Hundreds of Customer Feedback = More Sales

Briefly

📍 Company: Pohjoisen Auto (three locations: Ranua, Rovaniemi, Oulu)
📍 Industry: Selling used cars and small machines, maintenance services
📍 Challenge: No customer feedback and doubts if customers would give it
📍 Solution: Uses Trustmary to collect reviews and put them on the website.

📍 Results: Response rate close to 100%, hundreds of reviews on the website

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Challenge: No Process for Collecting Customer Feedback

Pohjoisen Auto has long been involved in the sale of used cars and other small vehicles. It mainly sells to consumers but also has some business customers. The company operates in Ranua, Rovaniemi, and Oulu, and its customers appreciate personal service and reliability.

The company’s slogan is “fair car dealership”, which reflects the way it operates.

Before Trustmary, customer feedback had not been systematically collected. The CEO Ville Hanhisuanto was skeptical about how honest and useful customer feedback would be in practice:

– I thought people only gave feedback on the product, not on the customer experience. With used cars, there is always a risk that the feedback is about the product and not about our service, says Hanhisuanto.

There was no clear process for collecting feedback, and the old way of sending Christmas cards to customers was no longer realistic due to the increased number of customers.

Solution: Trustmary Makes Collecting Feedback Easy

When Hannes Paaso from Trustmary introduced Trustmary to Pohjoisen Auto, Hanhisuanto decided to try it out – initially with reservations. Together with Paaso, they created a survey, but Hanhisuanto sent the test batch of surveys by himself.

Hanhisuanto exported a list of customers who have bought from them in the last six months and sent out a survey, encouraged by Paaso.

The results were surprising:

– Everyone gave feedback right away. I didn’t expect so many people to respond. The response rate was close to 100%! It was absolutely amazing. And all the feedback was positive, says Hanhisuanto.

Pohjoisen Auto has always focused on quality of service, but reading the good feedback after the first test survey batch inspired them to collect feedback on a wider scale.

– As we got the first feedback almost instantly after sending the survey, I spent the rest of the day sending out surveys to other customers. Hannes then texted me saying, “How come you’re getting such good feedback at this rate?”, Hanhisuanto recalls.

Trustmary made it easy to collect reviews:

• Customer experience surveys are branded and simple
• Feedback is displayed directly on the website, increasing trustworthiness in the eyes of new customers.
• Notifications of new reviews are sent via email, so they don’t have to go looking for them.

Results: Increased Trust & More Sales

With Trustmary, Pohjoisen Auto received hundreds of positive reviews, which reinforced the company’s reputation and increased customer trust.

– We have had our best January ever in terms of sales. The industry in general is not doing so well, but our business is booming. We have a really positive feeling internally now, thanks to the feedback from our customers, which also influences our sales, says Hanhisuanto.

Reviews are particularly important for convincing people from further away to buy or leave their contact information:

– Recently, many customers have said that they dared to buy from us because the reviews were so good, says Hanhisuanto.

Customer feedback has also been a big motivator for staff:

– When employees receive good feedback, it directly impacts their work motivation and sales, he continues.

Reviews on Website Is Vital

Pohjoisen Auto will continue to collect customer feedback and add all social proof to its website, as it has already been noticed in a few months that it makes a difference in the number of transactions made.

– The large number of reviews has been a great help to us. If you have five, ten, or even 20 reviews, it doesn’t really build trust in consumers yet. Nowadays, we do more business remotely, and the customers themselves say, “You had so many good reviews that I dared to buy from you,'” says Hanhisuanto.

Hanhisuanto thinks it’s very important to have reviews directly on the website so that a visit turns into a sale or a contact request.

– People are interested in reviews. Customers are more likely to stay and browse the review widgets on the website. They get stuck there when they stay to browse reviews. That way, they may become more familiar with the products and even buy. And at least they will remember the company better after spending time on our site, says Hanhisuanto.

Trustmary as a Feedback Tool

Hanhisuanto praises the ease of use of Trustmary, as well as the professionalism of the staff.

– When it comes to websites and technologies, we may not always realize ourselves what we need. Hannes was able to say, “You need this package, and here’s what we’re going to do,” and he was right. Communication has been easy, and all of our questions have been answered immediately, which is important for an entrepreneur,” says Hanhisuanto.

– Trustmary is beneficial for all companies that constantly get new customers. The number of reviews brings credibility and has a direct impact on sales, Hanhisuanto sums up.

Pohjoisen Auto continues on a strong growth path, and Trustmary has become part of its customer experience development.