Business owners strive to offer superior products, excellent customer service and exceed their customers’ expectations. This combination of factors is the best way to improve brand loyalty. Improved brand loyalty means a better bottom line and more customer referrals. However, it would be best if you did even more to succeed in the vibrant and competitive online market space. Each time you intend to spend money, you have to make wise choices to avoid falling prey to a con job or just buying a crappy item. Researching before purchasing is essential – and customer reviews are among the most useful tools for it.
Customer reviews are an excellent way to get an idea of what to expect from a product or service. Businesses use customer reviews as an essential tool for gauging how the world perceives their brands and services. Bright local research outlined that 82% of customers read online reviews before having the confidence to trust a business. Let’s delve more into how online reviews benefit your e-commerce business.
Psychologists say that people tend to lean more towards the popular side. How does this translate to business? Almost everyone would like to be identified with a famous brand. Customers tend to make a buying decision when they believe that many people have made the same decision – it’s the ultimate description of social proof.
Online reviews are the most potent forms of social proof because customers know they’re authentic. The number of reviews you get will determine the conversions rate due to those reviews. For example, a customer will trust a 3-star rating with more than 400 reviews in contrast to a 5-star rating with just ten reviews.
The specificity of social proof also makes it enticing because knowing that other people use a particular service gives it credibility. On the other hand, knowing that a specific person uses a particular service for the same reason you intend to use it gives you more confidence. Therefore, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of offering excellent service that will make your customer take some of their time to leave a review.
Online reviews make you avoid leakage from your sales funnel. How so? When you have already mined your leads and done your due diligence in converting those leads into prospects, you wouldn’t want your prospects to leak out of your sales process. Online reviews boost prospects’ confidence in your services and products, making them more likely to make that purchase. A recent done by e-consultancy showed that online reviews have the potential of increasing your sales by up to 18%. Don’t beat yourself up because of bad reviews.
The same study established that bad reviews can increase a conversion rate by 67%. This informs us that a mix of bad and good reviews proves credibility, especially when there are more than 500 reviews, as a large number increases the number of good reviews. Having numerous reviews is a definite plus for your business. A prospect who takes the time to read through some reviews is far down the sales process and will almost definitely make that purchase.
Customer reviews are a powerful tool for your quality and customer service team to respond to customer frustrations and excitement. Online reviews are honest and unbiased feedback from satisfied or dissatisfied customers about your products or services. Bad reviews enable your team to improve by first responding to the customer, promising to look into the problem, and eventually adjusting accordingly to prevent similar mishaps in the future. Online reviews make you understand your prospects and existing customers better and enable you to formulate better policies that suit your customer needs. They also provide insights into your audience’s demographics and what they are passionate about, a powerful tool for crafting your market strategy and buyer personas.
It’s important to note that your products and services must be of high quality to get a considerable number of positive reviews, significantly increasing your conversion rates.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a marketing tactic or segment that entails the tactics used by businesses to increase the rankings of their websites on search engines for visibility. Google search engine, for instance, considers several ranking factors in determining the link that ranks first or on page one when someone searches. Google artificial intelligence tools continuously update their algorithms to provide the best search experience for its customers. Reviews play a crucial role in your search engine rankings for local businesses.
Expert surveys have shown that customer reviews account for 15.44% of how Google ranks local businesses. This underpins the importance of business reviews. That 15% edge before employing other SEO optimization tools like keywords and backlink marketing helps your business rank highly.
Most consumers have had the bad experience of being scammed, purchasing a substandard product, or bad customer service. No customer would want to buy or get services from a company without a credible referral from a person known to them or reading through online reviews. Online reviews almost equate to referrals. A customer has nothing to gain from giving your business a 5-star review, making their point of view hold more weight than the word of a business.
Getting online reviews from customers who utilize your product category in a relevant business will make a customer who is shopping for the same product for use in the same industry gain more confidence and be more likely to purchase that item. For example, if your company sells CRM software, and in the review section, a customer who uses the same software had left a positive review about the quality of your software will be more likely to purchase it based on this customer review.
According to DimensionResearch, 90% of customers say that positive customer reviews affect their buying decision. On the flip side, 86% of customers say that bad reviews influence their buying decisions.
To get more reviews online, you need to observe the following best practices in business:
Offering your customers exceptional services and quality products makes them excited. Excited customers will not hesitate to take some of their time to leave a positive comment. Positive comments will drive more customers to your business, who will, in turn, leave more positive comments.
Just because your customers are satisfied with your service doesn’t guarantee that they will spare some time to leave that positive comment. A reputation management software makes the review and customer testimonials faster and easier.
Technological advancement has made it easier for businesses to make websites that engage more with their clients. How do you feel when you’ve just logged into a website and received that chatbot “how can I help you” greeting? Online users contend that it is refreshing to have 24-hour customer service available to address their needs. This improves your customer service and the possibility of a good review on your website.
We at Bright Plugins understand the importance of customer reviews for your site. Contact us today for more information on how to add them to your e-Commerce!
