The Importance of Customer Reviews The Importance of Customer Reviews Tenzing, Thinkwrap And Spark::red Merge To Create Leading Commerce Services Provider How to Master Cloud Planning with Commerce Managed Services Posted by Pivotree Growth Team on February 7, 2018 in B2B, B2C, Blog, Customer Experience (CX), Ecommerce, Latest Trends, Marketing 0 Comments Word of mouth is king when it comes to making purchase decisions. We recently focused on affiliate marketing â a natural extension of which is the importance of customer reviews in the buyerâs journey. Letâs consider the impact of these reviews and determine some strategies for collecting and leveraging customer reviews to promote your business to your target audience. Why Do Customer Reviews Matter? Consumers read an average of seven reviews before trusting a business, according to Bright Localâs 2017 Local Consumer Review Survey. This was up from six in the 2016 survey. In the survey, which Bright Local has been doing since 2010, the top five business models people read reviews for were: Restaurants & Cafes Hotels/Bed & Breakfasts Clothing Stores Grocery Stores Hair/Beauty Services But consumers also sought to learn about insurance services, pest control, attorneys, locksmiths and more. Online reviews, though, donât only influence purchasers. Reviews also matter to Googleâs search engines. When it comes to retail, Googleâs local ranking factors for search are âbased primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence.â Relevance and distance arenât impacted by reviews, but more reviews suggest to Googleâs algorithm that the business is better known, which can improve a businessâs local ranking. B2B marketers also need to pay attention to reviews as a way of broadcasting customer perception and impacting customer purchases. After all, B2B companies are affected by online reviews on employee review sites, on product hunt sites, and in industry-wide research reports or surveys. 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2017, with 12% looking for a local business online every day How to Collect Customer Reviews You might think that having no online reviews is a good thing â no news is good news, right? Yet you stand to increase sales by getting more reviews. The more the better, but even a few can help. The first step in getting positive customer reviews is to provide outstanding customer service and an excellent product or service that people want to rave about. But, regrettably, not everyone is inclined to share their opinions â or at least not with you directly. The bad news is that people who have a negative experience arenât likely to offer feedback to help you improve. Instead, theyâll simply leave and tell 15 of their friends that they did so and why. Nevertheless, to leverage the power of positive reviews, you need to make a proactive effort to solicit feedback. In a reinterpretation of the âif you build it, they will comeâ mantra, âif you ask them, they will review.â Some 68% of consumers left reviews for local businesses when asked for their feedback, according to Bright Local. Do it quickly. Youâll want to solicit input as soon after the transaction as you can. This will net you greater response rates and, likely, more detailed comments in the review as the experience with the service or product will be fresh in the reviewerâs mind. Also make a practice of responding to reviews â both positive and negative. Even simple follow-up comments or acknowledging the feedback helps to make the user feel heard, humanizing your brand and building trust for your business. Donât forget to give reviewers an easy visual scale to work with too. In fact, 58% of consumers say the star rating of a business is the most important factor. Plus, Bright Localâs 2015 survey noted a 154% increase in clicks for a 2nd position organic search result when it featured stars. Regularly track your reviews by making it a habit to check out the various review platforms and social media outlets. After all, every one-star increase in a Yelp rating translated to a five to nine percent increase in revenue in a 2016 Harvard Business Review study. Itâs even a good idea to track your competitorsâ reviews. Knowing what they have done well, or are doing poorly and how people feel about their product or service performance can give you competitive insight to make your own business better. 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations How to Leverage Those Reviews Donât just rest on your laurels when your brand or business receives a positive review. After all, positive reviews making 73% of consumers trust a local business more, according to Bright Localâs survey. Get those reviews in front of your audience. Consider another Bright Local finding: 32% of consumers read local reviews on mobile apps in 2017 (a growth of 14% from 2016). In its 2015 survey, Bright Local noted a 55% increase in clicks for a second position organic search result when it featured a greater quantity of reviews. Reviews can be turned into customer testimonials for the website. You might also highlight the reviews in social media posts and in email marketing campaigns. Or consider printing and displaying positive reviews in your store or office. In monitoring your reviews, also keep an eye out for potential influencers. A brand loyalist who provides positive feedback and has many loyal followers in your niche market could become a brand evangelist on your behalf. 49% of consumers need at least a four-star rating before they choose to use a business What About a Negative Review? Even one negative review on the first page of a potential customerâs search results can prompt a loss of 22% of business. Businesses with two negatives on that first-page risk lose 44% of customers. You canât erase all negative reviews, of course. That would make savvy and skeptical online users question the legitimacy of your other reviews. According to Econsultancy, “68% of consumers trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores.â What you can do is respond in a clear, helpful, friendly way. If your potential buyers are going to see a negative review, make sure that they also see how your company handled the situation in a logical, compassionate way. Always reply to negative reviews. Even if you arenât able to win over a new customer with your response, youâll at least share your side of the story and build trust by showing how you value customer/client experience. Now, recognizing the importance of online reviews, itâs up to you to get out there and solicit feedback, monitor the reviews you do get, respond to your detractors, and put the positive accolades into rotation in campaigns, social media, and on your website to start shaping prospective buyersâ perspective today. Need help integrating a review system with your eCommerce platform? We can help. Contact Us Sources Bright Local. (2017). Local Consumer Review Survey. https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey/ Chowney, N. (2012, Jan. 12). Bad Reviews Improve Conversion by 67%. https://econsultancy.com/bad-reviews-improve-conversion-by-67/ DeNisco Rayome, A. (2017, April 19). Best Practices for Managing Online Reviews of Your Business. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/7-best-practices-for-managing-online-reviews-of-your-business/ Hinckley, D. (2015). New Study: Data Reveals 67% of Consumers are Influenced by Online Reviews. https://moz.com/blog/new-data-reveals-67-of-consumers-are-influenced-by-online-reviews Luca, M. (2016). Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case for yelp.com. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=41233 Sellas, B. (2017, Jan. 4). Online Reviews will Dominate Marketing Success in 2017. https://bsquared.media/online-reviews-dominate-marketing/ Tags:Latest trends Share this article: 0 Comments Leave a reply Click here to cancel the replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *CommentName * Email * Website