One of the cool things about having a virtual marketplace is that it serves as a platform for interaction between customers and employees alike. And as a result, there are a lot of opinions flying around about products and services. Of course, I’m talking about reviews.
Reviews can be one of the most important things your business has access to. They can help boost traffic and make people more confident in your business’ abilities. There have been a lot of studies about reviews and how they affect the consumer market. You can see where I talk about that here (link to my Womply stats article).
Did you know that 88% of people look at a review before making a final purchase? That’s information enough to see just how important reviews are. The amount of reviews a company has are incredibly important, and can have a huge impact on the amount of traffic a company gets. According to a study done by Womply, companies who have higher than average review traffic (about 82 reviews) make about 54% more revenue than companies who fall below that number. It’s not just about having traffic increased, more reviews means more sales!
The star ratings matter too! People who investigate reviews can’t look at every single review, and therefore, your average star rating is incredibly important. It’s important to monitor reviews, and make sure most of them are positive reviews. If they aren’t, address the common issue amongst them and react. However, having only 5 star reviews isn’t great either. People have more trust in a business with a few lower star reviews, usually in the 3.8-4.7 range. People see the 5 star businesses and false or misleading! Make sure to monitor this and encourage customers to leave honest reviews.
For business owners, it’s about more than just receiving reviews. What a lot of business owners don’t realize is that replying to reviews is another way to build your reputation and make sure that your customers feel like they are being heard. This is especially true for low star reviews, because responding and addressing the situation makes you seem more reliable in the eyes of potential customers. But by responding to reviews, you can give yourself a big boost in online traffic.
Another thing to consider is not only the fact that you have reviews, but where you have them. If you have reviews somewhere where nobody sees them, there’s really no point! Make sure you’re focusing your attention on receiving places where people go to read reviews. The best places for this are places like TripAdvisor, Yelp and Facebook. However, the most important of them all is on your Google My Business listing. It’s the most visited place to see business reviews, and the more reviews you have there, the better your business will do.
So, it’s pretty obvious that reviews are the basis of the online market these days and is the cornerstone of online reputation management. Make sure you are reviewing your reviews and maximizing what they can do for you!
