One of the things that most influences our buying decisions is the opinions of our friends, relatives and contacts. Likewise many shoppers now depend upon what others have to say when making decisions shopping online. This is because when we are shopping online reviewer are on the same side of the transaction as us, even if we do not know them personally.

This attitude is described as the “Amazon effect” as Amazon.com set the standard for collecting and using trustworthy consumer feedback. Consumers want to know the “truth,” not an advertiser’s version of the product. User feedback like that on Amazon.com has proven to be a valuable service for customers but also helps online stores increase conversions. It doesn’t really matter how much information you present about your own product, consumers will still see a conflict of interest. Reviews with personal stories and remarks from people who just had an experience with your product can elicit trust in a way that a simple product info page will never do.

Here are 4 tips that can help online stores improve their customer service through customer feedback on e-commerce:

1. Collect Ratings

Collecting ratings is a quick way to collect simple but valuable product information from users. Ratings can be given in a second, and so they do not interrupt the user’s main activity and often do not require them to log in. While ratings are a simple tool, make sure they are user-friendly and straightforward.

For ease of understanding, it is reasonable to use standards such as stars (1-5), thumbs up or thumbs down, or a numerical rating out of 10. Enable users to rate with one click and highlight the clickable area on mouse-over to encourage use. Even if the function of ratings is obvious, help out visitors with descriptions of each level, like “Excellent” “Good” or “Poor.”

2. Allow for and Encourage Reviews

It is crucial to make the process of adding reviews as easy as possible. Users will not be very motivated to contribute anything at the beginning, so allow them to write a review simply by hitting a ‘write a review’ button located close to the ratings at the top of the page.

3. Optimize Your Customer Feedback

You are probably prepared to receive dozens of reviews on your page, so making them easy to view is important. Ratings can be displayed in many ways. One option is having an overview of ratings featuring detailed rating stats like an average score, the number of votes and their distribution. You also need to clearly display single ratings and reviews. The latter should be displayed not only as a review itself, but instead maybe as a summary or an excerpt with the date of the review and as much information about the review as possible.

Potential customers need to be able to connect with the person who provided the review; an anonymous review may be helpful but it is not trustworthy. Once users learn about the review author, they can use this information to determine if it is reliable and trustworthy.

Display the author’s name as a link and relevant information about them such as number of reviews and user location. By clicking on the link and scanning their other reviews, users can evaluate the reviewer’s trustworthiness and values.

4. How to Handle Negative Reviews

While some companies may feel frustrated seeing negative feedback, it shows that you are a real business with genuine reviewers. If you take the time to address the issues online for all your customers to see, they will see your business takes their concerns seriously. It also shows you have a real interest and willingness to be accountable.

So how do you handle when a competitor or a spiteful customer, leaves inappropriately negative comments? Reviews using abusive terms and other unhelpful negativity are unfortunately not uncommon. Some shopping cart software (like Interspire Shopping Cart) will give you the option to moderate negative reviews before going live. With the ability to moderate what actually goes onto your site, you don’t have to worry about potential abuse with the feedback system.

Negative reviews aren’t always a bad thing. They helps you to identify weak products or services, while positive feedback can identify the best products. If you feel confident that you are using a good shopping cart system, then you allow your customer to give you honest feedback and useful data. Use this data to improve your product and service, and let your customer see that you take your business seriously and you care about them and their opinions. And, when you get good reviews posted from satisfied customers, your reputation will help potential buyers in feeling comfortable in purchasing from your site and increase conversions.