How Homebridge used Trustpilot to transform and improve customer satisfaction
Problem
Homebridge needed to establish customer satisfaction as its key differentiator and use it as a marketing tool to grow the business better.
Solution
When looking for review solutions, Homebridge found Trustpilot, and they were impressed by its simplicity and credibility. They chose Trustpilot to provide the review credibility they needed.
Result
Integrating Trustpilot’s API solution with their email platform, Mailchimp, they’ve created an optimally performing email invitation, improving the industry average response rate of 2.1% by 10x with a 22.5% response rate.
About Homebridge
Homebridge Financial Services, Inc. (Homebridge) is one of the top privately held, non-bank mortgage lending firms in the U.S. For more than 30 years, The Homebridge vision has been to help their partners facilitate the dream of homeownership and home improvement for every customer, every day. A Trustpilot customer since 2015, Homebridge maintains its 4.9 Excellent TrustScore and thousands of reviews through the empowerment and support of its customers.
“I think the greatest results we get in responding to negative reviews is showing our future customers that we are very much focused on providing excellent customer service and will continue to do our best to achieve their business and continued satisfaction.”
4.9
TrustScore.
10X
With Trustpilot's Mailchimp integration, homebridge improved the industry average response rate of 2.1% by 10x with a 22.5% response rate.
3,278
Trustpilot reviews.
Homebridge had a mission to be the most highly recommended mortgage company in the country.
So, they set out to achieve it by working hard to satisfy every customer’s needs, going beyond merely “closing a loan.” But when Ben Chapman started at Homebridge as Director of Client Facing Experience & Analytics, he saw an opportunity to establish customer satisfaction as their key differentiator better and use it as a marketing tool to grow the business.
As Homebridge wasn’t a brand many people were familiar with, he knew they needed authentic customer reviews available where people were researching their brand in order for prospective customers to feel comfortable doing business with them. Homebridge had plenty of great customer testimonials collected by their associates, but Ben knew sharing these onsite wouldn’t be credible enough to impact search engine results positively; and, in turn, site visitation and engagement.
To prospective clients, copying and pasting reviews on their site left room for customers to presume bias, selectivity and/or modification of its testimonials. So he decided to do his own research: finding a way to collect and leverage reviews that people could trust.
When researching the different review solutions on the market, Ben came across Trustpilot. Struck by the Trustpilot open review platform's simplicity and solidity and extensive safeguards against fraudulent reviews, Ben felt confident that using Trustpilot would provide the review credibility Homebridge needed.
Empowering customers to represent their brand
Using Trustpilot to proactively ask customers to leave reviews, Homebridge empowers their current clients to represent their brand to prospective customers. Integrating Trustpilot’s API solution with their email platform, Mailchimp, they’ve created an optimally performing email invitation, improving the industry average response rate of 2.1% by 10x with a 22.5% response rate.
Asking for reviews from all customers has also allowed Homebridge to get a more accurate depiction of their business, improving their TrustScore rating to a 4.8/5.
With their reviews, customers are able to sell Homebridge services for them via multiple Trustpilot TrustBox widgets that display reviews throughout their website.
To improve their online reputation and help consumers when researching their brand, Homebridge created a webpage just for their reviews. Now, when shoppers search for keywords like “homebridge reviews,” they’re likely to find multiple pages exclusively devoted to third-party verified reviews of the business.
Track reviews for individual employees and branches
By using Trustpilot’s API to send custom review invitations, Homebridge reviews are automatically matched to their respective Loan Originators and branches. Management uses this information to assess service quality in their branches and by Loan Originator sand give recognition to individuals, branches and regions.
Most frequently, the reviews serve to improve employee morale and encourage them to keep providing top notch service.
Homebridge aggregates each Loan Originator’s reviews and displays them on their individual webpages to help establish personal credibility and trust with new or prospective clients.
Homebridge uses Trustpilot’s Zendesk integration to monitor and manage all reviews within their Zendesk account. Positive reviews receive an automatic response, while negative reviews create tickets for the Customer Experience Team to handle outside the Trustpilot platform.
The IT Customer Experience Team collaborates with the Marketing Customer Experience group to address complaints, with immediate notifications and alerts for negative reviews. They use proactive review invitations and offline communication to resolve issues and ensure genuine feedback.