How to Get More Customers to Comment on Your OpenCart Products
“Your support team was outstanding, they responded immediately and fixed the issue in no time. Thank you very much!”
Customer reviews are one of the strongest factors that sway our purchasing decisions. As humans, we are very affected by social influence and the opinions of others.
While there are many forms of social influence, we’ll be focusing on persuasion leading to sales. The persuasion effects of real people sharing why they use a given product and how that affects your sales.
At some point, we’ve all found ourselves looking for product reviews and the opinions of other customers while ignoring all the flashy marketing messages.
After all, the reality of how good a product is hides in the experience of other users with it.
So, how to get more customers to leave comments and reviews on your products in OpenCart?
Easy… make it easy.
If a customer is happy with your product and willing to share what they think of it, they will not hesitate to do it. If it doesn’t cost them anything.
The Default OpenCart Reviews
In a standard setup, we have a section for reviews on every product. It’s located in a tab next to the product description.
Simple enough - name, review, rating.
However... we believe it can be much simpler than that.
The problem here is that the customer has to:
- Make the purchase
- Use the product
- Come back to the store
- Find the product again
...and make all of these actions to leave a review.
That’s not exactly difficult, but it requires an effort. Not many customers are willing to go through that.
How to improve your customer's reviewing experience?
Here are a few good strategies to try out.
1. Give excellent pre-sale and after-sale customer service
Think about yourself for a moment. When have you personally left a review about a product you’ve used? Probably, when you felt you had to do it.
Customer service and support is the next closest thing to the product that defines how customers will feel about your brand. An example from one of our customers:
“The service provided was excellent. We have made a number of purchases - all of which were extraordinary from iSenseLabs and plan on making more in the future.”
It appears that they are happy with both our service as well as products. It’s all about making people feel something when interacting with your brand.
2. Remind customers to drop you a few lines
The most effective method is to just ask people. Send reminders via email after a customer has made a purchase. Let them know you care about what they think and that it’s the most important thing to you.
Not right away of course, leave at least a day or two after the order has been delivered.
Here are a few examples of how famous brands approach customers and invite them to share their thoughts:
Airbnb
(Source: Really Good Emails)
Nothing more than a single click, that’s all they require with this email.
A single click that doesn’t take anything for the customer to complete, but gives the brand a lot more. Another rating, no matter if it’s good or bad and more social proof that their service has been used by more people.
TradeGecko
(Source: Really Good Emails)
A charming invitation and a sincere request for a favor. The brand is aiming for the stars and your review will help them get there.
Difficult to refuse, right?
Casper
(Source: Really Good Emails)
Simple and humorous. Genius, right?
It’s a very explicit question that perfectly relates to the purchased product and appeals to the customer’s emotions, since it refers exactly to their experience with the product.
Our favorite example.
Those were some great ideas, but the most important thing about them was how easy they’ve made it for customers to complete the desired action - leaving a review.
Nobody will comment on your products if it’s difficult.
3. Give an incentive like a discount for future purchases
Some brands like to stimulate their customers additionally. Tailor Brands for instance want to give you 50% off in return for some feedback. Not a bad deal at all.
(Source: Really Good Emails)
That’s an excellent strategy because it not only gives you a review, but a returning customer as well.
Configuring OpenCart for Requesting Product Reviews
We’ll show you how to start sending out emails to customers after they have made a purchase.
You will also see how to setup a template and add discount incentives for your customers.
To begin, we will use an OpenCart extension called OrderReviews. Let’s check out a test setup to see how the tool works and what customers see.
Let’s make a test order.
We complete the checkout and confirm the order.
Naturally, some time has to pass for the customer to receive the product and have enough time to use it.
This is configured in the OpenCart admin panel and the module settings of OrderReviews.
Time it right
Order status lets you choose the status that triggers the email template.
Message delay sets the number of days that need to pass before sending out the email template to invite customers for a review.
Create your custom email template
Use the editor to configure the template your customers will receive. You can customize the text, add images, or use the Source Code function if you are fluent in HTML.
The Email Preview button lets you see the final result and what customers will see in their emails. It will help you polish your work to perfection.
Setting a discount hook
OrderReviews lets you add a discount code to every email. After the customer opens the email and enters their review, they will be redirected to your OpenCart store.
The customer will arrive at a page that confirms their review and gives them the discount code.
To set the code, go to the Discount Settings in the module settings:
The type of discount can be Percentage or Fixed Amount.
Set the discount value (for example 50%). After that, set a minimum order total for the discount to be available.
Finally, set the validity time of the discount.
All done!
Submitting the review
When the customer receives the email, they will see your template.
Upon submitting their review, the customer will be redirected back to your OpenCart site to claim their discount code.
The main advantage of this strategy is that you’re doing most of the work for the customers. All they need to do is write their review and click the button. Nothing more, nothing less.
This is how the page looks like:
You have the discount code and see the value. You can also see the minimum order value that must be generated to use the code.
Finally, you see the expiration date of the discount. Often, this is what stimulates customers to take advantage of their exclusive discount as soon as possible and make another purchase.
Wrapping up
Customer reviews always have multiple benefits and applications. Most importantly, they can:
-
Spread the word about your product or brand
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Help other customers make easier purchasing decisions
-
Give you feedback and ideas for improvement
-
Add social proof and legitimacy
These strategies are also applied at iSenseLabs and they have worked amazingly for us. We strongly suggest considering ways to stimulate more customers to share their feedback with you and your other users. If you’ve had success so far, we’d love to hear how you do it in the comments below!
