By Aimee Chanthadavong
Booktopia has been rated as the number one loved store of 2012, according to consumer review website ProductReview.com.au.
The pureplay book retailer received 4.9 stars from over 65,000 reviews that were posted this year. This was in comparison to Deals2U who received the most negative reviews and a rating of just 1.06 stars due to poor customer service.
Booktopia CEO Tony Nash told RetailBiz to be independently reviewed by customers is invaluable.
“Customers are the best judges of all. You can win as many awards and be rated by a panel of people but to know what your customers really think of you is the best of all,” he said.
According to Nash, among other contributing factors like having an engaging, informative website and good merchandise, the company has been able to provide good customer service because of the people they’re employing.
“It’s easy to be an online catalogue but if you want to be an expert you need to employ experts in the area. Each category we sell in we have experts picking out meaningful books and suggesting books people have never heard of and that’s how we keep customers happy,” he said.
“We also have a call centre of 10 people and as an online store we’ve committed to hiring people who have experience in working in the book industry and know what it’s like working in a book shop floor.”
The consumer review website, ProductReview.com.au, receives three million visits from Australian consumers each month, who use it to share reviews and recommend or warn against products and services.
“The online space is dynamic so it lets brands establish personal connections with individual customers, which is vital for building brand loyalty,” ProductReview.com.au marketing manager Samuel Williamson said.
“The need to listen online is more evident today than ever – in the past year we’ve seen a 38 per cent increase in visits to the site each day, and we believe this will rise in 2013 as consumers continue to trust reviews over traditional marketing messages.”