Review Rewards Program
One of my first tasks at Dreamstyle Remodeling was to improve our online brand presence. With online reviews rapidly overtaking world of mouth as one of the primary factors when purchasing something, I understood this was the best place to start. At the end of 2016, Dreamstyle had merely 272 reviews across the company with an average star rating of 3.9.
Did you know?
Nearly 95% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase
73% of consumers trust a local business more after reading positive reviews
49% of consumers value the quantity of online reviews a business has
54% of consumers visit a business’s website after reading a positive review
Overview
In order to increase the number of reviews being generated, I knew I had to incentivize homeowners to go online and post about their experience. This would prove difficult because (1) our target demo is 50+ in age and that usually meant they were intimidated by the internet and (2) how do we incentivize the homeowner to take time out of their day to go online and post a review when they are not obligated to do so?
With the popularity of casinos and the lottery in our area, I believed some sort of a raffle would be an effective way to motivate customers to post reviews. For every review they posted, they would be entered into a raffle to win a TV or iPad. Over the next few weeks I developed this program and worked out the details. This system worked well; except we didn’t have a clear way to deliver the message to the homeowner.
After brainstorming for a few days, I determined that involving our installation team was the best course of action. They are in the home for days at a time, developing a personal relationship with the customer. These strangers have drank their lemonade, installed wonderful upgrades to their home, and interacted with their pets. It would be the perfect opportunity to pitch the Review Rewards Program to the homeowner since there was a level of trust that had been established over the course of the installation.
I created a SOP for installers company-wide to use in the home, worked with our graphics department to create relevant collateral and our web development company to create a simple landing page, and hosted a webinar for all our general and installation managers to explain the program.
After a slow roll-out and constant reinforcement, it slowly started to gain traction. Since the launch of the Review Rewards Program, Dreamstyle has generated 4,605 reviews and has an average rating of 4.8. I periodically fly out to various branches to explain the program face-to-face and talk about best practices for those that are struggling as well as host regular webinars to promote the program and keep it top-of-mind. Today, the program is still being used by all our markets and it considered extremely successful.
Data
Here you can see the average monthly review volume being generated before the launch of the program and after. Monthly review generation increase by more than 1000%.
Monthly Average Review Volume
Collateral
Creative that I envisioned and co-developed with our graphics team. They are 4”x 9” brochures that include relevant details regarding the program as well as pictures of our previous winners in an effort to help legitimize the program.
