Needham, Mass., August 20, 2009 – Sprinkler Warehouse, www.sprinklerwarehouse.com, the largest Internet retailer of lawn sprinkler system and irrigation parts and supplies , reports increased sales of more than 20 percent since implementing product reviews from RatePoint, a leading provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services.
Sprinkler Warehouse was able to easily implement the product reviews feature into the site within just a few days. By utilizing RatePoint’s e-mail marketing feature in conjunction with product reviews, Sprinkler Warehouse was able to drive greater results in a short timeframe, gathering more than 500 new product reviews within 48 hours.
A recent study by RatePoint of small business owners found reviews are six times as likely to impact a business positively as negatively. Twenty-four percent of small businesses say an online review has had a positive impact while only four percent of SMBs reported a negative business impact from an online review. Sprinkler Warehouse found that implementing reviews led to an immediate increase in sales.
“With RatePoint, we are able to give our customers a voice and help potential customers duplicate an in-store experience through reviews from like-minded consumers,” said Steve Okelberry, president of Sprinkler Warehouse. “It shortens the decision-making process and drives repeat sales. We knew we had to differentiate ourselves and wanted our strong customer service to speak for itself.”
Sprinkler Warehouse began as an ecommerce Web site in 1996 and has grown to become the largest online retailer of lawn sprinkler system and irrigation parts & supplies with more than 1,700 products and 87,000 customers. To stay ahead of competitors and continuously grow the company, Okelberry has integrated features on the Sprinkler Warehouse Web site that enable consumers to mirror an in-person shopping trip, such as 360 rotation product views and live chat.
The company realized it needed reviews to build trust with customers during the shopping process. It selected RatePoint, which provides product reviews, business reviews and other customer engagement services such as email marketing and surveys, because of the integration between reviews with e-mail marketing. Sprinkler Warehouse drove additional click-through traffic by highlighting reviews and quotes from testimonials in its email newsletter.
“For small businesses, especially those that operate only online, proactively seeking out and promoting customer satisfaction drives new customer confidence and increases sales,” said Neal Creighton, co-founder and CEO of RatePoint. “We continuously see small businesses taking the time to invest in customer feedback are the ones who build real business results and a positive online reputation.”
About RatePoint, Inc.
RatePoint, Inc., the leading provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services, helps businesses protect and build their online reputation, allowing businesses to harness the power of credible customer feedback and leverage it into a sales, marketing and customer service asset.
RatePoint’s easy-to-use, Web-based communication services include customer feedback tools to collect business and product reviews, email marketing, survey and dispute resolution capabilities to provide small- and medium-sized businesses with the ability to collect, manage and promote customer feedback directly from their Web site. For more inform