Thrift Books, the nation’s largest used book seller, has been growing rapidly since its founding in 2003. To thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape, Thrift Books chose to leverage the power of their happy customers through Trustpilot.
Goals
Leverage reviews from past customers to establish trust with future ones and grow their business.
Measurements
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Customer acquisition cost
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Revenue
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Customer satisfaction
The Work and Results
Build Online Reputation
Over the last few years, Thrift Books noticed a clear trend emerging amongst its prospects. Increasingly, prospects would question the reputation of their company prior to purchasing. Thrift Books decided the most effective way for prospects to learn about their brand is to make reviews from all of their customers (not just the happy ones) visible and easy to find. Since Trustpilot is the only review community that publishes all authentic customer experiences publicly, Thrift Books found them the perfect partner to help build their online reputation.
Trustpilot’s solution helped Thrift Books gain 18,000 customer reviews faster than they ever expected. This high volume of reviews validates that Thrift Books is a clear leader in the used textbook space. They also make Thrift Books much easier to find on the internet.
Most importantly, 95% of their reviews are 4 and 5 star - Thrift Books’ customers love them.
Drive More Web Traffic
Thrift Books leveraged reviews collected via Trustpilot in paid search, SEO campaigns, and across their own website. This, along with other marketing efforts, has resulted in a dramatic increase in traffic, conversions, and revenue.
Prior to working with Trustpilot, total site traffic was up by 60% due to months of hiking up SEO and digital ad spend. After launching their review collection process with Trustpilot, they saw an increase in traffic of 125%. Revenue growth followed suit, climbing 180% year over year in the months following their partnership with Trustpilot, compared to an 80% annual gain prior to its deployment.
Improve Customer Service
Thrift Books also uses Trustpilot’s review analytics to identify and remedy customer service problems more quickly. Thrift Books is able to track issues like the condition of the book sent and how long shipping takes in real-time, so mistakes are addressed quickly and they can rescue unhappy customers.
Trustpilot has also provided Thrift Books with a reliable source of customer feedback to drive business optimization. Before working with Trustpilot, Thrift Books would hear feedback from customers for a variety of reasons or they would discover customer feedback written on multiple channels online. Now asking all customers to review them on Trustpilot consolidates feedback so they can spot and analyze trends amongst their customers to improve their site, offering, and business.
By proactively asking our customers about their experiences, we’re finding things that could have been issues if we hadn't payed attention. Examining review data really helps us hone in on any trends in our business that we otherwise might not be aware of.
Summary
Since partnering with Trustpilot, Thrift Books has radically increased customer acquisition rates, grown revenue, and improved customer satisfaction rates. Perhaps the biggest benefit of working Trustpilot has been the impact customer reviews have had on employee morale.
Check out the article "Give Your Two Cents" in American Marketing Association's magazine Marketing News for more info on Thrift Book's review strategy and success with Trustpilot.
"I was not expecting when we started with Trustpilot the positive impact it was going to have on our customer service team. They work day in, day out with customers who aren’t necessarily satisfied with our work. Being able to see the overwhelming positive response we have about our site really validates the work they do."
Matt Sand, VP of Marketing