Get More Detailed Product Reviews With Custom Questions & Traits

Review strategy Jan 19, 2022

Getting customer reviews is always a good thing, even if they're really bad. The thing is, not all online reviews read or hit the same. Some reviews are monolithic accountings of customer feedback that delve into the minutia and texture of the cardboard box...and others are like 3 words.

While some potential customers may just be looking for the star count, many seek the details that will inform them of their purchase. What's considered a high quality review may differ depending on the product itself, but the bottom line is that a detailed review doesn't leave any unanswered questions about the customer's experience.

So how can you get more details out of your customers writing online reviews? The most simple way is, of course, to ask them!

With Junip, we make it easy to get those details during a review submission using custom questions and traits.


What are Custom Questions and Traits?

On Junip's standard plan, custom questions and traits enable the ability to collect extra content from customers during the review request flow.

Custom questions push customer storytelling in your product reviews. You can sell a great product that people love, but asking the customer questions about themselves and/or your product builds context around the purchase decision - it's a great way to really bring the customer's experience to light.

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A trait is a very specific question that applies to the product a customer purchased. They can be subtle, but they are a very low effort, easy way to make the product review more dynamic and detailed.

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When to use a custom questions and traits

This is pretty open ended; it is totally up to the business whether a custom question or trait is more appropriate. Using one of the other (or both!) can be pretty dependent on the industry.

What's also important to note is some businesses' may also be thriving with simple text and star ratings in their reviews. We're not here to tell you how to review, we just want you to know how these features will help bring out the details.

You don't want customers turning to outside review sites (like yelp or something) to read wall after wall of words that might not answer their questions. Less time on your site is not a good thing.

All that to say, we totally get that some of your products may just speak for themselves; there are no set rules!

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Custom questions tell stories

When you're asking questions, it's important to think about the kind of answer that's going to be most helpful to your potential customer. Junip offers two templates for custom questions: short answer and multiple choice.

Let's talk about the first one; short answers. These are a great way for your customer's story to shine through. Questions don't have to be limited to the product either; you could ask them about something in their life that they care about and tie it into your brand. A fitness brand might ask how experienced the customer is with yoga, or a toy store could ask the age of who is playing with their building blocks.

Zesti sells bundles that include an amazing variety of hot sauces. They make a point of asking their customers when they leave a review what their favourite sauce in the bundle was, and how they used it. Quickly snagging those details during a review can help with their marketing efforts, knowing what product to promote and maybe they’ll even whip up a recipe for their customers.

Multiple choice is a better method of answering when there are set values that a customer can most likely relate to. It's an easy way to get details from your customers without them having to think too much about it. They just pick the answer that's most correct for them!

EADEM is a great example of using the multiple choice template. Having set choices for the question of skin type and tone makes the product more approachable to new customers.

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Now that a new customer knows the details of Marian M's skin tone and type, they have more context when reading her great review. Knowing these details, a new customer can make a better informed purchase decision, either by relating to Marian's answers or comparing it to other reviews from those with a different skin type and tone. Seeing a plethora of different answers to those questions can build trust and confidence in the buyer; based on their skin type, they'll know what to buy.

Traits show the need to know

If you're thinking about asking a question that starts with "did you find our product to be...", using traits is probably the move. You can think of traits as another way for your customer to rate your product. It's like a review within the review...kind of spooky. But not really! Clothing brands rightfully do this all time.

Here's a review KOTN's super comfy Essential Sweatpant. Even if Daniel S. didn't write a single word, knowing they found it fit on the larger side is hugely helpful to other shoppers, and something to keep in mind when reading other reviews.

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What's great about using traits is that it provides an extremely valuable snapshot of a product's reviews. Meesha Farzaneh uses traits very creatively, giving their potential customers the details at a glance.

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"Are they heavy? Are they comfortable?" and other questions a customer might be asking about these earrings are surfaced right on the product page. Even just at a glance, this summary is providing details to shoppers, saving them time they might otherwise be wasting firing off questions aimlessly into a search engine.

As a business owner, these snapshots are useful, too. Once the reviews start pouring in, you can leverage those traits to perform somewhat of a case study on a particular product. If enough customers are saying your shirt is fitting loose, maybe it's time to update the product description to reflect that.


How to add custom questions and traits to your products

Adding these features to your review process is super easy, and we've got two wonderful walkthroughs available to help you out, step by step:

Of course, if you ever need assistance with setup, just reach out to us through our chat or support@juniphq.com. We'll help you get up and running with custom questions and traits in your new reviews.

It's so easy for your customers to offer up these details too! Here's a demo of what it looks like on our mobile forms:
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Final thoughts

Getting online reviews is always a good thing, no matter what. Even a bad review is still an opportunity to get important info on why that experience didn't go as planned.

When writing a review, some customers will always express themselves more than others. Using custom questions and traits during the review submission process is a simple way to ensure customers are providing some baseline details on your products and business. Armed with these details, a new customer can make a better purchase decision based on an individual review, or the big picture at a glance.

That's it for this time around! To learn more about how Junip will help your business, we encourage you to book some time with us to chat, or reach out at sales@juniphq.com.

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