If you're reading this post then you'll have already heard of TrustPilot and know that it is basically an online system for collecting genuine customer reviews - displaying these to the public and sometimes attaching "star ratings" to your website in search engine results pages.
The benefits of such a system to anyone - not just those who trade online - are enormous. Your company is able to demonstrate an element of trust to potential new customers by showing that you are highly rated amongst your existing customers, and your reviews are supplied by genuine people who have used your business via a third party and so have real integrity.
Being self employed in the IT sector I naturally come across customers requiring a feedback system such as the one offered by TrustPilot, but there is always one problem - the price. Unsurprisingly TrustPilot list no prices online, but you're looking anywhere from a few hundred pound a month for a basic plan right up to several thousand per month for a corporate/enterprise level.
This cost almost immediately rules out the majority of small UK businesses to the point where they try to convince themselves that they "don't need a feedback system". Unfortunately it's the year 2016 ladies and gentlement; if you aren't collecting feedback via a third party then you need to start now before you get left behind.
So what cheaper alternatives are there to TrustPilot for seamlessly collecting reviews from your customers and thus increasing your profits?
Feefo
The Feefo offering is not as complete as TrustPilot, but the underlying fundamental system is still there. Unfortunately pricing does vary and you won't save much on the smaller basic plans compared to TrustPilot, however if you are collecting a large volume of reviews and need one of the more advanced plans then you could potentially save thousands by switching to Feefo.
The system still integrates with a variety of software (although not as many of the higher end packages) and you get the addition of easy-to-integrate features for your website, some of which TrustPilot do not offer. Your feedback is displayed on a dedicated Feefo hosted web page with your company branding, and can also be shown on your own website via an IFRAME widget. A selection of "live" star rating images are available to use for email campaigns or similar.
You can expect to pay around £100 plus VAT for the basic plan which allows you to send up to 200 feedback requests per month.
Visit www.feefo.com
Visit www.feefo.com
eKomi
You may have heard of eKomi before, as they became one of the more prominent third party feedback systems before the dominant rise of TrustPilot. They operate internationally and have built up a sizable following, mainly concentrated in the US.
Just like Feefo and TrustPilot there are no prices listed online. I wasn't able to obtain a free trial or online sales demo and therefore cannot comment on the exact level of service you'll get, but pricing for the basic package is around £85 plus VAT per month. For this you'll bag yourself a nice feedback system, but disappointingly there's not much you can boast about on your own website other than a round green and black circular image which says "We use eKomi - the feedback company".
Internal reporting appears good if you are wanting to collect feedback for customer service purposes, but if you really want to show off your amazing 5 star rating then you'd probably be better looking at other alternatives.
Visit www.ekomi.co.uk
Visit www.ekomi.co.uk
Working Feedback
The hidden gem of them all appears to be a company called Working Feedback. They solely operate in the UK and offer the best pricing amongst all other providers that I was able to find. There are no secrets here as all pricing is revealed on their website, including a very respectable £50 per month price tag.
There is very little information on the site to say exactly what you'll get for your money, but I was fortunate enough to get a free online demo and a 7 day trial to try out the service, which I highly recommend.
Unlike Feefo and TrustPilot there is no minimum contract or commitment, you can just cancel with 30 days notice, so this is ideal if you want to try it out and see if it'll work for you. TrustPilot require you to sign up to a minimum of 12 months, for comparison.
Integration with software seems impressive (particularly if you are a dentist or care home), and the service allows practically unlimited feedback requests either via email or SMS (apparently there is a fair usage policy, however). The list of online features for your website is unrivaled.
As part of the service you'll also get a premium listing on a site called The Disc Directory, which I'm told gets over a million hits each year and is similar to Yellow Pages in the UK, although this is just a thrown-in freebie.
The service is definitely worth a look at, especially at such a low price and without any real commitment.
Visit www.workingfeedback.co.uk
Visit www.workingfeedback.co.uk
Other Players
There are many other big players in the feedback world, such as BazaarVoice. These companies are very promising and offer above and beyond the complete package, with features that you may never require. They are primarily aimed at large corporate entities and not usually suitable for smaller companies, and their price reflects this. Their services are superior and you will not find anything better, however their 5 digit price tag writes them out of the market for our purposes.
Conclusion
It looks like the going rate for a basic feedback package is around £100, which decreases to around half that for some of the lesser known providers. The catch with many of these services is that you are limited to the number of feedback requests that you can send.
TrustPilot's entry plan for example, allows you to send 300 email feedback requests in a single calendar month. What we are not told, however, is that the response rate can be as high as 60% and as low as 5%! This means that if you send out 300 feedback requests then you might only get 15 reviews that month. It may therefore take you a while to build up a solid reputation based on these figures. Only eKomi and Working Feedback appear to offer an (unlimited) number of requests, although as with everything this is most likely subject to fair use.
All providers reviewed had very similar functionality. They all allow collection of feedback via email or similar methods, and they all integrate with existing software in one form or another. Each of these providers will help boost sales - both online and offline - and will enhance your SEO naturally so that you can rank higher in search engine results. The only real difference between them is the price, and the amount of features you can use to show off your star rating.
In our case, Working Feedback wins the battle and I will be recommending them to my own clients when they ask me for advice on collecting feedback and growing their business.
Disclaimer
All information provided on the above services has been obtained either by a sales call, by visting the respective website, or a combination of both. All pricing is correct at time of publication and is subject to change.
The providers listed here are just a few of those available - if you know of any others leave a comment and I will check them out!
