Customer story
hmv’s partnership with Trustpilot builds trust and hits all the right notes
About hmv
hmv opened its doors on London’s Oxford Street in 1921 becoming the essential shopping destination for music fans everywhere and after closing in 2019 will be making a comeback in the iconic Oxford Street site in time for Christmas 2023.
Its offering of Pop Culture merchandise, Vinyl, CD’s, 4K & UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and Technology may be unique, but as well as their high street presence in over 120 stores across the UK, hmv wanted to increase awareness of the brand’s online offering. hmv were using a review platform already and getting excellent customer feedback but they weren’t able to truly showcase their reviews. Wanting to be able to invite, collect and display reviews, Trustpilot became the obvious choice to do this for hmv.
Problem
hmv was using a review platform already and getting excellent customer feedback, but they weren’t able to truly showcase their reviews.
Solution
Wanting to be able to invite, collect and display reviews, Trustpilot became the obvious choice to do this for hmv.
Result
hmv now have over 65,000 reviews altogether, of which over 50,000 are five stars and have achieved the goal of boosting their TrustScore, shooting up from 1.5 to 4.6.
“Obviously, we knew that Trustpilot was best-in-class for customer reviews, so it became kind of a no-brainer. We needed to tell people that they could trust us no matter how they chose to shop with us.”
Rupert Banning-Lover
Central Operations Manager at hmv
65K+
Reviews on Trustpilot.
4.6
TrustScore.
700
reviews a week.
Making its voice heard
hmv opened its doors on London’s Oxford Street in 1921 becoming the essential shopping destination for music fans everywhere and after closing in 2019 will be making a comeback in the iconic Oxford Street site in time for Christmas 2023.
Its offering of Pop Culture merchandise, Vinyl, CD’s, 4K & UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and Technology may be unique, but as well as their high street presence in over 120 stores across the UK, hmv wanted to increase awareness of the brand’s online offering. hmv were using a review platform already and getting excellent customer feedback but they weren’t able to truly showcase their reviews. Wanting to be able to invite, collect and display reviews, Trustpilot became the obvious choice to do this for hmv.
Striking a chord with customers
hmv claimed their Trustpilot profile which at the time had a low TrustScore of 1.5. By working closely with their Trustpilot Customer Success Manager, and integrating with the API they were able to automatically send review invitations post-purchase. This change allowed hmv to reach a larger customer base, not only those opted-in to receive marketing emails and this significantly optimised their Trustpilot account and their TrustScore.
hmv places a high importance on receiving feedback from their customers both instore and online. A weekly report on Trustpilot results is reviewed with key departments addressing feedback to improve the customer service and offering. Crucially, a business decision was made to reply to each and every customer review - whether that was to offer a thanks for a five-star review, or to apologise and offer help for a negative one. With this embedded in the company culture, it gives hmv a more rounded view of their business.
Record results
The automatic invitations proved incredibly successful and reviews quadrupled quickly. hmv had been receiving 100 to 150 reviews a week - and now this is closer to 700.
hmv now have over 65,000 reviews altogether, of which over 50,000 are five stars and have achieved the goal of boosting their TrustScore, shooting up from 1.5 to 4.6. This score is displayed on www.hmv.com and in every marketing email, so their reputation is clear for everyone to see. They have also recently claimed their Trustpilot profile in Ireland, where the TrustScore has already improved from 1.8 to 4.8.
hmv’s partnership with Trustpilot continues to evolve. With a focus to improve the account, they have now added the Insights module to help analyse feedback. The team analyses the insights on a weekly basis to be able to keep improving the customer experience, and make changes accordingly.
The Locations module has also been added with great results, and hmv are considering including reviews on the checkout page to reassure customers they are making the right choice. There are also plans in the works to collaborate even more closely together, to continue to give hmv’s customers a voice.