The Power of Authentic Reviews and White-Glove Migration with Junip

Explore the new normal of user-generated content, how reviews play into user psychology to drive conversion, actionable tactics for post-purchase email campaigns, and much more in this deep dive with Junip.
March 23, 2023
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Blue background with the Tydo and Junip logos with white text that says the power of reviews

The Power of Authentic Reviews and White-Glove Migration with Junip

Junip is a verified review platform that helps over a thousand brands stand out in a saturated market, ranging from household names like Kellogg’s to DTC brands like Huron and Not Pot.

We sat down with Junip’s marketing manager Leah Morassut to explore the new normal of user-generated content, how reviews play into user psychology to drive conversion, actionable tactics for post-purchase email campaigns, and much more. 

Building Trust Between Brands & Consumers

The need for Junip arose at the intersection of a few different issues. Put simply, competing platforms were too expensive and difficult to onboard for smaller brands running on Shopify, while online review sections proved to be flooded with imported or paid postings. 

According to Leah, the latter point signals why Junip has been so effective for its clientele’s improved success. The platform’s core verification process, which clearly marks authentic reviews with a distinct badge, renews a sense of trust between brand and consumer. 

The average shopper today browses 4 to 7 reviews before engaging with a brand. This can be attributed to a crowded DTC market with a seemingly endless array of brands selling the same type of product, and further exacerbated by the endless torrent of paid Instagram and FB ads.

To convince a customer that your brand is worth their attention scroll time, verified positive reviews — particularly photo reviews — establish your brand’s credibility and label you as a popular, high-value option for other authentic buyers on the market.

“Ultimately, brands want to drive authentic reviews and retain a high-end customer experience from start to finish. That’s why they choose Junip.”

UGC-Forward Conversion Tactics

Expanding on how to create a brand reputation of reliability and authenticity, user-generated content has essentially become a necessity to establish verified social proof for your products. 

In an increasingly visual attention marketplace, high-quality images and user-generated videos of one’s product in action from buyers can dramatically boost a brand’s foundational desirability and likelihood of gaining a true following — or even cult status. Visual UGC-fueled brand presences with die-hard users, like Glossier and Apple, lead the way in this regard.

UGC is particularly vital for young companies. For example, an emerging brand with little to no traction or historical presence can still convert browsers to buyers if there’s a foundation of evidence indicating value. In action, this can look like spotlighting your UGC on landing pages, across social media, in email campaigns, and, using Junip, at the top of your review sections. 

“UGC is the leading force behind customer loyalty and retention. Why? It drives authentic, positive feedback across nearly every buyer cohort.”

Driving End-to-End Growth Metrics

Brands that have onboarded with Junip typically report increased growth rates across a handful of metrics. More specifically, brands report distinct improvements in three core data points:


  1. Open rates on review-request emails
  2. Subsequent review submission rates
  3. Conversion rates for on-site purchases


In Leah’s words, this speaks to the fact that reviews are integral to a brand’s holistic customer experience, from SEO to PDPs. For instance, if you’re using an ESP like Klaviyo or Omnisend, your brand can view and track buyer behavior through Junip, then set up email flows based on customers’ preferred purchase frequencies. This behavioral data can be leveraged to convert a repeat customer by understanding trends of engagement around acquisition campaigns. 

Diving deeper, certain email tactics have been validated by performance metrics over time. From Leah’s vantage point, the timing of email is vital to actually gaining a buyer’s click-through or review submission. Sending a review request a few days before a product has arrived for an international shopper, or before the customer has had time to enjoy the product, is bound to fail. 

“On the surface, reviews appear simple, but it can yield 360-degree insights around evolving consumer trends. That data is ridiculously powerful.”  

Junip’s Northstar: White-Glove Migration

Since Junip’s launch, consistent white-glove service has been a distinct focus for the company. CEO Stuart Arsenault would personally migrate clients in the early days, and even now, a large majority of the reviews for Junip on Shopify’s App Store applaud that customer experience. 

Leah notes that nearly every single one of Junip employees work customer support shifts, manually solving user issues and pulling in the dev team’s aid as needed. When asked how Junip plans to keep this level of service as they expand, Leah points out that that recurring customer issues can yield direct upgrades in Junip’s growing suite of products.

“Junip takes customer support to the next level. That’s our secret sauce. It not only builds deep relationships with our brands, but spins out product improvement ideas when users signal that a bug or feature is high value.”


Checkout our roundup to learn:
  • What to pledge
  • How to improve
  • Which tools will set you up for success

Dale Wilson

Partnerships Manager,
adQuadrant
Resolution

I think the most important thing brands can do in 2023 is to better manage their customer data—both ethically and effectively. There’s an opportunity for brands to know their customers better than ever before—a clear benefit for both the customer and the brand. When you manage your data correctly, you’ll create stronger and more personalized ads, creative, site experiences, and so much more.

Tip

This is a classic: Let the data guide you. Go where the buyers for your products are and communicate with them on a personal level (i.e. by persona and funnel position) and nurture those relationships (past, present, and future customers). It’s possible—all through data.

Tool

It's an honest tie between Gorgias and Klaviyo. Both tools have amazing plans for 2023 and beyond, and I'm looking forward to seeing the impact both have on their clients this year.

Shawn Khemsurov

Co-founder,
Electric Eye
Resolution

We recommend that Shopify brands analyze and update their websites using data-driven decisions. Using analytics tools such as heatmaps and scrollmaps can help brands better understand how customers are interacting with their store.

Tip

Store owners tend to make assumptions about the way customers interact with their website. Most never go back and analyze their design choices to find pain points or areas of opportunity. By using heatmaps and scrollmaps, they can see where real customers are clicking and concentrating their attention. Leveraging this data, brands can start to iterate on design and make their online store experience streamlined and intuitive.

Tool

Hotjar provides a simple way to implement heatmaps, scrollmaps, and recorded user sessions on your site, helping you acquire incredibly informative user data. Additionally, it gives you the ability to create on-site surveys, which allows you to obtain direct and often critical feedback from users about their experience.

Katelyn Glass

Founder and CEO,
Fifty Six
Resolution

Test various attribution models and analyze the impact on your business. At Fifty Six, we are always here to help our clients identify and optimize their approach—a critical step in any successful marketing strategy.

Tip

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times–Customer Lifetime Value. And even more importantly, Future Lifetime Value (FLTV). With the ever-growing importance of first-party data, it is crucial that brands take a good look at their CRM and FLTV metrics.

Tool

OrderlyEmails is our go-to tool for transactional emails. It helps us level up our brands’ email aesthetics with customizable, quick-to-implement Shopify templates.

Lately, I’ve been really interested in Smile.io’s loyalty platform. Their UX is fantastic for teams with low bandwidth!

Tom Rees

Founder,
WIRO
Resolution

Stop allocating budgets to low-hanging fruit that doesn’t move the needle on conversion. Think about what’s really going to improve your CX and the return of undertaking different initiatives—not just on what’s top on your list of bugbears on the site!

Tip

One of the best ways to understand your customer behavior is by using HotJar. Their heat-mapping and screen recording tools shine a light on where customers are navigating to and from on your site, where they're rage clicking and experiencing frustration, and where conversion is dropping off within real life customer journeys and flows!

Understanding your customers’ pain points via data and analytics , will allow you to work with your CRO/CX Agency to solve customer frustrations and improve conversion.

Tool

Rewind backs up all product, customer, and order data for Shopify sites—essential since Shopify itself doesn’t provide this solution. It's saved so many of our clients time and money from administrative accidents.

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Jimmy Aristizabal

Partnership Manager,
TalentPop
Resolution

33% of customer service inquiries are pre-sale questions. What does this mean? If you’re not investing in customer service, you’re missing out on revenue-generating opportunities.

Tip

The benefits of elevating your customer experience:

  • 10% to 25% increase in AOV for customers who engage with live chat pre-purchase
  • 21x higher conversion rate for customers who reach out via Live Chat or SMS compared to other site visitors
  • 87% of customers who have a great customer experience will make another purchase
  • 72% of customers share positive experiences with 6 or more individuals
Tool

Gorgias is our favorite Helpdesk platform. They can reduce costs by 35%, primarily by decreasing the average ticket handle time. Their machine learning algorithms are trained on millions of ecommerce-related interactions across Gorgias’ customer base and provide accurate, automated replies for the most common ecommerce inquiries. This helps our agents resolve tickets faster, which provides the customer a seamless experience.

Jessica Grossman

Founder and CEO,
In Social
Resolution

Trust your agency! Agencies do the same things across multiple brands and niches, so we see the trends and have the practice and experience!

Tip

Don't be afraid of data and insights. If customers aren't clicking on your emails, try a new CTA. If your ads are driving good metrics at a small spend, start scaling. If your customers are complaining about a product, look into QA! If the data tells you something isn't working, let it go and try something else!

Tool

I'm supposed to say Tydo, right? 😉

Rikin Diwan

Chief Growth Officer,
soona
Resolution

Double down on differentiation. There will be a lot of headwinds this year and standing out from the crowd will set you apart.

Tip

A picture is worth 1,000 words. A video? Probably millions. In ecommerce that value translates into engagement, acquisition, and retention—everything you need to impact your bottom line.

At soona, we've seen the we've seen the impact of creative and the continuous split testing of it yield results. Our resolution is to challenge ourselves and double down on innovation and creative optionality so that each brand we work with can distinguish themselves in a crowded sea of D2C ecomm. We'd love to see our brands share this resolution and keep pushing the creative limits.

Tool

Klaviyo. We're using it to power our email and newsletter at soona too!

Shayna Silvers

Director of Marketing Strategy,
Absolute Web
Resolution

Optimize your returns strategy! This can lead to valuable customer insights, enhanced user experiences, and increased revenue and customer loyalty.

Tip

Brands need to dive deeper into understanding their customers to set themselves up for success. Conduct research to gain insights into customer needs, preferences, and behaviors. By doing so, you can develop targeted strategies that will enhance customer experience and boost overall retention.

Tool

Right now I would say Gorgias. Having a good customer service tool is crucial to building strong customer relationships.

Wes Buckwalter

Resolution

Start paying heavy attention to data, specifically around retention. We see a lot of effort put towards acquisition with the assumption that once someone buys, they are your customer forever. Instead, get to know your customer, understand their needs, and analyze their behaviors once they are on-site and judge their sentiment after they have visited. Work with a retention focused and data-driven agency to implement tools that contribute to repeat business and customer delight. It will pay dividends.

Tip

When surveyed, about 80% of ecommerce merchants think that they are delivering a great experience to their customers. However, when the same customers are surveyed, only 8% of those customers think that they are getting a great experience from the merchant. Now, more than ever, retaining loyal customers is an essential part of any online business and you should spend time with your customers to judge their experience with your website and products and offer improvements based on that feedback.

Tool

Tydo's report cards are an essential tool, along with Klaviyo for email and SMS, Recharge for subscriptions and memberships, Okendo for reviews and surveys, Rebuy for AI driven collections and upsells, Loop for self service returns... each tool is great on their own, but their strength as the ultimate tool comes from when they are used together!

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Report Cards

Free

Report Cards is a customized glimpse into your business, delivered to your inbox for free.

Report Cards consolidates all your key metrics across platforms for an at-a-glance pulse of your business.

Discover metrics for every team member so they can stay updated with the right data on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

It's free because we believe everyone should have access to the basics.

Learn more
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Portfolio

Portfolio is a hub for analytics across multiple Shopify stores. The perfect tool for agencies.

See an aggregate view of all your data for all your stores in one place.

Make real time assessments on marketing initiatives across every storefront you manage.

Analyze the performance of one store versus another in seconds.

Learn more
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