A 12 volt retailer and website expert has launched a new way for retailers to win online reviews from their customers in an easy and automated way.
Online reviews are now a chief influencer of consumer purchasing, including where consumers go to purchase and install car audio, window tint, etc.
As high as 88 percent of consumers research a purchase online. And 74 percent of them are doing so on Google, so Google reviews have become an essential part of the buying process, according to Marcel Newell of Avidworx.
In the car audio industry, most retailers earn only about 8 to 14 Google reviews. The goal is to get to 50, he said.
With Evalu8, after the car audio salesman demonstrates a newly installed system to the customer, he can call up the app and ask the customer to submit a review.
“There’s software out there that does similar things but we’ve fine tuned and tweaked it with the retailer in mind,” said Mitch Schaffer founder of Evalu8 and 1Sixty8 Media (and owner of 12 volt shop Mobile Edge in Lehighton, PA).
He decided to develop the software after being frustrated with the version he used for his store. Schaffer was also uncomfortable with its price of about $150 per month.
Evalu8 allows the retailer to send a text message or email after a sale requesting feedback. If the response is a favorable one, the program takes the customer to a landing page where it’s easy to post on Yelp, Facebook, Google and other sites to leave a review.
Schaffer claims competing programs require the user to sign in with a password to post their reviews and that’s where most consumers get frustrated and give up.
Reviews for his store are up by 30 percent since he implemented the program, he said.
Evalu8 has been beta tested for two months. There’s an introductory special of $69.99 per month or $179.99 per quarter or $599.99 per year to subscribe.
CLARIFICATION:
Although the article did not state this, it may have implied that Evalu8 is still in beta. Beta testing ended in early May and the software is commercially available.
