With just an estimated 20% of insurance brands showing customer reviews on their website, and many also disabling Facebook reviews on their brand pages, it’s probably fair to say that this industry has been slow to embrace consumer reviews.
Perhaps this is simply down to the risk of receiving some bad reviews, but with more than 90% of consumers saying that online reviews play a part in their purchase decisions, we believe that the pros far outweigh the cons.
It’s one thing to facilitate reviews, be it on social media or through a third-party tool like Google, TrustPilot or Feefo, but it’s another thing to actively leverage them to help drive more conversions. We explore the ways in which you can do this below.
How to get more positive than negative online reviews for your insurance brand
Other than the basic principle of ‘doing good work’ and essentially providing a high-quality service to your customers, whilst dealing with customer service issues quickly and effectively, there are a number of other ways to help filing reviews to become the norm for more of your customer-base
We all generally have a tendency to ‘shout’ more loudly when we’re annoyed, rather than when we’re happy; it’s part of the human condition. Thus, it stands to reason that people would be more likely to leave a review when they are unhappy rather than when they’re satisfied with the service they received. How can your insurance brand flip this trend on its head?
Follow up emails to successful policy purchases at the right time
As a consumer, it’s incredibly irritating to be asked for a review before you’ve even had chance to use the product or service. Making sure that you’re sending out a ‘please review us’ email in accordance with the lifecycle of your particular type(s) of insurance is essential. If someone buys a policy that doesn’t start for another couple of weeks, make sure they don’t get their review email until their cover has properly kicked in. Don’t pester customers with multiple emails – ask a maximum of two times.
Make leaving a review really REALLY easy to do
If it takes more than a single click and a few seconds to do, the chances of people filling out reviews will decrease significantly. Make sure the email tells the reader how easy and quick it is to leave a review.
To incentivise or not to incentivise?
You cannot incentivise only positive reviews – you would have to offer the same incentive regardless of the sentiment of the review, and as an insurance brand, your options for what that incentive can be are fairly narrow.
You could potentially have a monthly or quarterly prize draw that all new reviewers are entered into. Any type of contest will need to have its own T&Cs devised and posted publicly, and any random draw requires careful management to ensure its all above board.
Another potential incentive, assuming you have the internal system to successfully track and implement this, is to offer a % discount on renewal for those who leave a review this year. This is, of course, a double-whammy – incentivising not only reviews but also renewals.
Leveraging negative reviews for your business
The reality is that you’re likely to get some bad reviews. It’s impossible to please everyone, all of the time. The important thing is what you do next, once a negative review has found its way into the wild.
Post a considered and objective response to the negative review. Make sure you have all of the facts about what happened in their specific case and apologise. Don’t try to hedge your bets with a non-apology e.g. “We’re sorry that you feel that way, but…” – even if you believe your business isn’t at fault – taking responsibility is the first step in potentially turning the situation around for your benefit.
Offer a solution to the issue in your reply and give the review poster a way to contact you to further discuss the problem.
It isn’t just negative reviews that you should engage with as a brand. Responding to positive reviews too will help make sure that reviewer feels valued and that can incrementally push them towards renewing with you next time.
Display your review ratings front and centre on your website
People can only be influenced to buy by reviews if they see them. Making sure that your star ratings appear on your website prominently will help get that message across. If you have a terrible rating it can be counterproductive to do this, but as your volume of reviews grows, you should see the balance tip in your favour. If not, you might have some service issues to resolve internally.
As a major trust signal to potential customers and even search engines, don’t underestimate the power of customer reviews!If you want more information on how we help insurance brands to increase their online visibility, get in touch today or on 0800 011 9715.
