Long before the internet, word-of-mouth reviews and testimonials about a store or company guided customers to the best options. Nowadays, with the rise of sites like Yelp, leaving and reading reviews has never been easier. Online review sites have changed the ways customers choose the businesses they patronize, and given them more power to shape a business’s reputation.
Even a few negative reviews may have an impact on a large number of potential customers, altering their opinion of your business and pushing them away from trying it for themselves. Alternately, positive reviews can drive customers to choose your business over its competition without ever having visited your site or store. This influence makes positive reviews crucial to the success of a growing business.
By understanding how and why customers leave positive and negative reviews, you can increase customer satisfaction and position your business for success in the digital age. In this article, we’ll explore why positive reviews are paramount to business success, and how you can deal with negative reviews and manage your reputation to take your business to the top.
Understanding the Power of Online Reviews
You may think reading and responding to your business’s reviews is just another thing on your to-do list. To customers, however, reviews are one of, if not the deciding factor in choosing your business over another. In fact, according to Invesp, 78% of consumers will not purchase a product or service until they have read a positive review of it. On the other hand, 86% of customers will hold off on their purchase if they see your business has any number of negative reviews.
It’s stats like these which put into perspective for business owners just how important reviews are. Reviews are a social currency, and by providing each customer with a great experience, you can earn enough to get ahead of your competition. Positive reviews give your brand credibility, signal to other customers that your business is trustworthy and reliable, and reassure others as to your expertise. Even a single negative review can do the opposite, guiding potential customers away from your business.
The Benefits of Positive Reviews
Now that you know why it’s important to avoid bad reviews, let’s take a closer look at what positive reviews can do for your business’s success. A few positive reviews can:
Increase Visibility
Visibility is everything to a growing business that is attempting to attract customers and keep them coming back. Many review sites will offer rankings like ‘best businesses in the area’ or ‘best for tech’, based on the quantity and quality of reviews that those businesses have received in a certain period. Making it onto these lists can be a game changer for a small business. Not to mention, any potential partners like influencers, journalists, or other business officials can be directed to your reviews and shown just how advantageous a partnership with you could be.
Build Trust
If a customer has never patronized your business before, they have no idea what to expect. Any fraudster can create a beautiful, professional site these days, so an online presence is no guarantee of veracity. This is why genuine businesses work hard to build up a reputation of reliability so that first-time customers know they can trust them. Positive reviews take on this time-consuming task for you, playing a huge part in customer conversion.
Strengthen Branding
Similarly to the above benefit, positive reviews can strengthen your brand by reinforcing certain aspects. If your branding is all about being there for your customers when they need help, and a positive review states how kind and timely your customer assistance was, it strengthens that perception of your business. This alignment between positive reviews and your brand messaging not only verifies the authenticity of your brand but creates a cohesive and compelling narrative that can resonate with your target audience.
Where to Look For Your Reviews
You may find that, even if you haven’t set up a profile for your business on certain review sites, your customers have already started to leave reviews. Sites to check for your reviews include:
- Yelp - One of the most popular review platforms, Yelp covers various industries and allows customers to rate businesses as well as leave reviews.
- Tripadvisor - For those in the hospitality industry, a TripAdvisor profile for your business is a must.
- Yellow Pages - The place to go for small business reviews. If you have physical premises and are looking to impress local clientele, check out your reviews on Yellow Pages.
- TrustPilot - For those more traditional businesses and e-commerce stores, TrustPilot is all about establishing trust between businesses and potential customers.
- Google Reviews - Perhaps the most visible reviews you’ll have online, Google Reviews are often automatically shown to anyone who searches your business’s name.
- Facebook - With one of the largest user bases of any social media site, reviews on Facebook can greatly increase your visibility and bolster your brand.
- Better Business Bureau - A widely trusted organization, the BBB assigns your business a rating based on the customer feedback it receives.
Make a note of all the sites where customers are leaving reviews of your business. Although checking all of these sites regularly seems like a large commitment, it’s best practice to get around them all and “claim” your business on each of them. This consistent activity and commitment to your customers will aid in reputation management if you do happen to receive a negative review. If you have a social media manager, talk to them about the possibility of adding review responsibilities to their contract to make sure every review is responded to across all sites.
How to Increase Positive Reviews For Your Business
Positive reviews are a great benefit to businesses of all sizes. But in many ways, it’s easier to get negative reviews than positive ones, even if your business is as good as it can be. This is because customers expect to have a positive experience of your business, so your providing that is nothing to write home about. However, when they have a negative experience, customers are much more likely to warn others about it. Here are some ways you can encourage positive reviews:
Great Customer Service - Of course, the best way to get positive reviews is to provide positive experiences. Ensuring your customer-facing staff are knowledgable, well-trained, and prepared to answer any questions will go a long way to meeting customer expectations. Should any issues arise, it’s best to apologize, before promptly addressing any concerns or issues. Active involvement in customer experiences can turn a potentially negative review into a positive one.
Flexibility - Contrary to popular belief, one size doesn’t fit all, and not every customer can adhere to your 2-week return policy or follow the same processes as your other clients. A little bit of flexibility regarding your policies will go a long way to providing unique and positive customer experiences. When customers see that you’ve gone out of your way to accommodate them, they’ll be much more likely to leave a positive review.
Incentives - Another way to encourage customers to leave reviews is to offer them incentives. For example, if you run an e-commerce store, remind customers at checkout that they can leave a review on the relevant sites, and offer them 10% off their next purchase if they do so. This can increase the number of reviews your business has, while giving customers enough freedom and agency, to be honest about their experience.
Focus on Repeat Buyers - We know we already mentioned great customer service, but it bears repeating. If a customer has had a fabulous experience with your business before, but has never left a review, a negative experience will push them to do just this. Incredible customer service is the key to good reviews, but consistency in your customer service is arguably even more important. Don’t let your repeat customers down or take them for granted.
How to Deal With Negative Reviews
Even a single negative review can have a knock-on effect on your conversion and subsequent reviews. This is why dealing with negative reviews is important to ensure that a particular unhappy customer is mollified, but also to protect your reputation when it comes to potential customers. Here are some tips that will help you navigate the negativity:
Create Conversations - Negative reviews should always receive a reply, even if it seems there is no constructive criticism included. Many times, customers simply want to feel that their voices are being heard and something is being done to rectify the issue. Try and ignore any angry or annoyed sentiment in a review and focus on the issue at hand. By replying to reviews with an apology and a request for the customer to contact you, you can ask them further questions, get to the bottom of their problem, and fix the issue.
Monitor and Analyze Feedback - It’s a good idea to make a note of any constructive criticism you do receive, as well as the areas of your business that most often receive negative attention. For example, once you’ve sorted your negative reviews into relevant categories, you may find a large number of customers have issues with late deliveries. Now you know exactly what areas of your business you need to focus on improving.
Genuine Improvement - Negative reviews, though they can be damaging and slow your success, are incredibly valuable. The key to making negative reviews work for you is in picking out workable criticisms and disregarding mean-spirited critiques. Once you’ve analyzed any negative reviews and found the areas which need work, it’s time to find out what’s going wrong and how you can fix it. When customers see that you have a genuine desire to improve and provide exceptional experiences to everyone, they may alter their review or remove it entirely.
Second Chances - A small gratuity, such as a refund of delivery fees, can go a long way to solving an unhappy customer’s problems. However, you’ll find many successful businesses find a way to make this work for both the customer and their company. A tried and tested method is to resolve the customer’s complaint, then politely ask them to give your business a second chance with a free item or significant discount. This protects your reputation, and even bolsters it, by showing just how customer-focused you are.
Conclusion
Understanding the power that reviews, both positive and negative, have on your business will ensure you dedicate adequate time to dealing with them. Positive reviews can strengthen your brand, help you attract customers, convert customers who aren’t even in the sales funnel, and significantly impact your business’s growth. On the other hand, negative reviews can leave a permanent stain on your reputation.
Knowing how to handle negative reviews takes practice, but an active approach coupled with a genuine desire to make every customer experience the best it can be is a great place to start. Use negative reviews to find out how you can improve your business and avoid such criticism in the future. By making genuine changes and requesting that these unhappy customers give you a second chance, you can showcase your commitment to your clients.
Embracing the significance of online reviews and offering unbeatable customer service can increase positive feedback. Coupled with this, by effectively reacting to negative reviews, you can push your business forward in the competitive digital age. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and continuously improving your offerings, you’ll create a positive online reputation that attracts and retains customers.
Sources
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/reputation-management/
- https://www.invespcro.com/blog/the-importance-of-online-customer-reviews-infographic/
- https://www.21digital.agency/blog/key-advantages-of-customer-reviews-for-your-business/
- https://www.e-satisfaction.com/7-reasons-why-customer-reviews-are-important/
- https://mention.com/en/blog/online-reviews/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/service/get-customer-reviews
- https://www.business.com/articles/tips-for-getting-positive-reviews/
- https://trustmary.com/reviews/sites-where-you-can-find-online-reviews-for-businesses/
- https://www.sba.gov/blog/essential-steps-handle-negative-reviews
- https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6503-negative-customer-reviews.html
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