686 Logo

686 Case Study trustpilot

Expanding into new product categories can mean new audiences and new competitors, so 686 looked to Trustpilot for product reviews to put their products in the best possible light and improve their SEO.

686 Technical Apparel uses Trustpilot product reviews to improve SEO and on site conversions

686 Key Benefits

## Where you collect reviews matters
686 was no stranger to collecting reviews — they’d previously been working with a different review provider — but they needed [better SEO](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/why-does-google-care-if-your-business-has-online-reviews-in-2019) and visibility in organic search. The fact that Trustpilot profile pages make for a great acquisition channel and lead to increased discovery was just the icing on the cake.

686 Featured Collections

When they expanded from selling solely winter technical gear to being a year-round brand, they were suddenly facing more competitors, and trying to resonate with more audiences and needed a way to cut through the noise of a crowded market.

Better SEO and strategic use of social proof are some of the best ways growing brands can solidify their position with a new audience who has tons of options to choose from. Doing so allows brands to maximize sales in two different ways — by attracting new customers and by instilling trust throughout the customer journey to [boost conversions](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews).

So that’s exactly what 686 set out to do with their customer reviews.



## Adding reviews onsite builds trust across the customer journey
When it came to their site, 686 wanted to make sure they leveraged social proof on the pages that made the most sense in terms of building trust with their customers and increasing conversions.

They even created a specific page just for reviews to show that they take their customer feedback seriously, and make it as easy as possible for shoppers to find out about the experiences of those who came before them.


Putting Trustpilot reviews on key pages on your site improves trust and leads to more conversions

686 Trustpilot Reviews Onsite

Trustpilot Reviews On Site

## Adding reviews to product pages leads to more conversions *and* stronger organic SEO
They also include [product review widgets ](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/product-reviews)on all product pages so that customers can see feedback specific to the product that they’re looking at. This is really important for brands that offer a wide variety of products or specialty products (like sportswear) that can have different features or uses.



686 Uses Trustpilot Product Reviews

Product reviews can be particularly helpful because often even a one or two-star rating on a product page still gives that product a [higher conversion rate](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/get-seen-in-search/ann-summers-uses-product-reviews-to-increase-sales-up-to-230). Having a mix of ratings can actually make customers see you as a brand who does not censor their reviews, in turn making them [trust you even more](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/6-ways-to-make-trust-your-essential-brand-differentiator).

Plus, when shoppers are able to read product reviews and take their own personal needs into account, a lower score isn’t always relevant to them. For example, If they’re seeing complaints about lengthy shipping times and don’t need the product immediately, a lower rating may not deter them.

Not only that, but empowering your customers to leave reviews for specific products provides [fresh user-generated content](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/five-ways-product-reviews-can-accelerate-your-business) for that particular page, which can help you rank for [long tail search queries](https://moz.com/blog/long-tail-seo-target-low-volume-keywords-whiteboard-friday) and increase organic traffic.

Learn how Trustpilot can help with user-generated content 

More Product Reviews

Product Reviews On Site

## Emails are more compelling with social proof
Promotional emails are another way they leverage their reviews. By including reviews in their promotional emails, they let their customers speak for them instead of bragging about their own brand. It’s also a great way to serve more personal content to their customers.

686 Reviews in email

686 Reviews in Email

Last but certainly not least — the final way they use Trustpilot reviews isn’t short-term revenue focused, but rather takes the long game approach to make sure they’re engaged with their customers.

Responding to reviews and trying to resolve issues with customers can go a long way. Their social media team has made responding to their customer reviews a big part of how they use Trustpilot and a way to [build a community around their brand](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/how-to-use-brand-affinity-to-unlock-organic-search-opportunities).

Show the world you care, respond to all reviews 

686 Uses Trustpilot to Respond to Reviews

## Results from using Trustpilot
January is one of 686’s busiest months of the year and isn’t typically swayed by any types of promotions or sales. The first year they were using Trustpilot they saw a 50% increase in sessions resulting from organic search while they only had a 11% increase in sessions overall. With their sessions from organic search growing significantly higher than sessions overall, they attribute their success on this critical channel to their decision to switch to Trustpilot.



686 Quote 

Online Marketing Manager

If your business would benefit from better organic search results or stronger trust in your brand across the customer journey, request a free Trustpilot demo below.

How 686 Technical Apparel enhanced their organic SEO with product reviews

TaxSlayer Pro Icon

How TaxSlayer Pro upgraded their B2B ad campaigns with customer reviews 


Learn why TaxSlayer Pro partnered with Trustpilot to build up social proof and show off the great experiences customers have with their software. 

Fast forward to today and this growing company helps preparers to file millions of tax returns every year. Generally speaking, each of TaxSlayer Pro’s customers use the tax preparation software to complete tax returns for their own clients. With that in mind, it’s safe to say that TaxSlayer Pro’s target customers carefully consider which tools they use and which companies they partner with to file that heroic number of returns. 

After seeing how much [Trustpilot reviews helped TaxSlayer](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/finance-insurance/why-taxslayer-chose-trustpilot-to-leverage-customer-feedback), their DIY filing software, the team at TaxSlayer Pro decided to take the plunge into review marketing and partnered with Trustpilot to show off the great experiences customers have with their software — in turn helping them attract new customers and improving the performance of their paid social campaigns. 

Curious how they did it? We sat down with Sabrina Dean, Director of Product Marketing at TaxSlayer Pro, to get the full story on how Trustpilot has improved their business results. 

TaxSlayer Pro found that Facebook ads with Trustpilot content had 240% net conversions than ad creative without a Trustpilot testimonial or rating. 

TaxSlayer Pro Key Benefits

## Collecting reviews turns satisfied customers into great brand advocates.

As you can probably guess, convincing busy tax preparation businesses (with hundreds of thousands of tax returns on the line) to adopt a new software isn’t always an easy feat. But cutting through the marketing and advertising noise and resonating with prospective customers got much easier once TaxSlayer Pro started to focus on building up trustworthy [social proof](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing) around their product. 

Before making use of Trustpilot’s [Review Invitations](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-invitations) to jumpstart the process of collecting testimonials and social proof, prospective TaxSlayer Pro customers had only been exposed to marketing messaging from TaxSlayer Pro themselves. 

Sabrina from TaxSlayer Pro says it best: 

Having another layer of third-party validation, and a neutral platform where users can go and express how they’ve been feeling about their experience with TaxSlayer Pro, shows prospective customers out there who might be hesitant to switch that they can trust our product.

TaxSlayer Pro x Trustpilot testimonial

And the reviews rolling in about TaxSlayer Pro are quite convincing. With an impressive 93% retention rate*, the customers who *do* switch to TaxSlayer Pro tend to stay year after year, and eventually become great brand advocates as soon as they’re invited to leave a review. 

It’s safe to say that the Trustpilot platform helps TaxSlayer Pro parlay the words of their happy customers into the perfect messaging for acquisition — especially on paid social. 


## Social proof unlocks new heights for Facebook ad campaigns.

Armed with a wealth of positive reviews about their product, the team at TaxSlayer Pro decided to experiment with highlighting customer testimonials in their visual assets for paid Facebook ad campaigns. 

It wasn’t long before they discovered that ads featuring a Trustpilot testimonial improved the overall performance of the campaign. 


Facebook ads featuring a Trustpilot testimonial saw 240% more net conversions — and 14% lower CPA —than ads featuring lifestyle messaging. 

TaxSlayer Pro improved ad performance with Trustpilot

## Highlighting customer reviews in their website redesign — and email campaigns, too.

Last year the team at TaxSlayer Pro decided to overhaul their website’s design, and they were eager to highlight Trustpilot reviews after seeing how effective social proof had been on their consumer product’s site.

Now when prospective customers visit the website, they see Trustpilot reviews on every single page — whether they’re looking at specific product options or perusing the educational resources available, they have an opportunity to read about the positive experiences of other customers just like them.

TaxSlayer Pro uses Trustpilot reviews on homepage

The marketing team also found that Trustpilot reviews make for a great feature piece in their email campaigns, especially paired with strategic subject lines that offer a double dose of social proof, like “Our customers are processing returns, are you?”.  



TaxSlayer Pro uses Trustpilot reviews and ratings to improve their email campaigns.

Trustpilot reviews in TaxSlayer Pro email campaigns

## When happy customers lead to stronger marketing. 

With their impressive 4.7 star rating on Trustpilot and whopping 93% retention rate*, it’s plain to see that TaxSlayer Pro is heavily invested in their [customer experience](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/5-reasons-why-customer-experience-is-the-pulse-of-every-business) and overall satisfaction levels of their users. 

This customer-centric approach creates what we like to call a virtuous cycle: by opening a dialogue with their customers through reviews, TaxSlayer Pro can actively monitor customer sentiments towards their product and nimbly respond to feedback, helping them become a better business. From there, customer satisfaction grows — and with it, the volume of positive reviews that can then be used across the digital journey to improve marketing performance. 

Ready to join TaxSlayer Pro and learn about all the ways reviews can improve your marketing and help you become a better business? Request a demo below. 

*TaxSlayer Pro through SurveyMonkey surveyed 757 users of TaxSlayer Pro online tax preparation software from April 1, 2019 through April 17, 2019. 93% of TaxSlayer Pro respondents reported that they continue to use TaxSlayer Pro software after switching.*


LegeAkademiet logo

How Product Reviews increased Legeakademiet’s revenue by 4.43%

A Trustpilot case study on how Legeakademiet used product reviews to boost conversions and increase their revenue.

quote 1

Founder & Partner at Legeakademiet

## How Product Reviews were A/B tested

Legeakademiet worked with their digital marketing agency S360 to conduct an A/B-split test in order to validate that adding product ratings to their website could increase sales. To simplify the test implementation, Legeakademiet chose to implement the product star rating elements, and not the full written reviews which could have boosted sales even further.

One challenge they faced was that they didn’t have product reviews on all products. In fact, they only had product reviews on less than 20% of their products. Even less when the split-test started.

As no one can control which products a customer looks at, and whether or not it has product reviews, we could only measure if the customer could see product reviews, if available, or not at all.


with or without product reviews

This puts the variation with product reviews at a great disadvantage, and the split-test is not an apples-to-apples comparison, but the test went ahead anyway.

## Adding their product rating throughout their customer journey

S360 had some great ideas on how they could add the product rating throughout the customer journey on Legeakademiet’s website.

First of all, they thought adding the product rating on any of the product listing pages would help shoppers find the right product for them. This is both on the product category pages and recommendation elements on both the category and product pages.


The product star rating was added to the product category pages

product reviews product pages

The product star rating was added to the product recommendations on both the product listing pages, and the product pages

product reviews on product recommendations

Second of all, they decided to add the product rating on the product page, just below the price and close to the add-to-cart button, to demonstrate value and create social proof for their own products.

product reviews on page

quote2

Client Lead at S360

Finally, they also added the product rating in the shopping cart, therefore reducing customer doubt and boosting confidence at a crucial point in the customer journey.

product reviews at checkout

## The results: A 4.43% revenue increase

The split test ran for 91 days and initially, as with most split-tests, there was no clear takeaway, but in the last 30 days, the version with product reviews (the straight line) clearly emerged as consistently performing better than the original version without.


Split test results

When we dived into the specifics of average basket size and conversion rate impact, we found the below:

product reviews test results

For both Mobile and Desktop shoppers, the average basket size was about the same or slightly higher, but for Tablet shoppers, it was an impressive 5.39% higher.

When we look at the conversion rate we saw that both Mobile and Desktop shoppers converted about 5% better, and Tablet shoppers about 5% lower.

The net change in revenue was about 5% for Mobile and Desktop shoppers, and just slightly higher for Tablet shoppers.

As 86% of Legeakademiet’s traffic comes from Mobile and Desktop shoppers, they saw a 4.43% revenue increase from displaying product reviews on their website, which is more than a 200,000 EUR turnover increase for them.

Only 20% of Legeakademiet’s products currently have product reviews, and the full reviews were not shown on the product page. This means that as soon as they start getting more product reviews and fully implement them, they should see their revenue climb a lot higher!

## Collecting insights from Product Reviews can help optimise the product selection

Legeakademiet benefits from Product Reviews in other ways too. The business understands that reviews are a form of customer communication, and the team is committed to reading all reviews and replying to any 1-3 star product reviews. This helps them understand what the customers like and don't like, and improve in the long run.

When it comes to optimising their product portfolio, this information is pure gold. Products that are poorly rated are being tested according to the specific feedback given by customers, and it helps Legeakademiet weed out products that they should stop selling, and understand which products, manufactures or categories of products they should get more of or expand to continue to grow and increase customer retention. 

The recent addition of Product Attributes to Trustpilot Product Reviews takes this insight to a new level and Legeakademiet hopes that in the near future, they can incorporate more of their DNA into these ratings by collecting more detailed insights on how the products improve kids’ learning abilities.

## What’s next for Legeakademiet?

With the initial test being such a success, the next steps are collecting more review and product reviews, implementing the written reviews via API on the product pages, and adding Product Reviews to their Norwegian site - Lekeakademiet.no - too.

If you’d like to find out more about how your business can see similar results, request a free Trustpilot demo below.

How product reviews increased Legeakademiet’s revenue by 4.43%

Voliamo logo

Voliamo travel case study Trustpilot

We spoke with Voliamo's Partnership Manager to better understand how they leverage reviews as a channel to engage with today’s travellers.

__Trustpilot:__ Why did you choose Trustpilot?

__Tahleel Ahmad:__ Being an OTA (Online Travel Agent), we primarily sell travel services to our customers. Trustpilot was brought in to get more feedback from our customers and better understand what we’re doing right, and what needs to be improved. It was part of our penetration strategy to list ourselves on a consumer review platform that helps us stick to our vision and deliver the best experiences possible to our customers.

__TP:__ Are there multiple departments or teams using Trustpilot? If so, how are they using Trustpilot?

__TA:__ Yes, multiple departments use Trustpilot and we have created multiple users for all those respective departments. Majority usage ranges from sending manual/bulk invitation links to tagging reviews, showcasing reviews specifically and analysing feedback.

__TP:__ Where are you currently using Trustpilot?

__TA:__ We’re currently showcasing our Trustpilot rating and reviews on many of our website’s pages. We have a ‘MicroStar’ widget on our homepage, which can be seen below:

trustpilot widget homepage

Adding this small widget to our homepage helped us build trust among users and also helped boost the overall customer confidence. It contributed towards increasing the average user session by approximately 38%, and also drastically brought down the bounce back rate by 1193% across all channels. 

reduced bounce rate

We also use Trustpilot on all of our landing pages. Since we rely on varied marketing channels and the majority of them have specifically targeted landing pages, we decided to go with a ‘Carousel’ widget on top of the page footer, keeping our customers’ reviews throughout the site. 

This proved to be really successful as in a month’s span only, Trustpilot recorded above 100K impressions since December 1st 2019, which clearly states its engagement with our audience. 

trustpilot carousel widget

In addition to the homepage and the landing pages, we’ve also added widgets to our product pages. In travel, the product page often refers to a complex package that can’t be booked online. 

Our product pages contain holiday itineraries which are an outcome of a combination of flights, hotels, transfers & activities. We understand the customer psyche behind purchasing a complex package wherein a huge amount of trust needs to be placed as nobody would like to spoil a holiday experience to save a few pounds. To cater to this, we’ve placed a ‘Quote’ widget on all our product pages which include reviews with a ‘Recommended’ tag on it only. 

This way, we are able to showcase our reviews wherein our customers have marked us as a recommended travel agency to intending buyers. This helped boost the trust among buyers and brought us an increase of 12% in the number of queries from product pages alone. Below is a screenshot of one of our product pages:


product pages widgets

Our contact us page showcases all of our recent reviews too. We always aim for customers to reach out to us through a single channel in order to cut down on repetitive queries, so we’ve added a ‘Grid’ widget on the [Contact Us](https://www.voliamo.eu/contact.php) page.

This grid only includes service reviews. This widget has brought down the number of customer queries from omnichannel to a single channel as the service reviews assure customers that we are quick enough to respond and solve their issues.

contact us page

contact us page reviews

The same ‘Carousel’ website-wide widget appears on our checkout page too. To us, it was important to add social proof at such a crucial stage of the customer journey. This helps reassure the customer and boosts their overall confidence in our services.

checkout process reviews

We also like to work with ‘Google Seller Ratings’ which show up on all of our Google Ads.

google seller ratings voliamo

Finally, we like showcasing our Trustpilot rating on emails. This is the signature I’ve got on my email followed by a confirmation email which is generated automatically when people book through us.

reviews email signature 

booking confirmation email

__TP:__ Are there any other Trustpilot products you are currently using? 

__TA:__ Yes, we use review invitations to send bulk and manual invitations to our customers.

top review sources

We also use the dashboard and analytics tools, which both play a pivotal role in providing insights on how we are doing. 


trustpilot dashboard and analytics

trustpilot review dashboard

Finally, we love using review tagging. As seen below, we’ve tagged ‘Service’, ‘Recommended’, ‘Pricing’, ‘Staff’, ‘Deals’, to our reviews. We can then filter the widgets down by tags based on which pages we’re showcasing them on.

top review tags

__TP:__ Which product features do you use most & what benefits do they bring

__TA:__ Based on the reservations we receive on a daily basis, we manually upload invitations either individually by agents who look after their respective customers, or else a bulk upload to send out review invitations to our customers. 
We use the get reviews feature to send out invitations and hear back from our customers, the template editor to use some creative content on invitations (the last one we did was to send out wishes on Christmas day & New Year’s Day along with invitations), the dashboard to get some quick insights on how are we performing, and the tags to ensure all the reviews posted by our users can be used either to showcase them.
The Benchmarking tool also proved to be an essential feature to help us compare our service level agreement with that of our competitors. This feature has enabled us to see that we have already outperformed our competitors in just 2 months of operations.


trustpilot benchmark tool

__TP:__ It’s great to see you are using Trustpilot in so many different ways. Have you measured any other improvements from using reviews?

__TA:__ After December 2019, we gained ‘Google Seller Ratings’, which made stars visible in all of our paid Google campaigns, and we added widgets on respective landing pages which has brought a 51.61% increase in CTR, followed by a massive 102.95% raise in conversions and a whopping 50.34% drop in bounce rate for Google campaigns. We also saw an overall growth in site traffic including 20.40% rise in time on page, a 5.53% rise in transactions, and a 17.33% growth in the overall revenue.

increase in revenue

__TP:__ How have you used insights from Trustpilot reviews to improve the business?

__TA:__ In the very inception of our operations, we realised that customers in the past were not quite happy with our services, specifically with the delivery of e-tickets and the online booking system. We soon picked both up and the results are now on the world wide web:

review 1

Thanks to Trustpilot, we are able to improve on the service excellence before it could’ve done some serious damage to the business. 

review 2

Similarly, bad reviews from unhappy customers were also a concern as it had started raising questions on business reliability and trustworthiness. We have now tackled it and the results are outstanding:

review 3

review 5

Cancellation and refunds were also the source of customer frustration. When we realised the issues our customers were having, we were able to correct our processes. We now have 4 and 5-star reviews from customers who have performed cancellations and have either received their refund or are awaiting it.

review 6

Thankfully, we have overcome all of our customers’ concerns because we were able to listen to our customers using Trustpilot reviews.

__TP:__ What does your TrustScore mean to you and the business?

__TA:__ We currently have a TrustScore of 4.7/5, and we certainly value it. For us, the TrustScore is a sign of:

- Credibility
- Reliability
- Trustworthiness
- Happy Customers
- Business Competitiveness.

__TP:__ What advice would you give to a business thinking of using Trustpilot?

__TA:__ If you are offering either products or services and are really proud about serving your customers - Trustpilot is a space to let the world know about it. Improved conversions, added traffic, never ending growth in revenue is something we are witnessing from using our customer reviews as a channel. 
It’s all about coming out of your office space, and letting the world know that your business is making someone’s day.

If you’d like to learn more about Trustpilot and how customer reviews can help you improve your business, request a free demo below.


How Voliamo taps into reviews to win over today’s travellers

Taxslayer Logo

How TaxSlayer revved up retargeting campaign ROI with Trustpilot reviews


TaxSlayer Piggy Bank main image

 TaxSlayer partnered with Trustpilot to highlight their reviews across the entire customer journey. Read on to learn how they parlayed the words of their customers into social proof and better ROI on retargeting campaigns.

Before a crop of online options popped up, busy professionals either made time to buckle down and go it alone — or they visited a brick and mortar preparation office where they could look the preparer in the eye before handing over scrolls of their personal info.

It’s safe to say that all [fintech](https://business.trustpilot.com/industries/finance) companies (and especially those focused on personal financial data) must show, not tell, that other customers have had great experiences with their product.

That’s exactly why [TaxSlayer](https://www.taxslayer.com/) not only partnered with Trustpilot, but decided to highlight their Trustpilot reviews across the entire customer journey. Interested in how they parlayed the words of their customers into trustworthy social proof, better ROI on retargeting campaigns, and even some lucrative operational decisions?

We sat down with Melissa Best, Director of Digital Marketing at TaxSlayer, to better understand why, after some positive early traction, they opted to double down with Trustpilot content for the 2018 tax season and beyond.

TaxSlayer x Trustpilot

TaxSlayer saw a 60% increase in CTR with Trustpilot reviews

TaxSlayer key benefits

## Sometimes social proof is the best way to get through to customers

Each year the digital marketing team at TaxSlayer zeroes in on new customer acquisition. But with so many competing products on the market — all making similar claims around tax season — it’s not always easy to capture attention with [traditional ads](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/trustworthiness-in-advertising-what-consumers-have-to-say). As it turns out, nobody can talk to consumers the way other consumers can.

Before partnering with Trustpilot to collect customer reviews as their primary form of [social proof](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing), TaxSlayer was in the habit of commissioning agencies to do consumer research and generate customer feedback for testimonial content.

These days, there’s no need for outsourcing [consumer insights](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/what-are-consumer-insights-and-how-do-i-use-them) because Trustpilot has quickly become a one stop shop for consumer insights, social proof, and testimonial content to back up their advertising and marketing claims.

Trustpilot is an integral part of TaxSlayer's business operations

TaxSlayer Testimonial

But it doesn’t stop there: The marketing team sees each new review in real time. Having access to real customer sentiments allows them to refine marketing messaging and deliver ad copy that’s sure to resonate — __especially when it comes to campaigns designed to win over new high-intent customers.__

According to the team at TaxSlayer, “our customers are already talking about us exactly the way we want them to,” — and that helps them to cut through the noise in an era where consumers see right through slick ad or marketing copy.  

In fact, that’s why they feature Trustpilot across their website and email campaigns, too:

TaxSlayer uses Trustpilot reviews onsite 

TaxSlayer Reviews Onsite

TaxSlayer uses Trustpilot reviews in their abandonment emails 

TaxSlayer abandonment email with review

## Retargeting campaigns are more effective with user-generated content like reviews

With so many options out there for every [consumer need](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/5-ways-to-win-the-zero-moment-of-truth-with-reviews) imaginable, it’s not hard to believe that only [2% of people](https://www.adroll.com/learn-more/retargeting) will convert the first time they visit a site to view a product or service. To help bring back the other 98% of tax filers, TaxSlayer decided to make the most of their Trustpilot social proof with a ridiculously effective retargeting campaign.

TaxSlayer Retargeting Creative

### Review content in retargeting ads can radically reduce CPA

Once TaxSlayer tested two versions of their ad creative for this type of retargeting campaign, the winning ad variant was clear.

Retargeting ads that featured Trustpilot reviews led to a staggering 50% lower CPA on average — though in some months, the reduction in CPA was as significant as 82%. It’s safe to say that adding reviews to retargeting ad creative can rev up the ROI of the entire campaign.

### Watching display ad CTR skyrocket with Google Seller Ratings

But the stellar ad performance doesn’t stop at retargeting. The team at TaxSlayer has also seen huge Google Ad performance improvements as a result of collecting reviews through Trustpilot. As soon as they reached Google’s requirements for earning [Google Seller Ratings](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/how-to-calculate-google-seller-ratings-effect-on-adwords), they saw their CTR go up right away.

Thanks to those shiny gold stars showing up at the top of SERPs, TaxSlayer has seen an impressive 60% increase in CTR on their broad match campaigns, and a solid 17% increase in CTR for their exact match campaigns.

Why is this so important? Boosting CTR to that extent can do great things for an ad’s quality score, which in turn improves the performance of the whole campaign.

## Referral traffic surges from customized Trustpilot profile pages

Once TaxSlayer took steps to [customize their Trustpilot profile page](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/202616716-Customize-your-company-profile), they saw yet another surge in performance.

After adding their company information, social media profiles, and promotional links, they saw an incredible __500% increase in referral traffic to their site, directly from their enriched Trustpilot profile page.__ 

Improving referral traffic is one of the most often overlooked tactics for generating qualified leads — and it’s great for organic SEO, too.

## Using reviews to make better operational decisions

If it wasn’t obvious already, TaxSlayer lives and breathes [customer experience](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/5-reasons-why-customer-experience-is-the-pulse-of-every-business) — so much so that almost every department has access to Trustpilot reviews. From general counsel, to the marketing team, to customer support, to product and UX — TaxSlayer is one of the companies truly listening to their customers.

Thanks to their use of Trustpilot’s [Review Tagging](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-tagging) feature, monitoring customer sentiments about their product and packaging options is now straightforward and actionable. The ability to parse reviews by topic and subject matter has made it easier than ever to pivot based on customer feedback and ensure that their customers are satisfied with any changes they roll out, bringing their customer loyalty to the next level.

In general, [Trustpilot reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/service-reviews) have changed the way TaxSlayer looks at responding to customer feedback — and as a result of hundreds of reviews coming in, they’re coming up with a brand new team and SLAs for managing this steady stream of customer feedback.

What began as a marketing initiative (with impressive ROI across the board) has grown into an enterprise customer support initiative — and it’s no secret that companies that listen to their customers have the best shot at both retention and winning over new customers.

Ready to join TaxSlayer and learn more about all the ways reviews can improve your marketing and help you become a better business? Create a free Trustpilot account below.

Reassured Logo

life insurance reassured ltd case study trustpilot

Trustpilot has been a huge driver for Reassured’s success. Anyone looking to build trust should consider using the platform. The more you can encourage your customers to leave reviews, the more authoritative it will help you become.

The Reassured team is proud to have helped protect over 400,000 families to this day. Their focus on customer satisfaction at all levels and stages of the customer journey has helped them achieve an incredible 4.8/5 TrustScore, from over 30,000 online reviews.

To better understand how the team utilise the Trustpilot platform to improve their service, build trust and showcase their reputation, we spoke with Ben Bendall, SEO & Analytics Manager at [Reassured](https://www.reassured.co.uk/).

## Why Trustpilot?

“As one of the most renowned review platforms worldwide, the authority such a rating was able to provide our brand was unquestionable. It was easy to implement and simple to request feedback from customers due to the ease of use,” says Ben.

Reassured is a service-only business, which means they leverage customer reviews as a means of establishing authority within the industry and building trust for future customers. Upon completion of application, they politely request all customers complete a review to help build up their portfolio. They now have over 30,000 reviews and have been reviewed ‘excellent’ in 89% of them. 

The business choose to use their Trustpilot star rating on most pages of the website to demonstrate their high levels of service and frequently mention their statistics within their content.


reassured homepage

reassured comparison page

Reassured also use Trustpilot to take into account any below average reviews they receive and take action to rectify where possible to ensure utmost customer satisfaction.
Their business is centered around customer satisfaction, both with existing and new, and the use of Trustpilot helps them to ensure they maintain these high standards.

## Using Trustpilot across the business

Predominantly, both their Sales and Marketing teams use Trustpilot to demonstrate the high levels of customer service delivered by Reassured.
The process begins with Sales, who will frequently leverage the company’s Trustpilot scores to showcase the trust people can put in the company. They will also then encourage customers to leave their own reviews based on their experience.

As previously mentioned, Marketing will use Reassured’s stats on most pages of the website, within their content creation and occasionally even off-site on social media and in interviews to build trust in the company and its customer service.


reassured twitter

reassured facebook

The TrustScore is also used by their Recruitment team when looking to bring new members into the team. Sales-orientated businesses often have a negative stigma attached to them, so the high levels of customer engagement and satisfaction help reassure both potential and new recruits that their job will be a rewarding one.

## How Trustpilot benefits Reassured

Reassured have grown their online presence rapidly in the past 2 years, and have experienced extreme improvements as a result. The team at Reassured strongly believe Trustpilot has a positive impact on their website and online campaigns, and as a result, they have made the decision to implement their star rating on all pages once their new website goes live early next year.

“We have been lucky to receive a huge proportion of ‘Excellent’ reviews from our customers, however, any which do not meet this standard are sent over to our complaints team. They then review the issue identified in the feedback and aim to rectify it to ensure that the customers receive the satisfaction they deserve. We also take on board these negative reviews and identify trends to modify business practices and ensure the highest possible standards for our customers,” explains Ben.

Trustpilot scores are also monitored individually per sales agent, applying bonuses for consistent high scores and further training for those who receive anything but perfect. 

This allows Reassured to ensure all of their sales agents are delivering the best standards possible, but more importantly, to identify where they may require further training.

Ben also points out:
“We are incredibly proud of our high Trustpilot rating. The sample size is not small (over 30,000 reviews), and therefore, to maintain an 89% score of ‘Excellent’ is not only a huge credit to the business as a whole, but also to the individual staff who have worked so hard to achieve this.”

## Overcoming challenges with Trustpilot

The business is only going to continue to grow, therefore, it will be a challenge to ensure that not only existing employees maintain their high standards, but also to ensure new recruits are trained to a certain level.

“We are very lucky to be thriving as a business and our TrustScore is simply helping us to succeed further,” says Ben.

“Trustpilot has been a huge driver for Reassured’s success and we would recommend anyone looking to build a positive image to their customers to consider using the platform. The more you can encourage your customers to leave reviews, the more authoritative it will help you become. Integrating the platform into the process on your business, actioning negative reviews and showcasing positive ones will only help your business succeed further. The platform is extremely easy to use and we strongly recommend it.”

The Reassured team are securing a trusted, transparent future with Trustpilot reviews. Isn’t it time you joined them?


Reassured tell us how they use Trustpilot reviews

Mobile Monster Logo 

mobile monster case study trustpilot

## Why Trustpilot?

In 2019, any online business needs to build trust in order to connect with their customers. Mobile Monster understands the power of online reviews, which is why the business decided to start leveraging the voice of the customer to not only increase the credibility of their own brand, but also drive further conversions across their platform. 

Jericho Mendoza explains:

“Our business has an interesting model, as it is purchasing devices rather than selling them. As you can imagine, there is a lot of resistance around this model as for a lot of people, it just seems too good to be true, especially with a big alternative in the market being private sale. Therefore, one of our main objectives was to build the brand’s credibility, increase trust with the consumer, and showcase trust and transparency through social proof.”

Mobile Monster’s goal was to provide customers with the largest and fairest overall representation of their brand and their service offering - a goal that Trustpilot has played a significant part in working towards. 

“The fact that we are able to source, collect and showcase the largest and fairest representation of customer satisfaction in one place is one of the biggest advantages Mobile Monster has seen from switching to Trustpilot. Another challenge we have is ensuring that we are staying consistent and on top of our game in terms of customer experience in a scalable format, and with the insights we gain from the reviews, we are, and continue to improve our service offering as we grow,” explains Jericho.

Since using Trustpilot, the business has solidified its spot at the top of the market, because they’ve been successful and consistent in providing value to consumers in this space. This is largely due to the fact that there is trust built in their brand. With the growing online space, trust is a critical component to any company’s success.

## Collecting reviews to learn, grow and improve

Mobile Monster’s internal systems and processes are custom-built from the ground up, and Trustpilot is heavily integrated across the platform. 

Through the system, customers completing orders are automatically sent an invitation to leave a review and Mobile Monster uses a close replica of the tested Trustpilot template. 

“The review responses then go directly to our customer service team, to which they respond to as soon as possible, as well as use to gain an insight on how to continuously improve the customer service quality. We actually have monthly company wide workshops with our customer service team, alongside our quality assessment team and analytics, to discuss: where we can improve, if there were any negative reviews that we can work towards improving, or if there were any positive reviews that we should celebrate,” says Jericho.

On top of that, their operations team also uses the platform to review responses across the board and see if there are any trends, whether they are positive trends that reinforce their processes or sore points that can be further improved upon.


monster mobile performance overview

Similarly, the analytics team also reviews the responses to continuously improve the user experience as a whole, and assists the operations team with process changes that need to be made in order to further satisfy their customers and improve their service offering.

## Building credibility to generate more traffic

As a business, Mobile Monster found out pretty quickly how important of a channel Google was in the consumer journey. 

They also found that by showcasing their Trustpilot rating through the [Google Seller Ratings](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/google-new-seller-ratings-threshold-100) extension and also through [Review Snippet stars](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/google-rich-snippet-update-what-it-means-for-businesses) on their Trustpilot profile page, they could increase conversions significantly. 

Mobile Monster’s Google ads which have integrated Trustpilot in the ad copy and ad extensions see a click-through rate of 25%, with an average cost per click of $0.37. These statistics alone showcase the power of social proof, especially at this stage in the consumer journey. Trustpilot reviews have been pivotal in building trust between Mobile Monster and the consumer so early on in the sales funnel.


Mobile Monster’s Review Snippets from their Trustpilot profile page

Mobile Monster’s Rich Snippets on their Trustpilot profile page

Mobile Monster’s Google Seller Ratings

Mobile Monster's click-through rate of 25% on ads with reviews

## Showcasing reviews at every stage of the journey

The strategy used by Mobile Monster’s marketing team was to infuse customer feedback across all of their marketing channels. Their marketing strategy is primarily digitally-led, with Google, Instagram and Facebook being the main channels used to communicate to their audience. 

The company understood very quickly that they needed to have customer reviews within their marketing material to add social proof to all of their channels, naturally building their brand’s credibility. This has helped demonstrate to new leads that Mobile Monster is a genuine, transparent, and honest business. Social proof has also helped reduce consumer doubt and has therefore increased both brand credibility and conversion rates.


monster mobile reviews on instagram

Jericho says:

“We grab a lot of reviews which really show the heart of the brand from the reflection of the comments that people are saying and we showcase these reviews in our marketing campaigns because we believe they are engaging, and social proof that we provide a lot of value to our customers.”

But Mobile Monster doesn’t only showcase reviews across social channels. They also utilise multiple Trustpilot assets throughout their entire website, upon landing on the home page, they’ve placed the Trustpilot star rating and number of reviews in the middle of the page - and clicking this link directs the user to their Trustpilot profile.


monster mobile reviews on homepage

There’s also a carousel of the most recent reviews towards the bottom of the page, as well as their Trustscore showcased in the footer. 

Lastly, Monster Mobile have a dedicated on-site reviews page with a widget that showcases all of their most recent Trustpilot reviews.


monster mobile reviews on site

monster mobile review page

Mobile Monster’s director also regularly shares his favourite reviews across the company-wide general communication channel, to emphasize just how important it is to listen to customers, and to celebrate the authenticity as well as the heart and soul that they put into their work.

Tim Duggal, Director at Mobile Monster, explains:

"To this day, I still read every single one of the reviews that our customers leave. Our vision, which is largely a customer-focused vision, is always strengthened when we listen to our customers. We can make huge improvements when looking at satisfaction from their perspective and as a result, we're continuously improving the way we're doing things.It all starts by listening to them."

Trustpilot reviews can help you deliver better customer experiences and get valuable insights. So why not sign up for a free Trustpilot account? It’s quick and easy, just click the link below.



How Mobile Monster leverages Trustpilot reviews across all its marketing channels

Adtrak logo

adtrak and clockwork removals case study

### Why Trustpilot? 

Adtrak chose Trustpilot to help them improve the quality and quantity of leads generated from the website. 

With Trustpilot’s help, the digital agency wanted to help Clockwork Removals increase their website traffic through positive search display features which would boost click-through rate and once on the website, would convert more visitors into leads thanks to the power of social proof. 

Joe Rowntree, Senior Internet Marketing Consultant at Adtrak, explains:
“Choosing the right removal company is an important decision as your chosen company is responsible for the safe transport of your beloved possessions, and also because moving home is likely to be an extremely stressful day and the right company should assist and support you as much as possible. Therefore, choosing a good removal company is of paramount importance, which means it’s highly likely that people’s decision-making process will be far longer and drawn out than for other industries.”
Being able to have positive reviews featured across this research process, in the search results, on a third-party website like Trustpilot, and also displayed on Clockwork Removals’ own website was massively important to Adtrak when they chose to partner with Trustpilot.

### Building trust earlier in the funnel

To make the most of Trustpilot reviews, Adtrak and Clockwork Removals implemented [Google Seller Ratings](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/google-new-seller-ratings-threshold-100), a feature which allows businesses already collecting reviews from Google review partners such as Trustpilot to showcase their overall rating in paid ads on search engine results pages.

Google Seller Ratings

With Google Seller Ratings, Clockwork Removals saw an incredible 11% click-through rate increase YoY. And there’s more...


Rich Snippets

Review Snippets

Clockwork Removals also saw an increase in website traffic thanks to [Review Snippet stars](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/google-rich-snippet-update-what-it-means-for-businesses), displayed underneath their Trustpilot profile page URL!

In the next section, Adtrak tells us how reviews helped them convert all of their new traffic.

### Improving how traffic converts on-site

To help convert more visitors into customers, Adtrak had to make a few changes to Clockwork Removals’ website in order to improve the overall customer journey, reduce consumer doubt, and build trust at every touch point.


clockwork-homepage

To do so, Adtrak and Clockwork Removals added Trustpilot widgets to key landing pages throughout the website. They also added reviews to local branch pages (SEO landing pages) to provide more credibility and local relevance.


clockwork-branch

From May to September 2019, compared to December 2018 to April 2019, Clockwork Removals saw their conversion rate skyrocket 19%. This then led to a 19% decrease in the cost of a new PPC lead.

After a lot of research and testing which showed the positive impact of Trustpilot reviews on client results, Adtrak is currently looking to implement the Trustpilot widgets throughout more stages of the buying journey to see further improvements and help more clients like Clockwork Removals.

Adtrak and Clockwork Removals are securing a trusted, transparent future with Trustpilot reviews. Isn’t it time you joined them?


How digital agency Adtrak boosted their client’s conversions using Trustpilot

Kaplan International logo

Kaplan x Trustpilot Customer Satisfaction

In this case study, we'll talk about why Kaplan chose Trustpilot Reviews to build its online reputation and create a feedback loop with customers, and discuss the results the brand has seen from using social proof.

Although they’re known far and wide, the team at Kaplan International understands that no matter how big their name, quite a bit of consideration goes into purchasing any kind of educational course — whether it’s evaluating the financial investment, or even the opportunity costs of traveling to a particular school.

Kaplan International Key Benefits

Kaplan case study - Kaplan International Key Benefits

On top of these decision-making factors, past consumer research from Trustpilot shows that [87% of learners](/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing) cite the online reputation of the school as very important to their decision-making process — with only 1% of learners saying that online reputation of an institution was not at all important to them.

To enhance their brand reputation even more, [Kaplan International](https://www.kaplaninternational.com/) looked to Trustpilot for help creating a feedback loop with their customers. They knew this would allow them to not only boost customer satisfaction, but also parlay their positive feedback into powerful social proof marketing — and ultimately, a glowing online reputation.

Interested in how they did it?

We recently spoke with Vincent Lau, Head of Performance Marketing & CRM, and Ben Walton, Performance Media & CRM Executive at Kaplan International to better understand how they incorporate Trustpilot into their stellar customer journey.

The first step is collecting reviews.

## So, how did Kaplan International build a critical mass of customer feedback?

One of the best ways to open a dialogue and tap into the minds of your customers is to get the online reviews flowing. So the team at Kaplan International decided to add Trustpilot to their student exit survey, which every student receives once their course concludes.

On the last page of the exit survey, students are presented with an option to fill out an online review through Trustpilot. If they choose to review right away, great — if they don’t, they’ll automatically receive an automatic review invitation through the Trustpilot platform after a bit of time has gone by.

On top of that, every student gets enrolled in an alumnus lead nurture series once their course concludes. The team at Kaplan International also use this touchpoint to encourage past students to review their experiences on Trustpilot.

This method of review collection has worked wonders for Kaplan International, and they’ve managed to __increase their monthly review collection by 70% on average.__

That’s a lot of valuable feedback.

## When you increase your engagement with reviewers, your Trustpilot Customer Satisfaction Score is sure to thank you

This new influx of reviews has led to plenty of opportunities for Kaplan International’s Customer Care team to wow their customers.

No matter the review sentiment, someone from the Customer Care department follows up ASAP to either thank the student for the kind words, or reply to a negative review with any necessary customer care processes for the situation.

The Customer Care team then uses [Trustpilot Analytics](/features/dashboard-analytics) to track improvements in their [Customer Satisfaction Score](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/202326718-Trustpilot-Analytics-Service-review-ratings). By following up and making their customers feel heard, the Customer Care team watched the needle move from 20 to 70 month over month.

__That’s a 250% increase in customer satisfaction, just from creating a feedback loop with their customers.__

The simple act of responding to reviews not only leads to better customer satisfaction, but it also creates a long lasting (and prosperous) brand affinity between customers and businesses.

Replying to all reviews is seen as a mark of transparency and openness — two key signifiers of a [trustworthy brand reputation](/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/6-ways-to-make-trust-your-essential-brand-differentiator). As it turns out, a trustworthy brand reputation is invaluable because today, 90% of consumers are ready to walk away from a business with a poor reputation — but Kaplan International has anything to worry about on that front.

It’s clear to see that customer satisfaction and a trustworthy brand reputation go hand in hand. But they can also lead to powerful opportunities for [customer advocacy](/reviews/build-trusted-brand/your-guide-to-customer-advocacy-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-important) and [social proof marketing](/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing).

## Satisfied customers make great brand advocates, and customer advocacy makes great ad creative

With all these kind words from their customers, adding positive customer testimonials and Trustpilot’s [third-party trust signals](/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers) to their marketing materials was a no brainer — after all, [87% of shoppers](/guides-reports/browsers-to-buyers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews) find ads and marketing materials more trustworthy when they show off third-party validation from Trustpilot.

With that in mind, the marketing team at Kaplan International made sure to sprinkle some social proof and trust signals into their assets for paid campaigns on Facebook:

Trustpilot x Kaplan Reviews in Facebook Ads

Trustpilot Reviews in Instagram Stories

And they didn’t miss an opportunity to create customer confidence right on their site, to make sure they were communicating trustworthiness at every phase of the buying journey.

They also added a Trustpilot widget to their contact form to reinforce customer confidence in the brand:

TrustScore on Contact Page

And they even enhanced their CRM blocks and site footer with Trustpilot claims:

TrustScore on Banner

TrustScore in Footer

Adding customer reviews to important pages on your site is one of the best ways to build up customer confidence at the right times leading up to the purchase.

That’s because online reviews and customer testimonials play a huge role in the [Zero Moment of Truth](/reviews/build-trusted-brand/5-ways-to-win-the-zero-moment-of-truth-with-reviews), one of the key decision-making moments in online purchases. Studies show that potential customers are 105% more likely to purchase after interacting with reviews or trust signals on key pages in the purchasing journey.

## When positive customer commentary becomes a better brand reputation

Of all the benefits the team at Kaplan International has enjoyed since joining Trustpilot, they’ll be the first to tell you that strengthening their brand reputation has been a highlight.

Thanks to their improved [customer satisfaction](/reviews/learn-from-customers/3-ways-reviews-can-help-you-deliver-excellent-customer-service) and all of the positive feedback they’ve collected, they can confidently show off the claims of their happy customers, which helps them back their 97% student satisfaction rate from internal studies — and remove any shadow of a doubt that Kaplan International is a globally trusted brand.

This is paramount to their (now accomplished) goal of becoming the premium choice of education, and they credit Trustpilot for that achievement.

And while we appreciate their kind words, we believe this achievement is all theirs — for recognizing the opportunity to create a feedback loop with their customers and ultimately become a better business.

How Kaplan International's customer satisfaction skyrocketed with Trustpilot

Why upgrading to more invitations and better features was well worth the investment for Food Circle Supermarket

Découvrez l’impact des avis en ligne sur la réputation de Food Circle Supermarket et tous les bénéfices tirés par l’entreprise en passant au pack supérieur de Trustpilot.

[Food Circle Supermarket](https://foodcirclesupermarket.co.uk/ "Food Circle Supermarket") is not your average retailer. 

Instead of looking to produce more food, they want to try and reduce food waste and the enormous strain it puts on our planet. They do this by selling surplus products from some of the largest snacking brands in the world and help distribute any product that is short dated, overstock, has old branding, or would otherwise be wasted. 

Their business model works well because it’s a win for everyone involved. They’re able to sell the surplus products at a heavily discounted rate and ship them right to their door, saving their customers time and money on the products they need. And they’re able to help brands from having to waste surplus products and deal with the logistical headache that comes with disposing of them. 

## A customer nudge towards customer reviews 
Because their prices are often more than 50% less than what the usual price would be, it was hard for them to be seen as trustworthy to new customers. Many of them just assumed there was a catch or that it was a scam. They actually started using [Trustpilot’s free platform ](https://business.trustpilot.com/signup?cta=free-signup_plans "Free plans Trustpilot")after a customer reached out to them in 2019 and suggested they get a Trustpilot page — specifically because their prices seemed too good to be true! 

By the time they had accumulated around 200 reviews – almost all of which were 5-stars – they realized the impact that positive reviews [could have on their brand reputation online](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/6-ways-to-make-trust-your-essential-brand-differentiator "The value of a trustworthy brand reputation"). At this point they could clearly see the effect customer reviews had on building trust and they knew that upgrading to a [paid plan](https://business.trustpilot.com/plans "Plans & Pricing") would get them more review invitations and other helpful features. 

## The value Food Circle received from upgrading 
Once they moved onto a paid plan they quickly started to see value in some of the new features they unlocked. With more invitations, more reviews, and better ways to leverage those reviews, their success with Trustpilot grew. 

### More review invitations 
Getting [access to more review invitations](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/3-reasons-why-you-really-need-to-get-more-reviews "3 reasons why you really need to get more reviews") was one of the main reasons they upgraded. And within less than a year of upgrading, they went from having around 200 reviews to almost 2,000. For new customers to the Food Circle brand, this means more genuine experiences they can read about to help reassure them that Food Circle Supermarket is a trustworthy brand to spend their money with. 

### Better ways to showcase their customer feedback 
Their new plan also came with better ways to use their reviews throughout their customer journey and highlight the online trust they were working so hard to build. They started by implementing a [live carousel of customer reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/trustbox-widgets "Trustpilot widgets") right on their homepage, to build trust with any new visitors to their site. And with their industry becoming more and more competitive, any additional trust they could convey was a huge help in giving them a competitive edge. 

Cas clients

Plus de 714 000 entreprises et marques utilisent Trustpilot : rejoignez-les !

Investir dans une plateforme d’avis clients pour développer son entreprise : l’exemple de Food Circle Supermarket

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