Both positive and negative reviews play a crucial role in the growth of a business. Positive reviews affirm a business, build its credibility, and trustworthiness. On the other hand, negative reviews may have a harmful impact on a business’s reputation causing prospective customers to go away.
Therefore, it is advised for businesses to carefully monitor all their reviews, both online and offline. Customers often go to specific review websites such as PissedConsumer.com to narrate their experience with a given company. Business can manage their reputation by responding to such customer complaints in a helpful and timely manner. Below is a look at 5 effective ways that customer reviews can help your business.
Provide Valuable Feedback
Consumer reviews give you an understanding of how your business is doing from the customer’s perspective. If they are positive, it is an indication of customer satisfaction with your processes, policies, products, and services. On the other hand, if they are negative, they point out areas in your business that could be improved.
Establish Credibility
Positive customer reviews go a long way in establishing your businesses’ credibility. A star rating of 3.9 out of 5 and above indicates that your business is credible.
On the other hand, negative reviews do not have to spell doom for your business. Instead, they can be an opportunity to show your customers that you care and listen to their needs.
The secret to turning around negative reviews in favor of your business is to respond to them on time and resolve the surface and underlying issues. If there are real systematic, policy and procedural shortcomings causing the issues complained about to arise, fix or correct them so as to prevent a recurrence.
Help to Create Favorable Customer Experience
Reviews give you an understanding of your customer’s expectations of your business and services. As such, you are able to fine-tune your small business to deliver a customer experience that would be ideal for them.
Promote sales
Research shows that 67% of customers check reviews before making a purchase. For most customers, checking online reviews has become an integral part of their purchasing process. As such, positive customer reviews are a subtle marketing and promotion mechanism for business.
Reviews serve as a tool for word-of-mouth and referral marketing. They persuade prospective customers to try out new products. They also serve as social proof for your business which gives customers confidence in your goods and services. Customers prefer to buy from businesses that have some reviews and ratings rather than those that have none at all.
Help Your Business Rank Higher in Search Results
Google reviews play a crucial role in ranking your business in search results. The more and the higher the number of reviews in Google, the higher your website or landing page ranking. As a result, your brand visibility increases promoting brand awareness and conversion rate.
Customer reviews are a valuable tool for any business. They provide feedback, but they also help boost sales, promote business credibility, and create a favorable customer experience.
The best way to leverage reviews for your business growth is to seek them actively, keep tabs on what customers are saying about your business on different platforms, and respond to complaints timely.
