February 24, 2011
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team
Question and answer site “TurnTo” has unveiled a new subsection of their service called “TurnTo Ask Owners.” Ask Owners is built around connecting prospective buyers with past buyers of a specific product or service to get hard answers. The need for this kind of direct connection arose, they say, due to the passive nature of existing Q and A services. These earlier forms existed more like “bulletin boards,” where questions would be cast out into the wide expanse of cyberspace. If answers came back, great. Otherwise, consumer requests for information could sit there unanswered for days, months, years. There are no exact numbers on how many unanswered questions there are out there on the internet, but suffice it to say, there are more unanswered questions that answered ones.
Connecting possible future customers with existing ones is a great tool for both consumers and customers. Currently there is a 6% response rate per question email sent to past customers by test stores, early stage trials are already bringing these past customers back to the stores for more purchases. On top of that, the first social answers to questions come in about 4 hours — people love to have their voices heard and their opinions know, and getting in first the first comment or response is a time-honored tradition on the internet. In addition, information gathered from Ask Owners is already being used to redirect marketing efforts.
As far as new consumers are concerned, results are rosy. Ask Owners reports that users who access the service show a conversion (purchase) rate 2 to as much as 7 times better than users who do not. That makes a lot of sense. If someone is unsure about a purchase, getting good, solid information will help tip them towards the deal or back away. This is social shopping’s greatest offering to the public: information and insight. People love to talk about their commercial experiences. It’s accepted wisdom that a customer will tell 10 people about a poor experience, 1 person about a good experience, and no one about an average experience. Services like Ask Owners may be shaking up these statistics by actively seeking out specific information instead of relying on ambiguous “star” ranking systems and passive feedback systems.
Jack Cieslak grew up in New York State where he attended the New School, emerging with a degree in Creative Writing. Seattle drew him in with its focus on personal health and fitness, as well as the environment, and of course the great weather. Three-thousand miles later he is all dug in and ready to throw himself wholeheartedly into writing of all types - including reporting new developments in e-commerce, and places where social media and e-commerce cross paths. Jack revels in a challenge, whether it's writing, running, or lifting heavy objects - Jack says "bring it."
Jack, thanks for the write-up! One point of clarification: the 6% response rate is per question email sent to past customers. That’s a rate that compares favorably to most retention-marketing emails and please-review-your-purchase emails. For each question, a number of past customers receive this email – typically ~60 – which means each question gets multiple, fast answers. Cheers, George Eberstadt, Founder, TurnTo
Hey George,
Thanks for the clarification. That sentence has been adjusted.
Nick