Hyperlite Mountain Gear makes some of the best backpacking gear in the world.
An upstart in an industry with several legacy players and a whole host of cottage businesses, Hyperlite needed to differentiate themselves as a new, but most importantly–professional–brand, and soliciting customer reviews was one of many ways to do that.
Hyperlite had solicited customer reviews since its inception, but a real opportunity arose when a contract with a previous vendor came up for renewal and we were able to migrate their review system to Okendo, one of the best review platforms around. Moving to Okendo allowed us to integrate Hyperlite’s review requests with several other channels–including email and organic social–as well as to customize the data they were collecting to better serve their customers. Instead of simply giving testimonials, happy customers are able, importantly, to rate both the product fit and their own experience in the outdoors–simultaneously validating shoppers’ choices as sound and allowing them to self-select by outdoor experience.
Additionally, we suggested integrating reviews with Hyperlites’ CX software, allowing team members to proactively respond to the few negative comments that come through the system.
Hyperlite was able to build massive social proof, gain specific insight for R&D, and connect a previously siloed data source to multiple channels, all, essentially, on autopilot.
The useful part of a review is rarely the star rating.
Hyperlite was an upstart among legacy names and cottage builders, and reviews were one way to look like the serious operation it already was. But the migration to Okendo was worth doing for a subtler reason: it let customers rate how the product fit and describe their own experience outdoors at the same time.
That second field is what makes the first one useful. A thru-hiker and a weekend backpacker rating the same pack are answering different questions, and a shopper who can see which of the two they resemble is getting advice rather than an average. R&D gets the same benefit in reverse.
Wiring reviews into email, organic social and the CX desk turned a siloed feedback form into a working data source — including the ability to reach the rare unhappy customer before anybody else reads them.
.png)
.png)
