The Google Trusted Stores programs has been helping shoppers feel secure about their purchases on the internet as it requires Google merchants to meet specific shipping and customer service performance metrics goals. Google Trusted Stores have a badge on their site, to prove to consumers that they follow Google’s standards and policies and are allowed to participate in the program.
Customers love this feature and so do merchants as it brings in more customers to their sites. Thousands of sellers use the Google Trusted Stores program and Google has made it better. Google Customer Reviews will be replacing the Google Trusted Stores program, but before you freak out know that Google has made this program better than the last.
Google Customer Reviews
Google’s Trusted Store Program didn’t have many different options, you either participated or you didn’t and if you did you receive a badge. With Google Customer reviews you can now customize the Google badge and opt-in on your site meaning better account management tools to save you time and give you better insights into your seller rating.
Unlike before, you can now collect your customer reviews about your business for free. These are real reviews, from real customers, unlike sites that may use bots, giving you real data that can help you better your business.
How it Works
Sign-up to opt-in to the program and complete a quick and brief setup process. Customers can then make purchases on your site, like normal, and can opt-in to receive an email survey to rate their purchasing, browsing, and buying experience. These reviews are then emailed to you, the merchant, as they are collected. The merchant can then read them over, use them on their website as feedback to other customers, and learn from them.
Another added bonus is that the reviews will contribute to your selling rating on google. This will represent the aggregated consumer reviews from multiple sources, included independent data providers through Google surveys. Your seller rating will now showing up on the Google Shopping, AdWords text ads, and your website if you opt-in. This means that when consumers are shopping for a certain product that you sell, you are more likely to come to the top of the search if you have a better seller rating. Customers will also be more inclined to visit your site if they see in their search that your business has a higher seller rating than other businesses. Before sellers only realized if you were Google Trusted by visiting your site, now they will know that you are not only trusted by google but by your customers before they click onto the site.
According to Google, showing seller ratings on your text ads can boost your ads’ click through rate by up to 10%.
Four Main Features
Customers who’ve purchased a product, or products, on your site are given an alternative to opt-in to receiving an email asking for input from Google about their involvement with your store. In the event that the customer selects to opt-in, they may get an email after their product has arrived. The gathered evaluations are then shown on your discretionary Google Client Surveys identification and show up in your Shipper Center dashboard which are utilized for vendor appraisals.
The Google Customer Reviews program has 4 main features:
- Google Customer Reviews opt-in: Every customer will receive this offer after they checkout. A purchase IS required for them to get this opt-in. Custoemers who decide to go forward will receive an email from Google Customer Reviews asking them to rate their experience with your store.
- Google Customer Reviews badge: Just as before, there will be a badge on your site that helps users easily identify your site with the Google brand. The badge, ulike before, will now displays the seller rating score of 1-5 stars. The badge can be customized and can be placed on any page on your site.
- Google Customer Reviews survey: The survey, which is emailed to those customers who make a purchase and opt-in, is an optional, brief questionnaire that enables customers to rate their purchase experiences with your site.
- Seller Ratings: An aggregate score that appears on search ads and Google Shopping, as well on Google Customer Reviews badges.
How to enable Google Customer Reviews
It’s very easy to setup your Google Customer Review Account:
- Sign in to your Google Merchant Center account (or sign up if you do not have an account).
- Select “Merchant Center programs” from the dropdown in the upper right-hand corner.
- Click “Get Started” in the Google Customer Reviews card and accept the Program Agreement.
- Add the survey opt-in code to your website.
- [Optional] Add the badge code to your site wherever you want. This will make the badge appear on your site, allowing you to display your seller rating and show customers that you’re integrated with Google Customer Reviews.
Please Note: Google Customer Reviews is now available in the United States, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan and Australia, after previously launching in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, India, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Russia. To learn more about the program, please visit Google’s Help Center.
Once you have enabled your account and completed the enrollment steps, stats about your opt-in metrics, surveys, and seller rating will be available in your Google Customer Reviews dashboard in Merchant Center.
So, How Do You Get Customers To Review You?
Now, your review of your site will matter more than ever before as it will always be visible in any type of google search. Even if someone is driving down the street and searches through maps, they will see your reviews if they are in your location.
It’s vital to get customers to review your products and/or services so let’s look at how we can get more customers to review your business. You may have reviews on Yelp or Facebook, but those will not be seen as often as your Google review and there is no way to integrate those reviews with your Google site, currently, to increase your star rating.
Step 1: Entice Your Current Customers
If you have an email blast that goes out routinely, this is the perfect time to use it for reviews. Let your current customers know that you are participating in the Google Review system. Explain to your customers how this will be a win-win for them and your business.
The more review your customers leave the better for your business and the more reviews your customers see the more they can trust your products. Explain to your customers that after purchasing a product they will be prompted to opt-in for a quick survey that will be emailed to them, and explain to them that it does not need to be a long review unless they want it to be. Also, think about offering a discount. For every customer that leaves a review they will receive a free gift or a percentage off their next order.
Step 2: Show Your Customers How
Send an email to your customers, or create a pop-up before your customers make a purchase, showing them what the survey will look like. This is very easy to do as you can take a screen grab of the survey yourself.
You can also show your customers how:
- To set up or log into their Google account
- How to find your website and make a purchase
- Walks them through how to post a review.
From this all your customers need to do is follow the steps. There’s no guessing in it for them or frustration. It becomes an easy process that becomes normal in their shopping experience. With happy customers like this, you are more likely to get better reviews as well.
Getting Started with Google Reviews
Now that you understand how Google Customer Reviews will replace Google Trusted Stores you can get started by signing in to your account and following our directions.
Do understand that this will benefit your business however every now and then you may get a few negative reviews. If you do address them immediately and do not delete them. When customers see that you do not respond they question if you care and if they realize you are deleting negative reviews they will find your business to be unloyal. You can’t please everyone and customers understand this.
Use the Google Customer Reviews as an opportunity to learn, grow, and build your business! You will have more insights into your company than ever before and more customer insights so you will learn how your customers really feel about your business. There are really only so many great things you can take away from this compared to the very few benefits you had with Google Trusted Stores. The team at OperationROI has been working with Google Shopping since the days of Froogle. Contact us today at 1-888-277-5429 or by filling out our contact form to learn more.
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