ShipServ Launches Customer Reviews and Ratings Service

ShipServ, the leading marine and offshore e-marketplace, has announced the results of a survey in which ship supply companies endorse its Customer Reviews and Ratings service on ShipServ Pages.

With Ratings & Reviews, buyers leave online comments and recommendations on their trading partners. The survey, conducted in November 2010, polled nearly 450 suppliers in the ShipServ TradeNet trading community about their attitude towards the Reviews and Ratings feature, which went live in September. The summary findings were as follows:

84.5% believed a buyer would choose one supplier with the better customer reviews over another with identical capabilities.

53.1% saw Pages as an important sales channel for their business.

52.1% thought adding customer reviews to their Pages listing would help them win more business.

The survey was designed to gather feedback on the concept of customer reviews, judge their value to suppliers and establish whether they would share reviews on Pages, the world’s most used marine and offshore supplier directory.

The survey was completed online with some 447 suppliers entering the survey. Asked specifically about their attitude to reviews, 85% said they believed customer reviews/testimonials are a good idea. A very similar number (84.5%) also believed a buyer would choose one supplier with the better customer reviews over another with identical capabilities.

Overall, 40.2% of suppliers said they would share customer reviews on Pages. Of those that knew that reviews were available on Pages, 27.3% had already asked customers for reviews. And of those that didn’t know about the reviews function, 42.3% said they would share customer reviews in future.

Ship suppliers connected to TradeNet continue to view Pages as a crucial online sales and marketing tool. Some 53.1% said they see Pages as an important sales channel for their business and 52.1% thought adding customer reviews to their Pages listing would help them win more business.

John Watton, Chief Marketing Officer of ShipServ said:

"Reviews and ratings is still a new service for ShipServ and we know that it represents a challenge to the maritime industry’s established ways of doing business."

"The results demonstrate that suppliers think this service has the potential to bring them new business and add substantial value for our supplier community. That in turn will benefit buyers as they can trade with confidence with more suppliers on the basis of third party reviews."

ShipServ has focussed on the theme of trust in 2010, promoting the concept that the tools of social media (such as Reviews and Ratings) can promote trusted relationships among business partners who don’t have a trading history. With the increased transparency offered by Reviews and Ratings, a shipmanager or owner trading to a port or region for the first time can use the service to locate new suppliers.

"We realised when we launched this service it represented a new frontier for the ship supply industry", added Mr Watton. "This survey has provided us with an important insight into the attitude of ship suppliers to using the tools of social media."

About ShipServ

ShipServ helps marine and offshore buyers to find the best suppliers easily, trade efficiently and build trusted relationships. The company's products and services bring buyers and suppliers together online, in print, on ship and in person. Copyright © 2010 ShipServ Limited. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Info: www.shipserv.com.

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