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PODCAST

Communication Untangled: Untangling reviews

Sue Keogh
Sue KeoghSookio

Posted: Tue 11th Feb 2025

Why do the thoughts of complete strangers have so much influence over our buying decisions?

Trustist founder, Nigel Apperley, explains the power of good reviews in your business, how to seek out ‘moments of delight’ and why a 4.7 rating is the sweet spot when choosing a restaurant.

Listen to our conversation and discover:

  • The power of ‘moments of delight’ and ‘review gating’

  • The right time to ask for a review?

  • Why a 4.7-star rating better than 5 out of 5

  • The impact of reviews on your conversion rate (and how to deal with bad ones)

  • The right question to ask for the most positive and useful response

Plus! How Ryanair mocks customers for their bad reviews – and still makes more sales.

Want more of the Communication Untangled podcast?

About Nigel Apperley

Nigel has two decades of e-commerce expertise, working at places like Slendertone and Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton. As the director of e-commerce at Kwik-Fit, he saw a link between customer reviews and sales.

So he ran an experiment. He gathered up Google reviews and showed them on the website and on screens in stores. This saw an average increase in revenue of over 50%.

Bit of a lightbulb moment!

So in 2014, he set up Trustist, a customer review platform that pulls together reviews from lots of different sources to give you stars in Google search results. Which leads to more clicks – and more sales!

Relevant resources

Sue Keogh
Sue KeoghSookio
Hello, I’m a digital marketing agency founder and communications consultant in Cambridge. After a decade in broadcast media producing radio and digital content with the BBC, ITV and Magic FM, and as a homepage editor for Yahoo and AOL, in 2008 I founded Sookio. I built and scaled the agency through intense periods of change – pandemic, fire, recession, four premises, shift to hybrid working – and oversaw the delivery of targeted marketing campaigns for clients in education, science/tech, B2B and the public sector, reaching millions of people and increasing footfall, applicants, and revenue. In 2024 I pivoted the business to go from agency to consultancy, enabling me to draw on my wealth of experience in marketing, leadership and business operations and offer a more streamlined set of services: Audits and recommendations Strategy and support Consultancy Training: Social media, writing for marketing, building visibility It's communications from the inside out. I’m someone who lives and breathes marketing and has closely followed digital trends since the earliest days of social media, but knows how to get the foundations right too – the tools, the processes, the best ways to nurture client relationships and motivate your team. I love working with clients to share this knowledge and solve problems together that lead to a happier, more productive, and more profitable business. Values (see more on my About page) 1. Innovation for the betterment of society 2. Empowering others through knowledge, skills and opportunities 3. Best practice in communication Handy to know (see my full bio) Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and RSA National Business Women’s Awards judge Host Skillshare courses taken by 10k+ people Founder of work experience initiatives which have helped 150+ young people kickstart their career in marketing Host of Communication Untangled podcast and regular speaker on marketing, digital, communications Winner of multiple awards for myself and the business including Service Excellence, Business Person of the Year, Community, Website

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