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Adding positive reviews provides your business with valuable content, improving your branding or brand reputation.
Many times when we talk to SME managers about customer reviews, they come up with the following comment shared by the vast majority:
“I know, I know, opinions are important, but I don’t have time and I don’t know how to get them.”
So, in general, it is understood that reviews are important. However, sometimes companies don’t really realize how important they are.
The data reflects the importance of reviews.
Year after year, more and more data demonstrates the importance of consumer behavior, positive reviews or social validation.
According to BrightLocal’s local consumer review survey, 91% of consumers aged 18-34 trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Also, this same survey tells us that:
- 98% of people read online ratings of nearby businesses.
- 80% of people would be willing to leave a review if their initial negative experience turns into a positive one.
In Forbes magazine, emarketing specialist Chase Willians states that “Even in an industry like professional services, negative reviews or a lack of them can be detrimental. We found that consumers expect businesses in this industry to have a minimum average Google score of 3.84 with at least 20 reviews.”
When it comes to generating ratings, you have the option of doing it yourself or using platforms that not only measure customer experience, but also allow you to generate positive reviews such as the Allswers platform.
In this line of research, the consulting firm McKinsey has shown that the purchase opinions of other buyers seem to have more influence on consumers than any marketing strategy. So we must understand how and why companies should prioritize customer ratings, or risk falling behind their competitors.
Boost your business with your reviews.
When consumers have essentially transparent information about the product they are buying, it encourages them to try not only the product they are looking for, but also different products from other categories without depending on the brand.
In the past, factors such as ‘price’ were decisive in selecting a product from among several similar ones; now it is just a matter of ratings and opinions.
The total number of overall reviews doubled in the year following the start of COVID-19. And if you think that there were ten years of reviews before that, that’s a lot of ratings in a very short period of time.
Right now your customer reviews are key to powering your brand’s growth. Online ratings have been with us for a long time, but why does customer feedback matter now more than ever?
Traditional marketing is a thing of the past.
All this also affects the physical store. Today, most consumers, when they have a need and want to search for a product, start with the online process. Many of them may eventually, once they find what they are looking for, end up in a physical store to purchase it; but the key is that the whole process started online.
Going solely to the store and looking at what’s on the shelf or any traditional marketing leverage – such as brand power, in-store availability or some kind of in-store promotion – is old world.
If you’re a consumer and you have to choose between giving more weight to a signal given to you by the salesperson, or to signals given to you by actual consumers using the products, which of the two options do we think most consumers will choose?
But is your company really ready for it, use customer experience tools like Allswers to increase the number of positive reviews about your product or company and the impact on your bottom line will be direct.
