9 Benefits of Online Customer Reviews for Your Business
Keeping in mind that online customer reviews are a free form of advertisement, you’ll want to learn how to leverage them. Here are the benefits of online customer reviews in a digital marketing strategy.
1. They’re a Form of Feedback from Your Customers
One fear for many businesses is negative feedback. But knowing how to manage online reviews can be used to your advantage. It allows you to fix things before it’s too late or offer explanations or apologies and maintain a positive reputation.
For example, if several clients complain about a particular employee, consider educating him/her more on how to handle customers. Feedback also allows you to know the aspects of your business that your clients are raving about and highlight them. Reviews can help you figure out what your customers expect from your business, and work towards that.
2. Online Customer Reviews Boosts the Credibility of Your Business
It’s crucial to offer your customers excellent products and services to ensure they leave a positive word. Usually, the best time to ask your customer to write a review is when they’re still excited about a good or service. For example, if your customer just bought a car, ask them to take a photo holding their keys in front of and share it on their Facebook page.
Yet as we all know, angry customers tend to be the loudest. So, what do you do with negative reviews? Ignore them, maybe?
Wrong.
Evaluate each situation and try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. If you’re wrong, apologize and offer a coupon, discount, or a refund. Showing up and having a conversation assures your customers that you care about them, maintaining the image of your business.
3. They Increase Your Visibility Online
Online customer reviews influence what businesses appear when a customer searches for a company in any category. Since Google’s purpose is to deliver the best results to searchers, it uses reviews when deciding on the order of businesses during local searching.
When customers search for businesses on Yelp, your ranking is determined by the number of reviews and ratings. When you rank higher, people and search engines view you as an authority in your industry, which increases exposure.
4. They Improve the Relationship with Your Clients
In today’s world, where many processes are automated, it might be hard for a customer to have any human interaction with your company. Replying to a customer’s feedback allows them to get to know the people behind the logo. It helps dilute the bitterness they may have felt and get closer to the business.
Customers are looking to buy products from human beings, not robots. Also, answering the questions that your customers are asking helps them know that there is someone who is listening to them. Being responsive and having good communication overall helps to build trust and satisfaction.
5. Online Reviews Can Help Improve Sales
The ultimate goal for every business is to boost profits. A study carried out by Harvard Business School showed that a one-star increase rating in Yelp could boost a business’s revenue by 5-9%. If such a small improvement can make such a huge impact, imagine what positive online customer reviews can do for your business in the long term.
6. Save on Advertising Costs
Unlike cost-prohibitive forms of advertising, with reviews, you don’t pay a dime, and yet you’ll see results!
Every online review a customer writes is a form of advertising for your business. Reviews provide the type of exposure that other content (paid or not) can’t achieve. These are viewpoints that people value because they come from real individuals with authentic experiences and opinions.
Clients who write online reviews are likely to spread the message by word of mouth to their friends and relatives. Be sure to thank them for their kind words and support publicly.
7. Improved Landing Page Conversions
Digital marketing revolves around improving conversion rates, click-through rates on your organic listings and paid ads, and enticing customers to click on product pages.
A recent survey showed that by having a 5-star rating, you could significantly improve landing page conversions. As part of the study, 6283 participants were asked to imagine they were searching for a realtor or plumber. They were then shown two different landing pages.
On one landing page, the business claimed to be dependable while another had an actual customer review. 83% of the participants chose the business with the customer review and said it appeared trustworthy. 74% of them said they’d consider contacting the business.
Highlight your customer reviews on your landing pages to be sure they are seen.
8. Reviews Generate More Reviews
When your business already has online customer reviews, people are more likely to leave feedback. Just the presence of other reviews seems to give customers the confidence to write about their own experience with a product or a service. Be sure to always to answer comments left publicly to show attention and appreciation to your customers.
9. Customer Loyalty
Customers who leave a comment are likely to feel loyalty, hence coming back for more. By receiving a response to their review, customers feel like their voice matters to the business. The feeling of belonging leads to loyalty, and in return, you get increased customer lifetime value.
Are Online Customer Reviews Necessary?
Do you think online customer reviews have an impact on the sales of you business?
Of course, different businesses have different results from various forms of advertising. But with online reviews, many companies have been able to understand their clients better, boost credibility, increase visibility online, and rank higher in search engine resutls.
If you’re looking to design and optimize your website to start raking in positive reviews from customers, please contact us today.
