Last updated on January 7, 2024

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Justin Butlion
March 20th, 2014
Table Of Contents

One of our main aims at Yotpo is to help users get closer to their customers. Asking shoppers to write reviews and then share them on social media sites is just one way we do this. Another very powerful way we help users engage more with their community is with the Community Q&A feature. In this guide I will  introduce the Community Q&A feature, cover the many benefits this feature brings users as well as answer some common questions about the feature.

How does the Community Q&A feature work?

The Community Q&A feature makes it easy for your visitors to ask questions about your products right from within the Reviews Widget on your product pages. After a visitor writes a question, our system emails you to inform you that a visitor wrote a question. In the email we provide the question and you then have the option of either answering the question yourself or sending it to your past customers that bought the specific product. It is also possible to automatically send all questions to your past customers, this setting is present in the Community Q&A page in the Yotpo admin.

If you choose to send the question to your past customers then we send it to 5 past customers (we first send to past customers that wrote reviews) and then another 5 the next day, and on the third day another 5. Once an answer is written by a past customer, we stop sending these requests. If after 3 days no answer was written then we send another email to the store owner. We are planning on adding a smart algorithm to improve this process. Each time an answer is published to the site, we email the visitor that wrote the question with the answer and a link back to the relevant product page.

Both questions and answers are shown within the Q&A tab of the Reviews Widget. Community Q&A is a Premium feature which is enabled from within the Yotpo admin. The feature can be found in the Social & Loyalty section under Tools.

Below is a diagram which shows the entire process when questions are sent to past customers.

Social Q&A how does it work

A few more important points on the Community Q&A feature:

  1. Answers can be submitted from within the answer request email.
  2. Customers that have unsubscribe from the Mail After Purchase will not receive emails to answer questions.
  3. Customers that answer questions get the verified buyer badge shown next to their answers.
  4. We include upselling products in the answer request emails .
  5. Past customers will not receive 2 answer request emails within a 30 day period. Customers that received a Mail After Purchase email in the last 5 days will not receive an answer request.
  6. Visitors that wrote questions will receive no more than 3 answers via email.
  7. Site owners can answer either privately or publicly.
  8. Currently there is no way to push or share questions or answers to social media.
Example of Social Q&A

Example of how the Community Q&A looks in the Reviews Widget. The example is from BonsaiOutlet.com

In order to help drive attention to the Community Q&A section of the reviews widget, we have added a small “Ask a Question” widget to the feature. Below you can see how this button appears and adding it to your product page is as simple as adding one line of code. When clicked, the visitor will be taken straight to the Q&A tab in the Reviews Widget. We highly recommend you use these widgets so that you can get the most out of the Community Q&A feature.

Ask a question button

What are the benefits of the Community Q&A feature?

The Community Q&A feature was built in order to help users do four main things:

  1. Increase sales

    Just like the Social Push and Coupons features, Community Q&A acts as a marketing channel that drives both past customers and potential customers back to your site. When a visitor asks a question and you submit the question to your past customers, all these previous customers receive an email asking for their help. This is a subtle but powerful way to get them to come back to your site. When answers to your questions start rolling in, we email the visitors that asked the questions, driving them back to your site to make purchases.

  2. Increase engagement

    Community Q&A acts as a communication channel between interested visitors and store owners which helps humanize the brand (“a real person behind the scenes that answers my specific questions”), drive engagement and increase word of mouth.

  3. Generate more user-generated content

    Both questions and answers from past customers are feedback for users and are shown on your product pages within the Q&A section of the Reviews Widget. In our new widget we will make it easy for visitors to share questions and answers to their social networks which will be a new source of traffic to your store.

  4. Find your most loyal and helpful supporters

    Community Q&A helps you leverage your past customers to help out potential customers which is not only very unique and powerful in the eCommerce space, but also allows you to build your own community of product experts. Your customers that reply to requests to answer questions on products they have bought are a highly engaged group of supporters, and the Community Q&A feature helps you find them. Read below for some advanced tips on how to leverage this community.

Steps for creating your community of product experts

Step 1: The first step to building your community is to submit questions to past customers. Once the answers start rolling in, then visit the Moderate section of your Yotpo admin and in the Q&A section you will see the names of your past customers that wrote answers.

Step 2: Save an excel file with the details you have on these past customers. This is now your list of product experts.

Step 3: Email each of these product experts and thank them for their help in answering the questions and invite them to join your Product Experts group. You can do this in a number of ways from asking them to opt into an email list, inviting them to join a secret Facebook group or to fill out a quick survey.

Step 4: Once in a while (once every two months or so, depending on your product) run a specific email campaign targeting this group.

Step 5: Rinse and repeat.

Advanced tips for getting the most out of your community

  1. Before launching a new range of products or making any major changes to your brand or business, email this group and ask for their feedback.
  2. If you have a refer-a-friend program or run special promotions on social media then make sure you target your community and get them involved, the combination of highly engaged customers and the viral nature of social media will help you maximize your efforts.
  3. Involve this community in helping you improve the look and feel of your site.
  4. Contact these individuals and try and speak to one a week over the phone to learn important insights into your customers (how they found you, their thoughts on your pricing etc).

FAQ

1. Is the Community Q&A feature available to all users?

No, the Community Q&A feature is only available to users which have one of our Premium plans. Contact a product consultant now to learn more about our Premium plans.

 2. Can I customize the templates of the emails sent to my past customers and to the people that wrote questions?

Yes, you can customize the template of the email sent to both your past customers and those that write questions.

3. Why isn’t the Q&A section appearing in the Reviews Widget?

In order to show the Q&A section within the Reviews Widget, you need to enable the Community Q&A feature. This is done within the Community Q&A page in the Yotpo admin which can be found in the Social & Loyalty section under Tools.

4. How do my visitors know that a specific answer came from me?

Within the Community Q&A page in the Yotpo admin you can add a small image which will act as the store owner’s avatar. This avatar, as well as a customizable label, are shown next to the answers that the store owners write. In the first image in this post you can see a great example of the avatar and label used by BonsaiOutlet.com.

If you have any questions related to the Community Q&A feature then please write them in the comments section below so we can add them to our FAQ.

To learn more about Yotpo Premium get in touch with us and we’ll have a product expert get back to you.