Rivervale, founded as a leasing specialist in 2001, is a young company emerging from deep historic roots. It’s a part of Endeavour Holdings, owned by Tommy Sopwith, the son of legendary aviation pioneer Thomas Sopwith. It’s an impressive heritage that Rivervale is determined to honour by operating with a staunch commitment to first-class customer service.
Rivervale: A Young Company With An Old Soul
This pledge to provide customer service that goes the extra mile isn’t an empty promise, it’s something Rivervale regards as fundamental to the growth of the business. That’s why Rivervale looked to partner with Trustpilot.
Why Customer Trust is Part of Rivervale’s Foundation
Having recently opened a fantastic showroom in Brighton called Rivervale House, the company has recently entered a new and exciting growth phase. Sensing an opportunity to break new ground in the UK market, the showroom was conceived as the catalyst for a ground-breaking approach to leasing vehicles.
Leasing companies have traditionally operated off-site via telephone and internet transactions, so Rivervale’s decision to open a showroom represents a significant operational shift. By bringing customers into the showroom and developing sales via closer customer interaction, Rivervale aims to foster a deeper, more enduring relationship with customers and cement its position as the number one brand in the UK leasing market.
Trust is a major part of the company’s redoubled focus on customer service so Trustpilot’s capacity to build brand credibility through customer feedback was a great fit for Rivervale’s brand-building ambitions.
Josh Seymour, Digital Manager at Rivervale, has emphasised this core element of the company’s identity and why that made Trustpilot stand out as a tailor-made partner.
“We treat every customer as we would wish to be treated and give them everything we’d expect to be given as a customer. Growing our business to fill out this showroom and be the company we’re selling ourselves as needs proof, and our proof is our Trustpilot reviews.”
How Trustpilot Helped Rivervale Elevate its Customer Rating to the Highest in its Category
With a TrustScore of 9.9 out of 10 stars, Rivervale is, at the time of this writing, the highest ranked UK lease company on Trustpilot. With an impeccable rating, Rivervale decided to display their number 1 place on all of their channels.
Trustpilot has been an invaluable resource for Rivervale by providing them with customer-generated content and better visibility, and has helped the company leverage its high standing among its competition.
The copy - ‘The UK’s #1 ranked car leasing company on Trustpilot’ - as seen below in the Google SERPs (search engine result page), resonates perfectly with Rivervale’s customer-centric and service-led strategy. The copy invites prospective customers to see for themselves that the company’s trustworthy reputation is built on authentic, independent feedback.
How Trustpilot Everywhere Led to Higher Sales
Trustpilot’s reviews have played a central part in all of Rivervale’s marketing.
Josh explains:
“Our reviews are shown everywhere we can put them. Specifically on all email marketing campaigns, on comparison websites, on our TV ad. It’s on our website at the top of every page and throughout. It’s in our digital marketing via Google organic search results. It’s everywhere!”
Last year, Trustpilot was directly attributable for the sale of 8 cars. This wasn’t an outcome Rivervale had foreseen but it’s clear from the 32.41% conversion rates detailed in the graphic below that Trustpilot can serve a direct and highly effective sales channel, even when principally used to generate a strong brand message.
They’ve promoted their score across all their channels including their email signature, website, car search page, and on video advertisements as well. See below for examples of how Rivervale promoted their high reviews.
How Trustpilot has become integral to Rivervale’s business model
Trustpilot has helped facilitate and define a strong brand identity for Rivervale. By backing up the company’s commitment to industry-leading customer service, Trustpilot has played a part in forging a customer-centric identity that perfectly matches Rivervale’s bold new drive to bring leasing to the high street.
Because vehicle leasing represents a very significant purchase for most customers, credibility and trust are valuable commodities for Rivervale. Being able to point to the company’s number one Trustpilot ranking has become an instrumental part of the sales process and its marketing, allowing Rivervale to utilize authentic social proof across multiple channels.
Going forward, it’s clear that Trustpilot will continue to play an almost determinative role in Rivervale’s approach to leasing. Because Trustpilot reviews play such an important part in defining Rivervale’s brand identity they’ve also helped to define best practices throughout the company.
As Josh says:
“Reviews are part of a customer’s buying journey now for so many different products that you just have to embrace it. To embrace it fully you have to be confident that you are doing things the right way. Trustpilot really helps us stay true by our tag line - ‘Do it the Right way. Do it the Rivervale Way.”