Everyone knows it and uses it. Whether you want to buy a phone, book a hotel room or look for a good restaurant, everyone looks at other people's reviews anyway. But how does it affect the customer and the online part of your business?
So how important is an online review?
The value of online reviews is great, nowadays it is necessary for businesses to focus on it, because as a customer you are subconsciously influenced by the reviews of others anyway. If you are looking for a restaurant and in doubt about which restaurant to choose, people are more likely to choose a restaurant with a rating of 8.1 out of 400 reviews instead of a 6.2 out of 250 review. Because people often make their choice based on the number of positive reviews, more and more businesses are turning to review marketing.
New form of word of mouth marketing
Reviews, which is popularly called reviews, is the new form of online word-of-mouth marketing. It gives customers a trusted and familiar feeling with a company, as if they already know the company. Multiple surveys show that more than half of people value reviews Because of this, a review has gained more trust these days than the salesperson's sales pitch.
Benefits to an enterprise
Of course, businesses also derive benefits from reviews. Large companies such as Bol.com and Amazon have already noticed the many benefits of reviews. With offers, they try to persuade customers to leave a review. So what exact benefits does a review bring? Surely it leads to more sales, more insight into the target audience and feedback on product & service. With many (positive) reviews, you radiate trust to the customers so they will come back more often. All these benefits can be put to good use for your marketing plan.
What is the best platform?
Now that there are so many different platforms where you can leave a review, which one is the " best"? It just doesn't work that way. This is because each platform works differently and still has a different kind of influence. Take Google reviews as an example, if you get multiple positive reviews on it Google knows you are doing a good job. This will also help your website's SEO. Other platforms are again seen as most trustworthy by consumers, which in turn can lead from customer trust. So there is no number "one" but it is important to collect reviews on as many platforms as possible.
A few tips on what to look out for with reviews!
When customers leave reviews, as a business it is good to deal with them. For both positive and negative feedback, it is helpful to respond to customer reviews. This shows to the customer that the company is working on it and again encourages the customer to write another review next time. This way, you also take control of the reviews and can turn negative review into a new customer with the customer friendliness you offer.
So don't forget to keep up with online reviews, they are indispensable!