Groupe Adeo makes customer feedback a priority with expert support from Bazaarvoice

Groupe Adeo and its brands make customer feedback a priority with expert support from Bazaarvoice

Adeo is a French retail company specializing in home improvements, renovations, DIY, interior designs and kitchens, with brands such as Leroy Merlin, Bricoman, Bricocenter and Zôdio as part of its brand portfolio. With operations in 13 countries across the globe, Adeo is now the leading player in the European DIY market, and third largest worldwide. That makes it one of the very few companies with such international reach in this market segment.

Every day, the Group’s 850 stores and 130,000 employees are driven by a shared sense of purpose: To help customers achieve their home improvement projects. They manage this by offering solutions for all things home & DIY, and with support of professionals on hand to help customers with any such project.

Connecting with customers all around the world

In order to reassure customers, promote the quality of its product range and strengthen its position as a trusted expert, Groupe Adeo decided to launch a user-generated content (UGC) program across its brands.

Bazaarvoice solutions were rolled out to collect as many ratings and reviews as possible, on as many products as possible, following sales made on the retailer’s website or in-store.

It’s estimated that 50 reviews lead to a 30% increase in orders. Given the number of reviews posted has a direct impact on customer reassurance, the review collection process was a key consideration.

To date, Bazaarvoice solutions have been rolled out through the Leroy Merlin brand in eight countries. UGC is a significant competitive advantage when conquering new markets where there’s low levels of brand awareness. So to ensure that enough ratings and reviews are circulated in these countries, Leroy Merlin uses Bazaarvoice’s Translated Reviews feature to translate reviews from different countries, and then displays them in the consumer’s language. This enables it to cover all markets with the same degree of accuracy and quality as countries where it’s already a recognized leader. “In South Africa, where we have only opened three stores to date, more than 80% of the reviews on the site come from other countries, which makes us the leader in regard to UGC in this market,” said Nicolas Fillat, Marketing Business Leader, Customer Care and Feedback at Adeo.

These aren’t the only benefits, though. Fake review prevention is a top priority for Adeo, knowing full well the damage they can do to a brands reputation. To combat fake reviews, UGC is collected from customers immediately after a purchase. A verified purchase badge is then displayed below the review, to prove that it is was really that customer who bought the product concerned.

Adeo’s partner brands can similarly publish reviews that they’ve collected on the retailer’s site, via syndication, to increase the visibility of their products.

Aiming for four stars thanks to reviews

If customers aren’t satisfied, they’re quick to express these thoughts through writing product reviews. The product and quality teams use this feedback to continuously improve the product range by launching audits, delisting items with less than three stars, or fixing incorrect descriptions, product photos, or packaging. Numerous items have also been improved following customer feedback, allowing the group to put their customers at the heart of their business.

“Improving low-rated products is often based on reviewing the dimensions or treatment of specific components to improve the product’s strength and durability. This is really technical work carried out by the product and quality teams,” said Nicolas Fillat.

Adeo’s objective is to deliver a four star product range to its customers. The first stage is to focus on 80% of its product range.

Sustainability is also another consideration that’s emerging from customer feedback. Opinions don’t just need to be relevant at the time of purchase, but also six to 12 months down the line, and they should provide an assessment on the long-term performance and durability of the products. This issue of durability is therefore key, and Adeo is pushing back against planned obsolescence.

As Nicolas Fillat explained, “The DIY market is complex, not just because of the wide range of products and services on offer, but also because of the technical nature of DIY or renovation projects. The market draws on extremely heterogeneous expertise, from plumbing to painting to electrics.”

“As a result, customers need a lot of reassurance to make sure they’re making the right choice. Incorporating reviews, photos and questions by our customers on our products and services pages provides this reassurance and complements the expertise of our sellers.”

“Today, UGC adds to the expertise and reputation of a brand and adds value to guide customers.”

“We’re therefore well aware of the importance of UGC and the need to ensure that it is genuine and authentic. To do this, we needed a trusted third party and a partner with significant functional experience and expertise regarding reviews. Our partner Bazaarvoice comprehensively delivered on those requirements.”

Looking to the future, Adeo and Bazaarvoice will be working together on a regular basis on artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, to make collecting the considerable volume of product reviews received even more efficient. To date, more than one million reviews have been collected.