Data reinforces that customer reviews have an impact
Data continues to show that consumers see peer reviews as an important source for making purchase decisions. Earlier this month, Nielsen released its Global Online Consumer Survey and the results showed 70 percent of consumers said they trusted customer opinions posted online, behind only recommendations from people they know from a degree-of-trust standpoint.
We recently distributed a survey to find out about small businesses attitudes toward reviews and found some very interesting results. We were curious to find out what small businesses thought about reviews and how they were approaching online conversations. One of the points that interested our team most was counter-intuitive to what some smaller retailers many think about reviews. Many businesses are scared about opening up the opportunity for reviews, thinking one negative review might kill their brand. The survey data found reviews were six times more likely to impact a business positively than negatively. Of the businesses surveyed, 24 percent say an online review has had a positive impact while only 4 percent reported a negative business impact from an online review.
The Nielsen study shows the bigger threat than a negative review is not having reviews at all. If there are no reviews, consumers are going to head to another site that does have reviews since they place such a high degree of trust in peer reviews.
Any retailer with a comprehensive review strategy will respond to negative reviews. An appropriate response to a negative review will show a prospective customer a commitment to customer service that will make them comfortable when making a purchase decision. Ultimately, as the data showed, customers love to share positive experiences and positive reviews will outweigh the negative ones.
Those who are still skeptical about reviews are missing out on a low-cost, high-return marketing opportunity. Our survey found that 31 percent of small businesses say they are not sure if an online review has impacted their business.
In an economy where reputation can make all the difference toward gaining a share of consumers limited spending, it’s in a retailer’s best interests to use these conversations that are already occurring as a way to build trust and stand out from their competitors.
0 Comments
Connect with us