Customer Reviews benefit Businesses.
“Focus on how the end-user customers perceive the impact of your innovation — rather than on how you, the innovators, perceive it.” — Thomas Eddison.
When running an online company, having customer reviews can significantly impact your business. Customer reviews are so powerful that it gives potential customers more confidence in their purchasing decisions, leading to a rise in sales. However, there’s a risk if the reviews contain harmful content about your company. This can cause a decrease in the business.
During the last couple of years, the popularity of online reviews has grown significantly. Reviews help people decide which products or services they should buy, where they should travel, and even where they should eat. Over time reviews have slowly become an integral part of the business on the internet. This is why it is essential to be careful when deciding if including customer reviews is the best option.
How much do local businesses use customer reviews?
Customer reviews are used by mostly 90% of the customers. And as you can see above, 34% of those users rely on customer reviews. Customers read and study the reviews to decide whether they trust and value other consumers' opinions and experiences. This is why both positive and negative thoughts can create such a significant impact on a small business. Studying and comparing how positive and negative reviews influence sales is essential. Click on the picture to visit the website to learn more about the Local Consumer Review Survey 2020 survey results.
Positive Reviews Affecting Businesses:
There are many ways in which this is possible. Firstly, studying how positive customer reviews can benefit businesses is crucial. Positive reviews can help a business by improving reputation, increasing sales, enhancing ranking on search engines, and boosting profitability. To support this with evidence, sources claim 73% of consumers surveyed said they trust a local business more if it has positive customer reviews. This demonstrates that more than half the customers rely on customer reviews, which shows the importance of having a review feature in online businesses.
Customers spend 31% more on a business with more positive reviews. That’s an incredible profit, especially for small businesses. Also, positive reviews with 5-star ratings help compel potential clients to contact you as they feel more confident about your business. The more customers you satisfy, the more interested people will buy your products/services. Overall, to handle an excellent reputation and develop a good eye in the hand of consumers, it’s essential to focus and prioritize attention towards addressing and receiving customer reviews.
Negative Reviews Affecting Businesses:
This leads to the next point in the discussion: negative reviews can damage the reputations of online businesses. From the article previously mentioned, while taking a survey, half the customers stated that negative customer reviews make them question the quality of a company. From a more realistic perspective, research claims one negative review can drive away 30 customers. More than four negative reviews can increase your lost customers to 70%. This is why businesses need to steer clear of negative reviews.
Another matter most people need to learn about customer reviews is that they can affect SEO. This demonstrates that negative reviews affect how your business ranks on search engines. Negative ratings rank your business poorly because search engines recommend the best enterprises to users. Another problem is that people are likelier to share bad reviews than good ones. Though having negative reviews for businesses can be challenging to maintain, it’s not impossible to change the business reputation for the better.
Ways to Handle Negative Reviews:
There are many ways in which negative reviews can be changed for the better. For example, sources claim that responding as soon as possible is the best way to respond to these reviews. Respond to reviews immediately or as promptly as possible. Most enterprises ignore negative reviews and don’t have strategies in place on how to address them effectively. Not to mention, responding to these reviews can also work nicely toward positive feedback. Remain calm when replying to negative reviews. What you say in your response can change the person’s mind about your business. Knowing how to address their concern and resolve the issue is essential, meaning taking the conversation to email or private messages. Forbes contends that 45% of consumers will visit a store that responds to negative reviews.
Another way can be to offer to fix the problem personally. It is continuing the conversation offline and inviting the customer to contact the business owner to resolve it. To add on, negative reviews can be handled nicely, even with in-person businesses. It is important to note that customer support is the backbone of any business. It can make or break a customer’s experience, impacting your company’s bottom line in many ways. Only about 4% of dissatisfied customers tell the company they’re unhappy with their service. Remember, there’s always room for improvement, so keep working hard to provide the best customer support possible. Solve issues before customers take them online. Be professional and show empathy with a quick response. It will go a long way. It also shows potential consumers that you care and wants to make things right.
Top Review Sites:
Besides personal business websites, customers tend to use popular reviewing websites to leave a review about a particular business. According to Forbes, some of the most popular review sites consumers use are Google, BBB.org, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, and Yellow Pages. Business owners need to monitor their business feedback on these websites. Business owners monitor those sites once or twice a week, depending on the volume of reviews. There are many businesses in which having reviews significantly impacts their sales.
Examples of Businesses That were Affected by Online Reviews:
There are many companies, in particular, which they dominate online reviews. From an article, ASOS and HubSpot were the top two businesses positively impacted by reviews. These businesses must maintain a fabulous online presence because they have few in-person customer interactions. It is an online-only business, starting with ASOS, making it different from many other clothing retailers. The brand plays on this difference by selling itself as a community.
It incorporates customer-first policies and always keeps customer satisfaction at the forefront of its strategies. Next is HubSpot. One of the best-selling points for HubSpot’s platform is its original yet straightforward plan for pricing. What helps HubSpot maintain such a solid online reputation is its understanding of its customer’s needs and goals. If one looks at its positive reviews, HubSpot offers valuable solutions to its target audience.
Online Reviews Affecting Popular Culture:
Not only can online consumer feedback affect businesses, but it can also affect popular culture. Little can one notice that customer reviews can be found anywhere online. There are many ways in which customer reviews can affect companies that aren’t even selling anything. For instance, one example may be leaving comments under a YouTube video. The way someone feels about a music video, for example, can affect the viewer’s opinions about the song too. Not to mention, music record labels are a sort of online business as well. Another way a consumer can show feedback is through social media, for example, along the lines of a picture on Instagram. Instagram can also be a creative way for businesses to promote their items.
If a specific business has many likes on individual posts, it shows other customers how reliable it can be. An article states that customer testimonials come in various forms — customer quotes, case studies, reviews, and video testimonials. When appropriately used, customer testimonials on Instagram can provide social proof and give your visitors and followers a solid reason to trust your brand. Lastly, another way online reviews can be affected by popular culture is when a celebrity endorses a product. When a person with a large following promotes a development, it is an excellent 5-star review by someone you trust. Businesses mainly sponsor influencers with their products because it increases their sales.
Customer Reviews Better for Businesses
The final analysis is essential to determine whether customer reviews would be better for a business. To summarize everything stated so far, having a customer review feature on the website would be the best decision. There are many reasons why this is the best choice. As mentioned earlier, online reviews, both positive and negative, can be used to identify any areas of your business that could use improvements, such as customer service or faster delivery. When keeping customers happy, one can convert them into loyal customers, which means they’ll be sticking for the exact purpose in the long run.
However, to be more specific, positive reviews can ultimately benefit a business by boosting its reputation, which can cause an increase in overall sales. While negative reviews, on the other hand, can be risky for the company, it is possible to handle them. The best way to take negative reviews is to respond immediately and provide the kindest service to the customers. It’s crucial to keep up with these reviews to maintain a healthy online presence for the exact purpose of the business. Consumer feedback is everywhere, from YouTube videos to social media presence. According to sources, online reviews are bound to drive customers towards or away from a brand in a world governed by the internet. Placing customer satisfaction at the top of the priority list for the exact purpose of your business can only help your company’s sales and profitability. This is why it is essential to analyze the reviews if you have a small business. When handling a business, the customer’s opinion is most valuable and matters the most.
