Product Reviews

[wcw]

I'm finalizing a new set of functions in the Emporium Plus Tool Kit. But I need a few of y'all to bang on it and see what breaks. Now is also the time to make sure all the bells and whistles that can reasonably be put in there are included.

Please go to http://www.emporiumplus.com/BOGUS.html This is just a fake product I created for testing this. You get a different experience depending on if you login, then review or just review without logging in (coupon, email, instant approval, associate with actual prior purchase for verified buyer tag, etc). The last feature mentioned won't be selectable with this demo since nobody has really bought this product. I also added the math challenge which you can remove if you don't worry about form spammers.

None of the other products in the store can be reviewed yet, although the ratings/reviews have been imported from the Rate This module's data in my 4x store. The import from 4x or 5x is one of the functions available. You can see the prior reviews on some of the more popular products, e.g. http://www.emporiumplus.com/1AA00223.html

You'll also notice that the Tool Kit enhanced category and product list pages allow sorting on the rating field so you can show the highest rated at the top.

[wcw]

Re: Product Reviews

For those wondering about the admin interface, here is a screen shot. http://www.emporiumplus.com/i5/tkreview.jpg

Initially you can select from 4 methods of searching the data; pending approval, product code, customer login, unknown ID for those who don't login. The pending requires nothing but clicking the button. The other 3 require you to enter the search term as appropriate for the search method selected. You can then mark/check those needing approval or those you want to delete (censor). Once the data displays you can quickly switch to the other methods. For example, in the image linked above, the search was on the product code. While viewing that list, you might see that a certain customer login is particularly harsh/rude. Simply click that customer login and the list switches to all products that customer has rated. If you click on the product name, it does not list ratings. Rather it gives you a popup window with the product edit screen so you can work with the product, e.g. if a review said your description was erroneous.

One of the persons who reviewed the BOGUS product said the user interface was poor. Unfortunately, they did not elaborate on what bothered them. Fortunately, the entire UI is store morph so you can layout the data collection any way you want as long as you collect the data (rating and review and whether they want any of the identifying data displayed or verify that they had bought the product).

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: Product Reviews

One of the persons who reviewed the BOGUS product said the user interface was poor...

I, on the other hand, thought the UI was quite nice, and appreciate the ability to adjust it with SMT. The lightbox effect for the extended list of ratings is a nice touch.

[Datagg]

Re: Product Reviews

Looks great Bill.... When will it be ready, my new site needs this bad.. The timing couldn't have been any better....

EDIT.Wooo, I love the email that came that said thanks... is this the Mail Manager Mod? I see it is a message that related to my 5 stars..That is awesome. Can a different one be done for different degrees of rating?

I'm very excited to get this.

[wcw]

Re: Product Reviews

I haven't done any of the documentation and examples (prod page, popup page, two emails) yet. I'm also waiting to see if someone can hack it and slip something in on it. I'm surprised nobody is testing with their login. The email that goes out is kinda interesting. It looks at the score and displays different conditional text depending on how good or bad they rated. It also ties into the coupon redemption module with a live coupon (at this time) that is good for real world orders.

[Datagg]

Re: Product Reviews

I haven't done any of the documentation and examples (prod page, popup page, two emails) yet. I'm also waiting to see if someone can hack it and slip something in on it. I'm surprised nobody is testing with their login. The email that goes out is kinda interesting. It looks at the score and displays different conditional text depending on how good or bad they rated. It also ties into the coupon redemption module with a live coupon (at this time) that is good for real world orders.

Agreed.. We send out coupons etc for many options, yet we haven't had the ability to send them out after a live review.... and the addition to add a retroactive promo code is simply an awesome added bonus.

I did login Bill to write that review. Matter of fact I did both ways .... it went well and I didn't see any issues.

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: Product Reviews

I'm surprised nobody is testing with their login...

I'm not.

Creating an account on our site is optional, and only about 3% of our customers end up creating an account.

and while the emporiumplus.com site requires people to create an account to place an order, I think that anonymous review option is so convenient that people will just forgo logging in.

Also, speaking of the anonymous review option, if there were an OPTIONAL field for people to type in their order number when submitting, that would be great, too.

BTW: I wish that other module developers would solicit input when developing / testing their modules. I think it just makes for a win-win outcome for all.

[wcw]

Re: Product Reviews

The problem with the order number is if it is anonymous there is no way to verify it. So someone could say they bought something to add credibility to their review, but it could be a lie. Whereas, if they login, the module finds the order that the product was in and then lets them decide whether they want to tell others they bought it. So in Dan's sexy store, folks may not mind logging in and getting a coupon sent to them, but they may not want others to know they bought sexy stuff for their girlfriend/wife.

[Datagg]

Re: Product Reviews

I'm not.

Creating an account on our site is optional, and only about 3% of our customers end up creating an account.

and while the emporiumplus.com site requires people to create an account to place an order, I think that anonymous review option is so convenient that people will just forgo logging in.

Also, speaking of the anonymous review option, if there were an OPTIONAL field for people to type in their order number when submitting, that would be great, too.

BTW: I wish that other module developers would solicit input when developing / testing their modules. I think it just makes for a win-win outcome for all.

I agree with Mark.. All on my site is optional also... We did that in the past, forced login, create account etc and it definitely had a negative result. What was odd though, is when we made it optional, we got more signing up for an account.... Moral of the story for me at least.. When people have an option instead of being forced to do something they are much more responsive across the board.

So in Dan's sexy store, folks may not mind logging in and getting a coupon sent to them, but they may not want others to know they bought sexy stuff for their girlfriend/wife.

This is true also..... I suspect most don't like to do reviews as most on my site is of a sensitive nature. With that being said, id like to offer more to the ones who do create accounts and give an honest review as a verified customer say a special gift, coupon.. where as the anonymous would review also, yet criteria or end results for them is a bit different. Wow, i dont even know if this made sense.....LOL

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: Product Reviews

The problem with the order number is if it is anonymous there is no way to verify it.

Understood.

I think ideally, the order number could be deleted by the admin. So if someone were to say something like: "These were the worst socks I ever bought," and they left an order number for an order where there weren't any socks in the order, then you would be in a better position to know that it was just someone trying to ruin your ratings.

On the other hand, if it were a sub-par rating, and they did leave the order number and that particular order DID have the item in it that is being rated, it might lend more credence to their concerns.

Just my two cents...

[Datagg]

Re: Product Reviews

On another note Bill.... An idea, ... In GFL we use a loyalty program..Buy X get X points.... In an email sent after a few days, in there states about giving a review and if a customer with an account, I would award your loyalty system with 10 points. Now wouldn't that be awesome, if it could be done automatically once i approved a review or they are flagged as a legit customer... Don't know if that could be done or not, just a thought...

I'm just happy as to what you have done thus far... its a definite for me.. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

[nottheusual1]

Re: Product Reviews

ETA?

Sorry to be impatient - we start product pages in a new store this week ...

[wcw]

Re: Product Reviews

I think ideally, the order number could be deleted by the admin.

This brings up a question. One of the BOGUS product testers mentioned adding a tag line by admin. I'm wondering how much time an admin has to mess with these reviews. I wrote the admin panel so you could navigate and approve reviews quickly or analyze a specific rater more efficiently. But to read through and add tag lines takes time. There are nine data elements in the review so I suppose the tag line could be added to the end of the customer's entry and delimited with the ^ character. Then when you display, you could use the tool kit gettoken to show the text to the right of the ^ as the tag line and to the left, the actual review. But in an active store, these ratings would get buried quite quickly so you'd really have to keep up with it.

One of the data elements does hold the order number, but that is inserted by the module after it checks the product and recent orders. There's not a mechanism to let the customer insert it due to the integrity issue. That said, you could make it an input and display it in the merchant notification email. Then if you manually confirmed it, you could add it to the order and set the "tell others" field to true.

[Datagg]

Re: Product Reviews

This brings up a question. One of the BOGUS product testers mentioned adding a tag line by admin. I'm wondering how much time an admin has to mess with these reviews. I wrote the admin panel so you could navigate and approve reviews quickly or analyze a specific rater more efficiently. But to read through and add tag lines takes time. There are nine data elements in the review so I suppose the tag line could be added to the end of the customer's entry and delimited with the ^ character. Then when you display, you could use the tool kit gettoken to show the text to the right of the ^ as the tag line and to the left, the actual review. But in an active store, these ratings would get buried quite quickly so you'd really have to keep up with it.

One of the data elements does hold the order number, but that is inserted by the module after it checks the product and recent orders. There's not a mechanism to let the customer insert it due to the integrity issue. That said, you could make it an input and display it in the merchant notification email. Then if you manually confirmed it, you could add it to the order and set the "tell others" field to true.

For me unless it had an SEO advantage, I simply wouldn't want to take the time. After all, its the review to help sell the product that is the key, not redundant extra steps to take up unnecessary time.

Just my thought...

[wcw]

Re: Product Reviews

Please keep the suggestions coming. If you don't like something (e.g. the UI), tell me how you would improve it. This exercise is for improving the feature before release, not anonymous denigrating comments that benefit nobody.

As Dan said, he wouldn't have time to add tag lines. I gave it some thought and went ahead and included the store morph to do the tag line. You can see it at the BOGUS product. Click Read All Reviews. See the 4th from the bottom. It was fairly easy to do, but for most stores folks would not take the time to do it.

I also added an instant feedback after posting a review. As you know, the review screen is different between logged in and not logged in customers. Also, the logged in customer gets an email with a coupon after posting the review. The non-logged in customer gets nothing since the module does not have their contact info, hence they don't know if it was recorded and why it is not showing up. Now after posting a review, they see text thanking them. The text is different between logged in and not logged in reviewers. You can see how this works by going back and doing your review again. It will overwrite the old one.

My intent is to make this the best rating and review feature available. I'm not out to make a million dollars off this. The tool kit is probably already in 95% of the stores whose owners/developers read this forum, so the audience is already saturated. There won't be a lot of new module sales due to this one feature.

Any more positive ideas?