Importance of Online Customer Reviews to Business
Recent statistics show that over 88 percent of consumers read online customer reviews for recommendations on the products they should buy. That should not be surprising. Customer reviews have become the new way in which consumers tell others about their experience with products. They are like traditional word-of-mouth, which was a way of marketing businesses that provided customers with the best experience. While all customer reviews influence buying choices, there is a difference when it comes to the number of words used in each one of them.
Types of customer reviews may include the following:
One-Sentence Reviews
One-sentence reports usually feature a short line with only a few words. For example, it could be something like: “I liked the product very much.” While that is a positive review, it doesn’t say much about the product. Prospective customers may find it hard to know the attributes of this product that the customer liked. Also, search engines tend to consign one-line reviews on the periphery.
Multiple-Paragraph Reviews.
From the name, these reviews contain multiple paragraphs. They tell much more than just painting the product or service in a certain way. In this kind of study, you will find details about the experience of the customer while interacting with the product.
Whether it is positive or negative, a multi-paragraph review is likely to have a significant impact on your business. One thing about positive reviews is that search engines use them to rank your products among the best. That’s why you should go out of your way to provide excellent products and services which encourage customers to leave positive reviews.
Importance of Customer Reviews on Business
Customer reviews, especially the large, detailed variety, play an essential role in marketing the business. The following are the reasons for the importance of online customer reviews: Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
- Increasing Sales
Customers who leave behind positive reviews are likely to influence potential customers to buy your products or services. It is for a simple reason. Before deciding to buy, most people go to the internet. They check out prices, product attributes, as well as customer reviews left on e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com. After reading these reviews, they make up their minds on the brands they need to buy.
But how do you get people to leave behind positive reviews? The company should work towards providing excellent products and services as well as customer experience. When other customers read reviews that paint your business in a positive light, they are going to decide to buy from you. It is a more organic way of increasing sales as compared to advertising.
- Building Credibility
To have a great business, you need to focus on much more than just selling. Instead, it is also about credibility and reputation. Without credibility, it will be impossible to retain customers and attract potential ones. So, your business needs to have a lot of online reviews to look credible. It is even better if most of the customer reviews are positive. Customers who talk about your products in a positive light have the power of neutralizing the few negative reviews. As such, the balance needs to be tilted towards the positive reviews for your business to look more credible.
However, it is foolhardy to expect customers to give positive reviews all the time. Once in a while, a dissatisfied customer will write a critical review. After reading such reviews and address the highlighted problems. Credibility in business is also about the kind of customer service you provide to your customers. If the customer service is top-notch, your business will attract even more customers.
- Improving SEO
Search engines use customer reviews to rank websites. They look for the number of mentions of your product as well as the positive reviews left behind by previous customers. In that case, we are not talking about the one-sentence reviews. The more detailed the product reviews, the higher the website is likely to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). But how does that happen? Search engines like Google consider reviews as unique content, just like the posts on your website. That’s how product reviews play a key role in determining how high your web pages will rank.
- Spreading Your Brand
Customer reviews also act as an effective marketing tool since they encourage people to leave even more reviews. Thus, it is a great way of putting out viral content about your product. It works simply. The more the reviews put out about your product, the more your brand name will spread. It helps if the reviews are painting your product in a positive light. That is free marketing in the sense that it builds awareness about your products or service. It makes potential customers know the kind of loyalty your product commands.
With positive reviews, customers will view your products as not only credible, reliable, and trustworthy. The kind of marketing you will get will be much more than putting out an advertisement about your products or services. Here, we are talking about both the reviews on your website as well as customer sentiments on social media.
- Building Customer Loyalty
As a businessperson, you should encourage customers to leave behind reviews of your products or services. That is because customers who leave online reviews are likely to feel more loyal to your business. If they had a positive experience, they would keep coming back for more. Customers who leave reviews will feel they have a voice, especially if you address their issues promptly. All it takes is to provide a platform on which they can communicate with you.
Conclusion
Modern businesses cannot afford to ignore online customer reviews. Depending on how you respond to them, reviews can make or break a business. That’s why you should encourage customers to provide their opinions about your brand. When they do, they will help you to improve in key areas and impact positively on the profitability of the business. You will be happy when customers take their time to talk about your business.