When 97% of consumers say customer reviews influence their buying decision, a strategy for managing reviews has to be a top priority for every consumer-facing business. Here are just 14 reasons why customer reviews should be a key part of your business strategy.
1. Rank higher on search engines
Reviews are one of the most important ranking signals for search engines and are in fact the second most important ranking factor for local search queries on Google. Search engines consider reviews a highly credible indication of business quality. Ranking algorithms don’t just attribute quality based on the review score, but also the number of reviews (a 4.5 rating from 30 reviews is considered more credible than a 5 rating from 3 reviews), as well as the recency of reviews and whether the reviews have been replied to.
2. Social proof that drives more sales
Almost 95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase (1). Why? Because consumers trust the reviews of other customers as a fair reflection of business performance. Such is the power of social proof that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a friend’s recommendation (2)!
3. They provide an immediate competitive comparison
How do your reviews compare to your competitors? The most important elements to consider are the rating score itself as well as the number of reviews. Research shows that consumers do not find a 5-star rating credible – neither from a high or low number of reviews. The volume of reviews is also an important influencer. Which of these would you most likely call or visit?
4. Improve your click-through rate
Displaying a high rating score, (ideally between 4-4.7), has been found to increase click-through rates by up to 35% (3) (it also increases the speed of the click!) What would it mean for your business if you had 35% more clicks to your website? How much would you need to spend on marketing to deliver the same uplift? Asking customers for reviews is arguably the easiest and cheapest way to improve your digital marketing performance.
5. Asking for reviews can drive loyalty
Research by Esteban Kolsky showed that only 1 in 25 unhappy customers will bother to complain to you, most will just leave. Most consumers don’t believe a company will bother to address the issue, and the complaints process is often deliberately laborious – fill out this form, long phone wait times etc. Reviews give customers an immediate avenue to share if they are unhappy, and so an immediate opportunity for the business to address and save the customer.
6. Replying to reviews appropriately can cause customer to change review score
Responding to negative reviews can create positive results. Statistics show that of the customers who received a response from a company after posting a negative comment, 33% turned around and posted a positive review, while 34% deleted the original negative review (4).
7. Replying to reviews can improve loyalty
Responding to reviews shows customers you care about their opinion and experience. A recent study showed that 78% of consumers felt that a business cared about them more if their review was replied to – whether the review was positive or negative. There is a phenomenon known as the Service Recovery Paradox – this occurs when customers are more loyal to a business after a bad experience if the business goes above and beyond to rectify the situation. First though you need to identify the bad experience, and what better way than asking for a review.
8. Increase website conversion rate
Research shows that 63% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a site which has user reviews (5)
Product pages than include 1-10 reviews have a staggering 52.2% more likely chance to convert than pages without any reviews (6). That though is just the beginning, the research shows that the greater the volume of reviews, the greater the impact on conversion. It is a very clear relationship – the more reviews, the higher the conversion rate
9. Lift average order value
Strategically place reviews on your website: research has shown that by adding reviews at the same point as “Add to Basket” and upsell messages can increase average order value by 18% (7)
10. Opportunity to protect margin
Positive reviews can help move the conversation away from price to quality or experience. Ratings and reviews are now so critical to making purchasing decisions that they’ve edged out price as the most important factor for shoppers. 94% of shoppers say ratings and reviews are the most important factor in their decision, compared with 91% who said price (Source: Ever-Growing Power of Reviews).
11. Analyse review feedback to identify key issues and trends
Sentiment analysis tools on platforms such as Review Juice allow you to deep-dive into the key words and phrases being used by both happy and unhappy customers providing invaluable insights
12. Increase brand reach
Getting good reviews across a broad range of sites that your audience may refer to as part of the decision-making process is a great and cheap way to broaden your brand’s reach. Google has 57% of all reviews, Facebook 19% but think about other niche specific review sites that may be important to your audience.
13. Quickest and cheapest way to produce advertising materials
If social proof is so influential to the decision-making process, why not include the content within your marketing activity? Google has an excellent free tool to help with exactly this – the Google Business Profile Marketing Kit. This easy-to-use solution allows you to turn your most positive customer reviews into posters, social posts, stickers and more. They come with a selection of templates and are immediately downloadable.
14. Opportunity to reduce the marketing budget, or divert more into funding test initiatives
If you are driving higher click-through and conversion rates, will you need the same marketing budget to hit targets? A customer review management program is arguably the tactical opportunity with the greatest ROI.
A process for managing reviews
Reviews play a vital role in the today’s decision-making process for your potential customers and are a key ranking factor for Google. Both your prospective customers and Google, consider your rating, the volume of reviews, the recency of reviews as well as whether reviews have been replied to or not.
To win at reviews, you need to be continuously requesting and replying to reviews. If that sounds like too much effort to include in your business practice, that’s where a digital solution can help.
Review Juice is an easy-to-use review management platform that uses customer reviews to drive more sales.
Used by hundreds of businesses across Australia and New Zealand, Review Juice helps clients request, reply to, and amplify customer reviews.
- https://www.powerreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/13185402/ThePowerofReviews-Report.pdf
- Spiegel Research Center
- https://cxl.com/research-study/review-stars-google-help-click-rate-study/
- Retail Consumer Report
- Vendasta “50 important stats you need to know about online reviews” April 2016
- https://www.powerreviews.com/blog/review-volume-conversion-impact/
- https://databox.com/increase-average-order-value
