Your customers are your brand’s voice

Dear curious consumer, we know you are tired.

We know that you have had enough of the popping advertisements bombarding you whenever you are surfing through videos on Youtube, scrolling your newsfeed on Facebook, viewing your friends’ stories on Instagram, or even when you’re navigating radio stations during a drive to work or school. And we also know that you are a smart shopper who invests considerable time and effort seeking a product that is personalized to your needs, a brand that you can trust, and a shopping experience that is smooth, fast, and pleasant. If you wanted to buy an X product for example, odds are that you’ve definitely asked some friends who have already purchased it before buying it. Or, instead, you surely searched it up on the web and read all reviews about it. If you are a curious consumer and you know it, then you know exactly what we are saying.

In this age of manufactured personas, Millennials and Gen Z would rather follow someone real.

The hyper focus on branding and marketing EVERYTHING is one of the many things, the younger generations, following the X generation and that of the baby boomers, hate. Nowadays, Everyone has a business or let’s say a sort of a brand. And if we asked ourselves about why is this happening? We may stumble upon the old and most known reality about human beings which can be summarized into “the basic human need for self-esteem.” But this is just a part of the equation. If we dig deeper, we will find that with the boom of social media, people are more motivated to “be seen”, and the necessity to assert one’s identity online becomes inevitable. If we think about how we got to this point of inflation of Ego, brands, and businesses, and if we scrutinize what it’s doing to our society, we will find really interesting things. In fact, social media has not only given people the power and tools to make their businesses “seen more”. It also changed the way consumers, especially Millennials and the Z generation, interact with these very brands. Because asserting one’s identity online has so much to do with whom you communicate with, put a photo with, or even buy from, today’s socially minded digital natives are less drawn to brands that have no relevance to their self-concepts. Rather than viewing from the sidelines, consumers are more eager to participate, in person, in shaping products, services and purchasing experiences.

Beyond consuming, consumers are becoming both critics and creators.

Empowered by social networks, and In a crowded competitive landscape, consumers are not only given an extra reach to dive in a myriad of services and products, but also are given more space to exert their power via sharing views, and opinions about these ever-increasing products and services. As a result, consumers have become critics and creators, demanding more and more social proof, and expecting their voice to be heard as to shape the products they consume. Consequently, the traditional path to purchase has been disrupted. Consumer journeys are no longer linear and funnel-shaped, they became unpredictable and complex. The balance of power between customers and brands has created a customer cycle characterized by an interesting exchange of information, where brands are no longer pushing them through marketing messages but rather receiving them from their potential and actual customers in the form of online feedback/reviews. Consumers are not only there to influence and inform the purchase decisions of their counterparts, but they are also involved in the product development process. Interestingly, customer journey maps might seem blurry with the complexity of how purchase experiences have become, but new and more touchpoints to engage with customers have risen. Now, and more than any other period, consumers need guidance with their purchasing decisions. They need brands that embrace the power its consumers have thanks to social media. Social proof offers the authentic, transparent guidance that today’s customers seek and crave.

Here are ways harnessing the power of reviews/UGC places your customer front and center.

Today, it’s vital for brands to invest in customer-centric approaches along the different touchpoints with their consumers. Here is how:

1-Stimulate & guide: Develop tools to encourage customers to promote your products and services, their own ways.

Invest in technologies and develop tools that would help your customers share their reviews about your product in an authentic, easy and smooth way. You might be wondering how? Our super-easy to install plug-in solution can guide your customers through the way!

2-Discover & Listen: your real challenge lies in leveraging the customer content correctly.

This means that you should be actively listening to your customers’ feedback, suggestions and being open up to the dialogue at any time. We got your back. Through our plug-in solution, we will not only help you collect genuine online reviews, but also give you the opportunity to actually study these reviews before putting them online. This way, you will be able to take all the time needed to grasp, comprehend, and understand your customers’ feedback and reach out to them immediately.

3-Display & inspire: Empower your consumers to tell your brand’s story.

Because it is consumer-driven as much as it is sales-driven, displaying your customers’ online reviews in the form of a video format will add the flavor of authenticity and social proof to your products and services, something a prospect will look for to actually walk the extra mile and buy your product. Indeed, If you can tell a lot about someone from their personality, the same is true for brands: The solution rewindr.io proposes is an easy way to humanize your brand with relevant characteristics a customer can relate to and identify with. These characteristics are the output of multiple online trustworth video reviews forming the mosaic of a brand personality that can be clearly differentiated from your competitors.

4-Co-create: Use the power of crowd-sourced ideas in the process of developing your product.

Integrating rewindr.io innovative solution into your e-commerce business will allow you:

• To engage in constructive conversations with your customers, while generating real value to improve your product or service.
• To develop relevant brand messages in consistency with your customer’s expectations and experience at different touchpoints which will increase your customers’ trust and build a long-lasting relationship with them.
• To harness the power of collective voice by touching upon people’s desire to share their stories with their friends and family and be recognized as innovative creators.

This article casts but a little glimpse of light into how transformative power of user-generated content and genuine customers online reviews can be. If you’re in it for the long game, it’s time to start embracing, displaying, and sharing consumer feedback with us.