Rasmus Auctions is an online auction company based in the DC area and is one of the first traditional outcry auction companies to go internet-only. They chose to go online back in the late ‘90s when the owner, Chris Rasmus, had the foresight to know that that’s where things were headed. Having an online presence is important to all businesses, but that’s especially true for an online business like Rasmus Auctions.
“Technology has always been an important thing to us,” said Rasmus. “Because most of our buyers find us on Google, we found that it was difficult for us to really tell our story the way we wanted to because, as so often happens, the only customers motivated enough to leave online feedback were those with an axe to grind.”
CULTIVATING TRUST WITH CUSTOMERS
Being a primarily online business, customer trust and reputation were absolutely necessary to Rasmus’ success. Without the face-to-face component that many local businesses have, they needed a way to build trust with their customers in a modern way.
“We provide great customer experiences,” said Rasmus. “You can trust us, and by extension, you can trust the things that we’re selling. We just needed to figure out a way to get that customer feedback online so people could come to their own determinations about how great we were by listening to it from others. That’s why we knew we needed a product like Podium that is closely integrated with Google. We’re a service business that doesn’t have a physical storefront. And that made it that much more difficult for us to get traction on Google, because it was kind of aimed more towards businesses that had a storefront.”
BUILDING A HABIT OF FEEDBACK
Rasmus Auctions has seen a lot of great feedback from customers because they understand the importance of building feedback into the purchase process. If a business can determine the best time to ask for customer feedback, and then train their team to be consistent in asking, they will see amazing results.
“We find that Podium really helps us communicate with buyers at the moment when we know that they have a good feeling,” explained Rasmus. “We realize that those feelings can be somewhat perishable so we send the invite as soon after purchase as possible.”
PODIUM GETS QUICK RESULTS
When Rasmus Auctions first started using Podium, they had some clear expectations of what the platform should do. Podium met and exceeded those expectations in a few short months, and now they are starting to explore additional features that can help them in other aspects of their business.
“We really set out to get a toehold into a positive rating, and we did that very quickly,” explained Rasmus. “From there, we tried to achieve some level of gravitas so that we were not just showing that we were good, but far outpacing what competitors we have in the marketplace. And we’ve managed to do that as well. It’s worth every dime I’m paying for it. I know other people who probably should be using it that won’t, and that actually gives me a competitive advantage.”
LASTING IMPACT
Quick results are great to boost a business’ online rating, but the lasting impact of a healthy and active online presence are building up a loyal customer base and a shining reputation for future customers.
“Podium has enabled potential customers to search Google and self-determine that we’re good guys with a good service,” concluded Rasmus. “It goes a long way to helping establish us as the leader in our market space, by comparison our competitors either have very few or very poor reviews. For anybody who already knows us and does business with us, they already know we’re special. Those who don’t know we’re great are people who haven’t used us yet. They’re relying on the opinions of others, and when they see it on Google or on Facebook, it gives them a great deal of confidence and comfort.”
