To add Shopper Approved to your Thank You/Order Confirmation page, cut and paste the appropriate HTML code into the < body > of your website's source code.
If you do not know how to access this, we recommend contacting your webmaster, programmer, or shopping cart company for the specifics pertaining to your unique website. From there, either they can add the code for you, or they can provide you with more detailed directions.
If you do not have a programmer, you can also reach out to sites such as Elance.com to find a freelance programmer who can set the coding up for you.
Please feel free to contact us if you would like a reference or have any questions regarding the basic set up.
*For liability purposes, Shopper Approved does not have the ability to access your site to add the code. However we do provide support and troubleshooting after the code has been implemented.
Pre-populating* a customers name and email into the initial survey makes it easier for customers to leave ratings and reviews, while lowering the number of anonymous ratings.
This option is available in your Shopper Approved account. To implement this option go to Merchant Reviews---> Survey Options. Scroll to the middle section "Auto Populate Values"
*Please note: Your programmer or tech will need to insert the 'name' and 'email' variables into the 'John Doe', 'john.doe@gmail.com' placeholders for the code to pull the proper data.
When you first start using Shopper Approved, it generally takes 4-6 weeks from the date of the first review for Google to start actively displaying your ratings and reviews; Google only syndicates reviews with comments and requires a minimum of 100 reviews with comments over the last 12 months from the same country to display.
Also, Google typically publishes the feeds we provide them approx. every 2 weeks, so you'll usually see your ratings and reviews update in batches a couple times each month.
Something else that's important to know is that everything that Google displays in Google Adwords and Google Shopping is pulled from a central repository that is made specifically for your website - this is called your Google Seller Ratings page.
You can see your Seller Ratings page anytime by going to https://www.google.com/products/seller?zmi=yourdomainname.com
This is the page that really counts to Google, so whatever they show on that page is typically what will show in your Adwords and Shopping campaigns.
As far as the Google Organic Search, that works a bit different, but typically once you've used Shopper Approved for a few weeks, you will start to see both regular listings and enhanced 5-Star listings when you search for terms like:
yourdomainname.com reviews
yourdomainname.com customer reviews
yourdomainname.com ratings
yourdomainname.com customer ratings
These organic listings give you a lot of positive social proof and additional traffic to your website, which helps to increase your overall sales. :-)
I have great reviews, but occasionally, I get that one negative review. What can I do about that? How Will this low review affect me?
The first thing that I can tell you, is to look at a low star, or negative review from a different angle. Consider what some would call a "bad" review, an Opportunity.
Have you ever had someone ask you "prove" something, but didn't know how? This is your chance to show current and future customers proof of how you handle undesired situations.
Some truths that we have found after years of studies are:
#1 - Shoppers Expect Variance
When customers are looking to buy something, they actually expect to see some variance in the ratings. If all the ratings are perfect, then they become suspicious, and start to question if the ratings are legitimate.
In reality, the occasional negative review adds value by establishing authenticity with the buyer. They also help customer's affirm that they've vetted any concerns before making a decision.
#2 - Negative Reviews Help To Discover Opportunities For Your Business
People provide negative reviews because they encounter some type of problem during their transaction. Receiving negative reviews gives you the ability to discover and resolve potentially larger problems or issues that other customers might also be experiencing, thus improving your business and overall customer satisfaction.
#3 - Low Scores, Or Negative Reviews Can Create Promoters
They say that a happy customer might tell some people about their experience; but a disgruntled customer will tell everyone. However, in most cases, by helping to resolve your customer's concerns, you can turn them into loyal clients for life!
One of the great things about Shopper Approved, is that you have the unique ability to open up a private dispute resolution with any customer that gives you an undesired rating.
Once you resolve their issues, your customer has the option to update their ratings and review for your company.
What if the customer won't update their ratings and review or hasn't responded to me?
If a customer refuses to budge on their ratings and review, or is unreachable, you have the ability to post a public comment. This allows you to tell your side of the story to the world, or better explain the issue at hand. In addition, Shopper Approved will also post a public comment verifying that you attempted to resolve the issue, giving your comment added credibility.
This goes to show, that every negative review that you get, can become more positive; and a more powerful tool, for your credibility, than 100 positive reviews.
We encourage you to see all reviews as an opportunity to show the world, not only that your customers like and trust you but also, that you are Shopper Approved!
In recent months, many of our customers, like yourself, have asked us questions about their ratings and reviews. This article is meant to help answer some of those questions, specifically Syndication.
This is how syndication works:
When someone places an order on your site, the Shopper Approved survey comes up, and they have a choice to leave ratings, along with the option to leave a review. About 30-40% leave both ratings and a review. The other 60-70% of your customers that fill out the survey only leave ratings - at least initially.
When your customers leave both Ratings and Reviews, that data is then captured, and stored on Shopper Approved servers. We then place that data into a file, known as a "feed." These "feeds"are then syndicated to Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Each major search engine has their own proprietary way that they request the feed to be sent to them. We prepare the feeds, according to the search engine's specifications, and send them out weekly.
Initial Syndication for new Shopper Approved customers can take up to 6 weeks. Depending on the specific search engine, be it Google, Bing, or Yahoo, feed requirements vary.
However, Shopper Approved has built great relationships with the Merchant Ratings teams, within each of these major search engine companies.
What does this mean for you?
Shopper Approved works closely with the Merchant Ratings teams to streamline your reviews, with a current, fast, and accurate feed, giving you the best results available.
Shopper Approved Sends Weekly "feeds" so, after initial syndication, feeds should be updated 2-4 times a month (depending on the search engine company)
Note: Search engine companies can update their feed requirements at their will and descretion. We work closely to update our feeds to meet these requirements in a timely manner.
Because Google, Bing, and Yahoo Syndicate much differently, here are some helpful FAQ's that we have compiled:
FAQs:
Why aren't my reviews showing in Google AdWords yet?
Google requires very specific guidelines to what they will display. You must have a minumum of 30 reviews, with comments. Once you have reached 30 reviews in Google Seller Ratings, your stars usually show up within 1-2 days.
Do my ratings without comments show in Google AdWords?
While Google doesn't use these in Adwords, they're still very valuable and show up in Bing and Yahoo, on your Shopper Approved seal, in your Shopper Approved certificate, and in various Google Organic Search results to help increase your social proof.
It looks like you have over 30 reviews in Google Seller Ratings But it's not showing in AdWords:
https://www.google.com/shopping/seller?q=(YourDomain.com)
Google Seller Ratings is where Google actually pulls the star ratings to add to Google Adwords and Google Shopping, so if you have over 30 reviews in the past 12 months and they are showing up in Google Seller Ratings but not on your Adwords, then there is a disconnect. This doesn't happen very often.
Fortunately, this is usually very simple to fix, but because it's your Google Adwords account, you have to be the one to initiate it. All you have to do is contact the Google Adwords team and show them your Google Seller Ratings page URL and let them know that the stars aren't appearing in your Adwords or Shopping campaigns and they will fix the issue.
You can contact them by phone, chat, or email by going to this page:
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/8206?hl=en
To check your seller reviews in Bing or Yahoo, use the following links:
Bing:
http://www.bing.com/merchant/reviews?mid=(YourDomain.com)
Yahoo:
http://search.yahoo.com/reviews?p=(Yourdomain NO DOT COM)&mrdomain=(YourDomain.com)
If you have any other questions regarding syndication please feel free to reach out to our support staff.
Thank you,
Shopper Approved Team
support@shopperapproved.com
This gives you the ability to add an order ID next to every rating in your Shopper Approved control panel, so you can track down an order from a particular customer if necessary.
This option is available in your Shopper Approved account. To implement this option go to Merchant Reviews----> Survey Options. Scroll to the middle section for Auto-Populate Values and select the desired option.
Please note: Your programmer or tech will need to enter the Order ID variable into the 'ORDER123' placeholder for the code to pull the proper data.
Most of our clients use the popup option in their account for the initial survey. There are however, certain situations where that's not an option. If the popup survey isn't going to work for you, we have an inline option that you can add into your thank you page that looks like this...
http://www.screencast.com/t/a5zTsKAc
The code you will need for this is a little different than the regular thank you page code in your control panel. To implement this option, login to your Shopper Approved account and go to Merchant Reviews----> Survey Options. Scroll to the middle section of the page then select the Inline option and then copy and paste the code to your Thank You/Confirmation page to start collecting ratings and reviews.
If you have any other questions, you can email, call, or chat with us by going to our website.
View More Questions