we start to see light at the end of the tunnel, [consumer behavior will no doubt be greatly impacted](https://obaninternational.com/blog/planning-for-2021-part-1-changes-in-consumer-behaviour/) once again, forcing companies to change their approach.

To better understand the 2020 shift in consumer behavior, and what kind of trends businesses should expect to see emerge in 2021, our Trustpilot team took a look at global consumer activity on our platform from July 2020 to January 2021. All Trustpilot data was taken on January 31st 2021.

Here are the findings...

## 1. The businesses consumers researched the most

There’s no doubt customer reviews can show us a lot around consumer shopping habits. 

While there are a few different reasons why people read them, consumers often research reviews when they’re looking to make a purchase, so pageviews on different types of companies can tell us a lot about what consumers are currently in the market for.


1 Company profile views last six months

It’s fascinating to see that between July 1st 2020 and January 31st 2021, shopping & fashion was the most researched industry for customer reviews, even throughout the pandemic. [One survey](https://fashionista.com/2020/07/quarantine-shopping-habits-survey-results) from the end of last summer digs deeper into the types of clothing people are purchasing. Were they purchasing more athleisure while being stuck at home or – perhaps – were they stocking up on outfits for a post-pandemic world? As vaccinations continue globally, this could suggest some interesting purchasing trends...

Will fashion retailers have an opportunity for heavily increased sales even before the pandemic ends, as people prepare for newly invigorated social lives and attempt to spread out their purchases? 

It’s relatively unsurprising that Electronics & Technology comes in at second for the most researched types of products on Trustpilot, and this actually wasn’t the case for portions of 2019, before the pandemic hit. This category includes home appliances in addition to phones, computers, software, etc. 

As people around the world have been stuck inside more than ever in recent history, it comes as no surprise to see consumers looking at purchasing and upgrading their lives and homes with these types of products. The big question here is whether or not this pattern in researching products will continue after the pandemic ends, when people are spending considerably less time at home. 

Considering the [flood of new investors to the market as the pandemic hit](https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-investing-covid-pandemic-new-easy-apps-2020-9), and the general financial uncertainty that has affected many families during the pandemic, it’s no surprise that Money & Insurance appears as one of the top categories (3rd) shoppers researched on Trustpilot between July 2020 and January 2021. There are many different types of financial services and products out there, and the pandemic has made all of us painfully aware of how quickly our own financial situations can change when something like COVID-19 happens. 


## 2. The businesses consumers reviewed the most

Today’s consumers are more inclined to write reviews when the experience they’ve had strikes an emotional chord, whether it’s positive or negative. So if a person has had a great experience, they’re likely to applaud the company with a good review. If, however, they’ve had a poor experience, chances are they will leave a bad review out of frustration.

Helping peers make a better buying decision, sharing a good or bad experience, and rewarding a company for their stellar customer service are some of the top reasons why today’s shoppers like to leave reviews at the end of the journey.

From July 2020 to January 2021, Trustpilot received a whopping 22.4 million service reviews.


2 Total number service reviews

And that’s not all. Consumers also left over 3 million product reviews on Trustpilot.com in the same period of time.

3 Total number product reviews

Now that we’ve got a better understanding of why consumers write reviews, and how many service and product reviews Trustpilot has received in that timeframe, here’s a detailed breakdown of the most reviewed types of businesses on Trustpilot.com from July 2020 to January 2021.

### Global service reviews per industry between July 2020 & January 2021


4 Service reviews per industry months

From July 2020 to January 2021, the three industries which received the most service reviews were B2B businesses, shopping & fashion and home & garden.

B2B businesses received over 2.8 million service reviews, or 12.5% of all service reviews left in the same period of time. 

Once again, it is surprising to see that in the midst of a pandemic, shopping & fashion businesses still received more than 2.7 million service reviews, or approximately 12% of all service reviews, given that our latest Fashion report found that [72% of fashion consumers spent less or the same as they did before the pandemic](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-ethical-fashion-brands-are-future-proof).

There’s no doubt the home & garden industry [benefited from lockdown in 2020](https://www.21digital.agency/blog/home-garden-sector-booms-during-covid-19/). With most of the world population confined to their homes all year, people invested both time and money in their home and garden. This trend was reflected in the amount of reviews the home & garden sector collected on Trustpilot. The industry received approximately 2.6 million reviews between July 2020 and January 2021, or 11.6% of all service reviews left during that time frame. 

These three sectors were closely followed by electronics (≅2 million) and finance and insurance (≅1.4 million). 

All categories saw a dip in reviews in the late summer and early fall of 2020 (August and September), and most categories observed a spike in service reviews towards the end of the year, in November and December, likely as a result of events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holidays. 

B2B businesses, shopping & fashion, home & garden, and electronics were the categories that saw the biggest spike of customer service reviews in Q4 of 2020. These sectors were also the most reviewed industries of Q4 2019, which demonstrates the importance of these verticals, whether in times of crisis or not.

### Global product reviews per industry between July 2020 & January 2021

5 Product reviews per industry last six months

When looking at product reviews in the same period of time, the three categories which received the most reviews were home & garden, shopping & fashion and beauty & wellbeing.

Unsurprisingly, the home & garden industry received just over 509,000 product reviews, or 16.9% of all product reviews left in the same time frame. Shopping & fashion received about 492,000 product reviews, or 16.4% of all product reviews. 

In July 2020, [a Trustpilot and London Research study](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/2020-consumer-report-combating-misinformation-in-the-health-beauty-sector) found that the coronavirus pandemic prompted a significant leap in spending in the health and beauty markets. 59% of US consumers and 55% of UK consumers said they were spending more on health and beauty products due to the coronavirus crisis. With so many consumers buying from the beauty & wellbeing industry, Trustpilot received over 388,000 product reviews in this sector, which equates to about 12.9% of all product reviews.

These were closely followed by electronics (≅227,000) and entertainment (≅180,000), which comes as no surprise given the current circumstances.

Most of these categories seemed to have a stable amount of product reviews throughout the summer and fall of 2020, and observed a spike around the holidays and after the Black Friday rush, in December 2020.

However, the three industries with the most product reviews – home & garden, shopping & fashion and beauty & wellbeing – all observed a much bigger dip in the late summer and early fall (August and September), and saw a much higher increase in product reviews than any of the other industries pictured, starting earlier – in October 2020, suggesting that consumers were less interested in doing their shopping online and leaving reviews in the peak of summer, when measures were eased in most countries.


Find out more about the importance of consumer insights in times of uncertainty

## 3. The top reasons behind why consumers leave online reviews 

The Trustpilot team also analyzed millions of 1 and 5-star reviews left between August and December 2020 in order to better understand the top reasons behind why consumers leave online reviews on our platform. Here’s what we’ve observed.

### A. The one reason consumers recommended a business to others in 2020

We found that one of the most mentioned keywords in 5-star reviews was “delivery”, appearing in over 1.3 million of reviews, a whopping 17% of all 5-star reviews, between August and December 2020.

Another common word in 5-star reviews was “customer service”, with just over 500,000 mentions in the same six-month period.

“Shipping” came last, with just under 160,000 mentions, a mere 2% of all 5-star reviews left during the same timeframe. 

This review data confirms that in times of crisis, customer service is one of the best assets a business can have to combat uncertainty, build trust and improve customer satisfaction.

Companies which were able to continue delivering their products quickly and efficiently, whilst still offering great customer service were clearly the brands that truly stood out in the eyes of consumers in the midst of this pandemic.

### B. The one reason consumers decided to take their business elsewhere in 2020

When analyzing 1-star reviews left between August and December 2020, we observed that one of the top reasons why consumers left bad reviews was “customer service”, with over 210,000 mentions in just six months, or about 18% of all 1-star reviews in that period of time.

“Delivery” was also one of the most repeated words in 1-star reviews with over 174,000 mentions, which represents approximately 14% of all 1-star reviews.

“Shipping” was, once again, the least-mentioned, with only 39,000 of 1-star reviews containing the keyword.

Looking back at this analysis, it is clear that bad customer service and delivery issues were two of the top reasons why consumers felt the need to leave a negative review and take their business elsewhere in the second half of 2020. Proof that every business should always strive to [deliver great customer experiences](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/5-reasons-why-customer-experience-is-the-pulse-of-every-business) and continuously [invest in their customer service](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/6-types-of-online-customer-service-you-can-implement-today). 