What are online reviews for businesses?
Online reviews capture potential customers’ interest and attention and help to build trust and confidence in the company’s products. According to studies, customers who believe online reviews are more likely to spend 31% more than those who don’t. Simply said, positive online reviews have a big, positive impact on the purchasing decisions of your customers. Similarly, customers will shy away when they see negative reviews of the company.
How do companies leverage online reviews?
Companies can use online reviews for their business in many ways which include:
Brand awareness
Before the internet era, people would talk positively or negatively about companies through word-of-mouth. These days, the idea of word-of-mouth has expanded to include customer reviews, which raise the profile of your business.
Positive reviews not only speak well of your goods and services, but they also help your company’s search engine optimization by consistently producing fresh, and original content.
Choice of keywords
You can find out how your brand ranks on different search platforms by keeping note of phrases people use to describe your products and services. These keywords need to be positioned in your content.
PR and influencers use good reviews for campaigns.
You can employ influential people, such as local celebrities, well-known public figures, or seasoned professionals, to persuade others to check out your firm.
It’s a great idea if PR and influencers can demonstrate your company’s positive reviews to potential customers as this will increase your brand value and increase conversion rates.
Customers’ reviews strengthen your brand.
Online reviews are crucial tools to maximize customers’ input and boost sales. The reviews help to identify and rectify issues, identify patterns, and competition levels and help to strengthen your brand.
Engage customers directly
- By responding to a customer’s review, you can quickly increase brand loyalty.
- Responding to a customer’s review will help to build a client-business relationship that will increase and solidify your customer base.
- You get the opportunity to thank your customers for their business, accept their constructive criticism, or ask for more input.
- Reviews can also be used to repair bad client experiences. For instance, if a consumer leaves a poor review of a product you sell, you can get in touch with them right away to find out what went wrong, what can be done to fix it, what they’d want to see more of, and what you can do to win back their faith in your company.
Positive reviews boost sales.
In the end, positive reviews boost revenue for your company. If people can see that the company cares about its customers as well as the quality of the goods and services, they will be more likely to make a purchase and become loyal to your company.
Best online review platforms
Google Reviews
The most popular online review site and owned by Google. Positive Google reviews may help you rank well in search results.
Many companies would consider this as the only justification for focusing on obtaining Google reviews. Google’s online reviews are the right place to start, but your online review approach should not be limited to them.
You must supplement those efforts with other online review sites because not everyone has a Google Account, which is necessary to submit a review on Google. Furthermore, Google isn’t the only site for online reviews that can appear in search results.
Yelp Reviews
The Yelp online review system is also a great all-around choice for most businesses.
Despite being skewed towards eateries, Yelp boasts an incredible 135 million unique users and offers categories for practically every industry.
The site’s reviews could also appear in Google search results, display your business hours, and display images submitted by users.
Facebook Reviews
Facebook is a major online review site with 890 million daily active users and around 1.4 billion monthly active users.
Most customers will likely use Facebook and be logged in, so you can quickly direct them to your review page. This is one of the main benefits of Facebook reviews. While it’s debatable that Facebook ratings are quite on par with Google and Yelp reviews, the site is catching up fast.
Positive and negative online reviews
Here are simple guidelines you may use to ensure that your positive and negative online review responses are flawless:
Positive online reviews
- Send a thank you message to the reviewer
- When replying, use the customer’s name and reply right away.
- Be succinct and list your company’s values.
- Be Sincere in Your Response, Encourage Action, and Review
- Share favorable comments with others
Negative online reviews
- Quickly acknowledge the customer’s complaint in your response
- Express regret and empathy
- Become Responsive
- If necessary, give an explanation.
- Put the conversation on hold
- Set things right
Conclusion
If you have not started online reviews yet, go to Google My Business. Do the same procedure on Facebook and Yelp as well.
Make sure you have registered with the big three review sites; Google, Yelp, and Facebook. These three sites can support growing brand recognition and online visibility for your company.
As you will be happily responding to positive online reviews, make it a point to reply to negative feedback with a full heart. This will demonstrate to potential customers how much you value their experience.
