Reviews of products, services and people are becoming more popular on the Internet and can help consumers make decisions faster.
Reviews are a way in which consumers can leave feedback, these are usually published on specialized Internet review sites, but they are also published on search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo, in specialized sites for doctors, lawyers, etc. And even in online stores like Amazon, The Home Depot, Macys or Walmart or on social networks like Facebook.
The purpose of a review is to allow the consumer to express how satisfied they are with a product or service. Usually these reviews use a scale from 1 to 5 and put stars or some other allusive icon.
Like it or Not
By Qualtrics.com 93% of consumers read online reviews before buying a product. Why this percentage is so high? the short answer is because as a mentioned in a preview paragraph, a review allows consumers to express their satisfaction level towards a product or service and give the opportunity to tell their side of the story. An online review usually is public and can provide as some experts name “social proof” in other words, the level of credibility, the consumers provide to a product, service or to a particular person.
We can say that the new “word of mouth” are the reviews people is leaving on the Internet. These reviews can be true or can be fake but either way can be positive for your business or negative to your business. An Internet review is part of your online reputation.
The Good
A positive review or multiple positive reviews of your product or service can help you build a good reputation of your business, product, or service. Also, a good reputation, can help you to attract more business and increase your sells. These are some of the benefits of having good reviews:
- Consumer trust. Trust is easy is hard to gain but very easy to lose. A consumer who is looking for a particular mountain bike, can review a particular brand or model, can choose between brand A and B just by reading some of the reviews.
- A direct line to consumers. Reviews provide an easy way to listen to consumer’s feedback and can give you insights that can help you to improve any part of the customer journey cycle. You can respond to the clients directly and provide more information or answer questions or solve some problems they might have when using your products or services. Keep the line open with your customers is always beneficial, more important listen to them is key.
- Search Engine Rankings. When you have excellent rankings, this boosts your authority and do help improve local search rankings. Google and other search engines rewards businesses with higher volume of positive reviews. This is not the only factor to improve search rankings but definitely is very important.
The Bad, and the Ugly
As you can imagine, a negative review or multiple negative reviews, will damage the online reputation of your business, product, or service. Bad reviews are an easy way to lose customers, and this will cost you time and money. Also, it can affect your search engine rankings. How can you avoid the bad and ugly of having a poor online reputation.? The short answser is providing an excellent customer experience, from presales to postsales you need to focus on all the aspect of your customer journey.
Take in consideration the following
Social Media. If your business has presence in different social media platforms, you will be expose to everything. Good and bad comments, good and bad reviews, fake reviews, and fake comments. If this is your case, you must plan how to address not only these issues, but also when you have good reviews too. Always listen and read what your customers are saying, address the issues, offer compensation, if necessary, report fake bad reviews and comments, etc.
Search Engines. Google owns probably more than 90% of the market share of the search engine landscape. People can leave Google reviews to a particular business or product. Make sure you have a My Google Business account and keep your profile update and have a plan to monitor and answer all the reviews and comments.
Third-Party review sites. This type of websites are dedicated to offer reviews to consumers, one of them is Yelp.com , but there hundreds of third-party review sites, some of them specialized in different areas like healthgrades.com or tripadvisor.com. Again, make sure you monitor these websites and have a plan on how to react or proceed with positive or negative reviews, work with them in case you get fake reviews or comments.
A general advice is always to respond negative reviews positively
- Monitor your online reputation and track when a negative review or comment goes live so you can respond fast, make sure to avoid making the same mistake over and over.
- Have a team member who is not related to the negative review, to answer the comment, be objective. Read the comments, offer an apologize, offer a proactive way to solve the situation, if the comment is public, try to contact the customer in private. A rapid response helps the customer feel heard and demonstrate you care about this situation. You might end up in transforming a bad review or comment into a positive review or at least show other customers you address the problems.
- Learn from the mistake or error, a bad comment or review is always an opportunity to learn and improve the customer experience
Get more reviews
Always ask your customers to give you a review. You can create a customer satisfaction survey, and at the end you can ask for a Google review or Facebook review or if you work with a company like Trustpilot.com or Ekomi.com or review through these services. Encouraging consumers to review your business is a simple way to increase your brand’s reach and of course increase your brand loyalty and of course increase your sales.
