The Inside Scoop on Online Reviews: Why They Matter and How to Make Most of Them
What does it look like e-commerce ratings? Consumers rely on online reviews for products that they can not physically encounter before buying. These reviews can benefit companies who work online, gain business from customers and gain a good reputation online. The increase in reviews has impacted business opinion through the internet and social media.
You have to admit; online reviews are powerful. They can be the difference between a loyal customer and an unhappy one. If you want more online reviews but don't know where to start, this blog post is for you!
But before we get started you probably already know...
Consumers read online reviews & Consumers trust online reviews
A little bit of background around customer reviews
What are online customer reviews?
An graphic showing the reviews for the Punjab restaurant Covent Garden, London - we started working with them in 2011
A review online is a statement made by somebody about their experience with your company. (customer feedback) It could be something good, bad, or indifferent. Online reviews are becoming increasingly important as customers use the internet to decide where to spend their money.
According to BrightLocal's 2016 local consumer survey, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This customer feedback also helps businesses grow by attracting new customers and retaining old ones.
One of the golden rules of marketing says that existing customers are so much easier to keep spending on average, 33% more than new customers.
What is the best online review site?
There are many different online review sites, and even the smallest owner-built business websites have their facilities for customers to leave reviews.
Then you are into the realm of third party review sites, Facebook reviews, Google reviews (Google maps), Amazon, Tripadvisor, Yelp, Opentable, Trustpilot. You have the facility to leave positive and negative reviews of all of these.
What you have to factor in and different review sites for various industries historically Trip Advisor is used for travel and eating out, Amazon for products and Facebook and Google for pretty much anything.
Based on stats from Review Trackers and their 2021 online review roundup, Google reviews represent 57.5% of all reviews globally.
(As a business owner, it is probably a good idea to try and get as many genuine reviews of your business as possible on Google)
From the same report, they had the following figures.
63.6% of users check Google reviews.
45.18% of consumers visit Yelp reviews.
30.03% read reviews on TripAdvisor.
23.14% of customers visit Facebook to read reviews about a business.
(Source: Review Trackers)
Why are online reviews so critical? & How do consumers use online reviews?
Following what we discussed above, here are a few more stats from around the internet.
The influence of online reviews – 90% of consumers check people’s reviews to decide whether to buy a product or not.
(Source: Marketing Land)
78% of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family members.
94% of people say bad online reviews have convinced them not to buy from a business
(Source: Review Trackers)
A 1-star increase in Yelp reviews rating can result in a rise of 5% to 9% in revenue.
(Source: Harvard Business School)
Best-sellers have an average of 4.2-4.7 stars rating. Consumers consider five stars "too good to be true." (Source: Moz)
Consumer reviews are the third most significant element in Google's local pack algorithm. (Source Moz)
Local businesses which appear on the top three positions on the first page of Google have an average of 47 reviews. (Source Brightlocal)
1. Create a review policy and stick to it online
We work with several businesses helping them with their online reputation management, including companies in Reigate and London. One of these clients is a well-established restaurant with lots of positive customer reviews. Working alongside them, we have created a policy document for managing their online reputation. This has really helped with gaining online business reviews and has increased their customer service.
One of the critical elements of this policy is to answer a review left anywhere online within 24 hours. This is for both negative and positive reviews. Plus, if possible, if it is a negative review, we want to try and take the conversation offline ASAP.
Another part of this policy is to make sure that all staff are trained on all products and services to provide the best customer service possible.
We have also implemented a mystery shopping element to the policy. This means that if we start to notice that they are receiving a series of poor reviews or below average star ratings then we need to take action. A mystery shopper is dispatched to the restaurant and they are briefed to look for reasons why the customer satisfaction might have dropped and they then feedback and have suggestions that need to be made to improve the customer's reviews.
2. Leave your phone number and email address or a QR code on the receipt.
A receipt with a phone number, website, but no call to action for leaving a review
It's a simple thing to do, but we suggest you take it one step further to direct customers to review sites directly from their receipt. Add a QR code with a tracking code, and you send a customer straight to your Google review site. Again with a client we work with within London, we have added QR codes that go to a private link on YouTube that shows a video of the owner asking for a review if they have enjoyed the experience with that business. In short, this has not only increased positive reviews but has decreased negative reviews.
3. Provide a way for customers to contact you with compliments or complaints
Sometimes customers don't want to leave a review online as they would rather speak to you offline. This leads on from the phone number and email address mentioned earlier. There are facilities to install chatbots on your website, which can be installed quickly and easily. Plus, they can be programmed to show stock answers which might mean a human might not need to get involved from the start of the complaint or compliment.
4. Create a list of FAQs that will be available on your website, so people know what to expect before they make a purchase
FAQ's on a website is an easy idea to implement; you probably already know what the questions will be about for your business or products. It also should be said that you can add these same FAQ's to your Google Business Profile to help with your SEO ranking. You can find out how to do this in an early blog on our website. Be transparent about shipping fees and processing times - don't surprise customers with hidden costs at checkout!
5. Include photos of products being used in real life, so shoppers know exactly what they're getting into before buying something online without trying it first.
A full selection of images from a wine shop in Reigate - The Vineking
If you have ever bought anything from eBay, it is doubtful that you have ever bought anything that doesn't show images of the product you would like to purchase. Likewise, it is very unlike that you would have purchased a product with an awful customer review rating. So add lots of images of the products or services you are selling is always a good idea. It pays to use a professional photographer to ensure your business is being shown in the best possible light.
In addition, again, as Google is the leading authority when it comes to online reviews, I would strongly suggest that you add full optimised images to your Google Business Profile. We would recommend the following things to remember.
Key things a Google added to your Google Business profile are
Make sure you label the image correctly, and it describes what is actually in the photo - i.e. 2345.jpg isn't good enough. "Black Nike Air Max 90 Men's trainer" is much better.
Use an image compressor to ensure your image is at the optimum image file size so that it doesn't slow down your website. There is a great free tool called https://imagecompressor.com/
Don't forget to add the Alt Text - Alt text, or "alternative text", is a word or phrase that describes an image. It's used by visually impaired people and use a screen reader to read aloud the contents of a web page. Screen readers can't interpret images, so they rely on alt text to give people an idea of what's in the picture. How do you add this to your photographs? When you upload an image to your website, you'll see an "Alternative text" field. This is where you enter the alt text for that image. It's essential to fill this inaccurately because if you don't, the screen reader will just read out the image's filename instead.
Conclusion
Reviews are a vital part of doing business online, and they can help boost your sales. But reviews don't just happen by themselves; you need to make it easy for people to leave their reviews about your product or service. We know how important it is to have an excellent reputation online because we manage our clients' reputation and monitor all their reviews as soon as they come in. We can take care of any issues right away. If this sounds like something you could use, let us know! Our team has years of experience with SEO and reputation management who would be happy to chat more about what we offer at no cost - talk to us today! Have you had success using these strategies?