Trustpilot Helps Sendwave Establish Trust

In order to fulfill this business mission, Sendwave minimizes costs related to advertising and branding. Working with Trustpilot allows Sendwave to provide its customers with assurance and confidence without additional spending on advertising. 

Any service that involves banking and money must be worthy of a high level of trust. For the immigrant community, which is especially vulnerable to scams and predatory business practices, sending money can be fraught with worry, both for the receiver and the sender.

Since Sendwave works in a number of global markets and focuses on developing countries, it’s not always possible to rely on word-of-mouth referrals, which is the most reliable way to build trust. 

Most remittance companies earn profit in two ways: from exchange rates and from fees. 

For example, if you send $100 to a friend in a different country, you’ll probably pay $5 for the transaction, and the company will also earn a profit from the exchange rate. Sendwave eliminates those fees and earns a profit only from exchange rates. 

For many potential customers, this lack of fees seems suspicious or too good to be true. Sendwave’s business model is designed to put customers first, but that position is unfortunately so rare, it can create distrust in people who are unfamiliar with the company.  

Without the advantage of an established user base and referrals from family and friends to potential customers in new markets, Sendwave faces a challenge in demonstrating that its service is reliable, trustworthy and actually free to users. This is where Trustpilot can help. 

Along with a need to establish certainty and credence with consumers, Sendwave faced another challenge. Daniel Hernandez, Sendwave’s Media and Engagement Lead for Latin America, says that unsolicited reviews are somewhat like letters to the editor before the internet existed. 

Before working with Trustpilot, the reviews that Sendwave had were mostly from people who were closer to the nuclear end of the angry scale, and the team wanted to make the process of writing a review less burdensome in order “to give our many happy users a voice,” according to Herskowitz. 

By partnering with Trustpilot, Sendwave was able to invite large numbers of customers to leave a review, and that review process was made much simpler for the customer, making it easier for satisfied users to share how happy they are with Sendwave. Hernandez says that Sendwave is currently getting around 400 reviews per month. 

“You can send prompts all day long, but if you’re not doing a good job, you’re not going to have a high star rating,” he adds. The combination of a large number of reviews and an above-average star rating of 4.5 gives those people considering various remittance companies more assurance that Sendwave is trustworthy. 

One of the appeals of Trustpilot for the leaders at Sendwave even before using the platform was that Trustpilot does a fantastic job of indexing the platform with search engines, increasing visibility for any company that’s been reviewed. When a prospective user Googled “Sendwave,” Sendwave’s Trustpilot profile was listed in the top results, even before Sendwave began working with the platform. 

With the partnership, Sendwave has a little more control in what those prospective users see when they read Trustpilot reviews, because they can encourage happy users to leave reviews and provide simple tools to make the process of reviewing easier. This means that the reviews aren’t only or even mostly from people who are angry. 

Along with the fact that Trustpilot ranks in searches for companies that have reviews, it also provides important tools and feedback for its clients. Being able to send reminder emails to prompt user reviews, for example, has increased the number of reviews Sendwave has by about 60% and has “been helpful in that sense of how to maximize the kind of reviews we are getting,” says Herskowitz. 

The strong online presence that Trustpilot brings to Sendwave makes it easier for prospective customers to evaluate the service, even in instances where Sendwave is entering a new market. 

“It’s relevant when you type ‘Sendwave’ [into your search engine] and see Trustpilot,” says Hernandez. “People click on it and see this company has 4.5 stars and over 10,000 reviews [as of July 2023] .” 

Similarly, Trustpilot gives Sendwave an avenue for contacting unhappy customers. When people leave negative reviews, Sendwave responds publicly to the customer, works to fix the issue if possible, and the process improves overall customer service. They also ask if people feel happy to consider changing their score. For a mission-driven and service-oriented organization, this is a particularly important tool provided by Trustpilot.

“Trustpilot helps us in the post-sale experience and in keeping up with the pulse of our users,” says Hernandez. He says that at one point, the team noticed that reviews were falling across the board in certain markets.

Tracking reviews weekly and monthly to look for trends gave them some foresight. “We paused and analyzed the situation,” says Hernandez, “and were able to identify a change that informed our process and our product.” 

Herskowitz and Hernandez both agree that collaborating with Trustpilot gives people a space to say what they think about Sendwave, and that is largely positive. The vast majority of Sendwave’s users are pleased with the service. 

Trustpilot improves online visibility and builds confidence in Sendwave for customers who are taking a risk by trusting the organization to transfer their money safely and reliably.

If you’d like to learn how Trustpilot can improve online visibility and foster trust as they have for Sendwave, get in touch with one of our experts today.