GoGreenSolar, a small company that sells everything from energy-efficient light bulbs to wind turbines, says it owes its 20% sales growth to RatePoint's SaaS-based online reputation management system. Through easy-to-follow reviews, GoGreenSolar gets customer feedback that drives repeat business and generates new clients.
GoGreenSolar.com is a Los Angeles-based store for green energy products. It provides to end users green products that include everything from energy-efficient light bulbs to wind turbines. GoGreenSolar credits its 20% growth in the last year to proactive online reputation management, and for that it has to thank RatePoint, a provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services.
"GoGreenSolar's reputation has become a major sales tool for expanding our business," says Deep Patel, founder and CEO of GoGreenSolar. "We're using customer service as a differentiation point to proactively manage our reputation through every customer interaction. RatePoint's tools allow us to easily capture feedback and reviews and display them in multiple areas, including our Web site, e-mails, and marketing materials."
Patel talked to bMighty about how he's used customer testimonials to gain business, what the costs are, and how the recession has affected business and the quest to go green.
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bMighty: How did you decide on RatePoint to manage GoGreenSolar's online reputation?
Deep Patel: I was researching around -- for e-commerce, reviews, and testimonials are important -- and I was looking at BizRate. While I was looking around, I landed at RatePoint. I thought, after reading case studies, that that's how I wanted to be engaged with the company.
bMighty: How much do you pay for RatePoint?
Patel: $17.95 per month. There are also enterprise accounts for $49.95 monthly and enterprise-plus accounts for $99.95 per month.
bMighty: Is RatePoint traditional software or software as a service?
Patel: It's a SaaS platform. So I don't need programmers or developers to create widgets or marketing tools. I'm charged a monthly fee, and we can manage our online reputation. Our testimonials are managed with marketing tools so we can stay in contact with people.
bMighty: Before RatePoint, how did you get customer feedback?
Patel: I was just aggregating it on my own. I was e-mailing customers and asking them to leave a testimonial. They'd e-mail back, and I had a page on my site that was copied and pasted over. But I didn't think that was a credible way to do it, and it took a lot of time. So this has provided me with a system to collect the testimonials. Other people I work with know the system, too, so it's streamlined.
bMighty: What about RatePoint sold you on it?
Patel: I like the widgets they provide. I'm a big social networker and am on an array of social-networking sites. So I can take my testimonials with me to other platforms. I can show off the great reviews, and RatePoint allows the reviews to be portable.
I like the interface. It looks very clean -- it's not obtrusive. If you look at our site, the testimonial page looks flush with our site -- it doesn't look like a third-party application.
I knew testimonials are important, especially with the high-tickets items we're selling, and this seemed like a good way to increase our sales.
bMighty: How long have you been using RatePoint?
Patel: Since July 2008.
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bMighty: And what has your return on investment been with RatePoint?
Patel: We've seen about a 20% increase in sales after I put in the RatePoint platform. I've seen people read our testimonials and bounce to the shopping cart. There's definitely been an increase in conversions since the testimonials have been posted and are easy to read.
bMighty: How does RatePoint work?
Patel: The merchant has to be very proactive in collecting feedback. We ship a lot of stuff through UPS and FedEx, and as soon as a customer gets a package delivered, we get an e-mail through UPS Quantum View and FedEx. Then I send out an e-mail to the customer, saying, "We want to make sure your order arrived in great condition. If you have any questions, please give us a call. And also, please take a minute to give us some feedback, so that we can improve the quality of our service in the future." When the package is left at the door, that's a good time to get feedback.
bMighty: How does the customer feedback affect your business growth?
Patel: We're careful. We want to make sure we sell to people who are going to leave us good feedback. If someone wants to do something with our product that's not recommended by the manufacturer, we want to know about it. Now we have a good idea of what a good experience with a customer is, so we can filter out good customers from bad. Positive feedback is in the mantra of our company now -- it's a report card.
Next Page: What GoGreenSolar Has To Offer You
