What is the impact of positive online reviews to potential customers? Well, it turns out pretty significant.
Don’t believe me? Check out these online review statistics pulled from a report compiled by INVESP.
- 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business
- 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as in-person recommendations
- Customers are likely to spend 31% more on a business with “excellent” reviews
- 72% say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
- 92% of users will use a local business if it has at least a 4-star rating
- Reliability (27%), expertise (21%), and professionalism (18%) are the most important reputation traits for a local business
- 86% of people will hesitate to purchase from a business that has negative online reviews
It is clear online reviews can either make or break your business. What once came in the shape of “word of mouth” recommendations, reviews of an establishment are now most influential online. Even localized businesses who gain a lot of foot traffic need to have an online review management process in place.
Did you know, 86% of people will hesitate to purchase from a business with poor online ratings? Here's why online review management is more important than ever.
Why are online reviews important?
The content of online reviews on sites such as Google, Yelp, Glassdoor, Trip Advisor, and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can lead to a successful and profitable business, or a business’s downfall. While it is no hidden secret that positive online reviews are more beneficial than negative online reviews, organizations should also be weary of not having any online ratings at all.
Having very few online reviews or no online reviews at all can be just as harmful as a slew of low star ratings and negative commentary. Consumers in today’s shopping world are smarter than ever. It has become common practice for us to turn to our iOS or Android devices and Google just about anything – including your business and what people are saying about it.
If a potential customer of yours is doing their due diligence and researching your company and find very little information about what it is like to do business with you, they’ll most likely bail. This is likely because one of two notions have popped into their head. Either they think this is a new business or a start up and don’t want to fall risk of an internet scheme, or no other customer before them have had that impactful of an experience that it was worth leaving any type of review.
Having even 3-5 reviews in total (the more positive the better) serve as a reassurance to potential customers that you are the real deal.
How can my business gain more positive reviews than negative?
New businesses existing to compete with yours are popping up every day. It is always a consumer's market. In other words, consumers have the upper hand in choosing from several likeminded companies. What helps consumers decided where to take their business? You guessed it! Online reviews.
It extremely important all businesses have some type of online reputation management process in place in order to earn a steady stream of positive online reviews. The online review management process typically involves inviting your existing customer base to offer feedback on your service, product, or company in general. After they’ve completed the customer feedback survey of sorts, they are redirected to an online review rating site of your preference to leave a similar review.
But, wait…what if my customer leaves a negative review?
Don’t worry-we’re going to tell you how you can cut down on negative reviews altogether.
Two words: customer satisfaction!
There may be things that your customer base doesn’t like about your brand. By running a customer survey, you’ll be able to understand what these elements are. From there, you can then take action and adjust accordingly.
Once you eliminate these customer detractors, you’ll likely get less negative feedback when you direct people to leave a review.
With that being said, negative online reviews should not be left untouched. There is actually a lot of key insights and takeaways from this type of feedback. More on that here.
What should I look for in an online review management company?
Business should be looking to market research companies as they can offer an all-encompassing, unifying approach to both customer satisfaction surveys and the online review management process. Market researchers are trained and skilled in Voice of Customer (VoC) studies to help brands acts on negative comments and improve brand perceptions.
If on the hunt for an online review management firm, here are some key factors to look for:
- Specializes in a variety of industries and services: Not all organizations can simply email their list of customers with a link to an online customer satisfaction survey. For example banks and credit unions often can only send marketing material to their customer base through mail. In turn, the online review management company must be able to execute mail surveys.
- Offers dedicated project managers: A project manager will be your point of contact with the online reputation management company to ensure very little is required from you or your team. If any negative feedback is collected from the customer feedback survey or commented on an online review rating site, the project manager will notify your team immediately to resolve the issue fast.
- Flexible and trustworthy: Look for an online review management agency that offers full transparency and realistic deliverables. They must also be able to move fast to ensure your online reputation is pristine.
Of course there are several other obvious factors to consider when choosing an online review management company, such as costs, talent, and experience. But hey, one way to fact check these attributes is through the company’s online reviews 😉.
Contact Drive Research
Drive Research is an online review management company located in New York. We work with organizations across the country to set up regular ORM programs to filter and publish high scores on sites like Google, Yelp, and others.
Interested in taking advantage of our ORM services? Contact our team for a proposal.
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Call us at 888-725-DATA
Text us at 315-303-2040