by admin - 3 Sep 2021

The evolution of the Internet made things convenient, and shopping is no exception to it. The whole world has come to your fingertips, and wherever you are, you can buy anything from around the world with a few clicks. Shopping has become even more convenient with the online reviews that play a key role in decision-making. 90% of online shoppers check the online reviews before making a decision, and that narrates how vital consumer reviews are for your business. If you still do not consider encouraging customers to leave reviews, here are a few reasons to do it. 

REVIEWS BUILD CREDIBILITY FOR YOUR BUSINESS 

These days, people look for online reviews before making a purchase. If your business has reviews online, no matter positive or neutral, people trust that it is a genuine business and give it a try. The reviews you get on the digital space build an identity for your business or brand among the audience.  

1.THEY GUIDE CONSUMER’S DECISION MAKING 

These days when you look out to purchase any product or service, you will find hundreds of alternate businesses dealing in the same. This leaves the end consumers baffled about making the decisions. Let’s look into a simple daily life example. Assume you are looking to buy a photo frame, and you search for it online on a marketplace like Amazon and find a frame of your choice. Further, when you decide to buy it, you find another seller in the suggestions section who is selling the same photo frame. If both the sellers are selling the product at a similar price range, how will you decide where to buy it?  

At this juncture, a consumer usually looks for the reviews and ratings on the seller’s page or their product page. If there is a better rating for Seller 1 and more positive reviews than Seller 2, you as a consumer would decide on buying it from Seller 1. That is the impact of reviews on consumers that guide their decision-making process, and hence you must maintain better ratings and positive reviews for your business and products. 

2.YOUR CONSUMERS TRUST REVIEWS 

Earlier, people used to buy what their friends or family suggested or recommended. Now, people trust the reviews that are left online. Though the reviews are given by strangers whom the consumer does not even know, still a consumer trusts another consumer’s reviews because they like to play safe. In a survey, 94% of online shoppers admitted that a negative review convinced them to avoid visiting a business. This makes it crucial for businesses to get more positive reviews and build trust among the consumers. 

3.REVIEWS BOOST YOUR RANKING 

Do you know how lucrative it is to occupy higher ranks on search engine results? When users do not go beyond the first or second search result, you cannot expect them to travel to the second or third results page, and hence your ultimate goal should be to seal a spot on the top of the results. If you do not wish to spend much on advertising and look to grow your search rankings organically, many SEO factors contribute to higher search rankings. One among those is the consumer reviews.  

When Google returns local business results, it usually ranks the businesses with higher ratings or better reviews. Reviews and ratings account for nearly 10% of SEO ranking criteria, and hence it is a convenient way for you to boost your visibility. After all, only when your business website will be visible to people, they will consider your product/services. Thus, start receiving reviews from your consumers at the earliest. 

4.REVIEWS PROVIDE FREE ORGANIC MARKETING 

Have you heard about word-of-mouth marketing? It is when someone recommends you a product/service that they have tried and liked. Online reviews serve the same purpose, as they tell the consumers that a particular business is trustworthy and the products/services are worth giving a try. There are many popular brands like Tesla or Tupperware that do not run commercial advertisements, yet have a skyrocketed sales solely because of word-of-mouth marketing.  

5.REVIEWS GIVE CONSUMERS A VOICE 

Consumers are an important asset to any business, and consumers love when you treat them in the same way. When you encourage your consumers to share their experience and leave genuine feedback about your service, they feel their importance. It strengthens your business-customer relationship, and that wins you better ratings as well.  

6.REVIEWS HELP YOU BUILD BETTER CONSUMER RELATIONSHIPS 

When you ask customers to leave genuine reviews, you must be ready to receive reviews mixed with criticism, appreciation and suggestions. When there is a combination of positive, negative and neutral reviews, the reviews section looks more genuine rather than a fabricated or spammy review section. These reviews give you an insight into what the consumer wants and where does your service lag, giving you a lucrative chance to improve your service and skyrocket your sales. 

Look for a positive approach in every scenario. When you receive criticism or a negative review, analyse the issue faced by the user and rectify it. There are three direct benefits of doing this.  

• Firstly, if one or two consumers have faced the issue, it is possible that many would have faced it, but only one or two have voiced their opinion. This gives you a chance to improve the quality of your product/service, making it more user-friendly, boosting your sales that would have otherwise been impossible.  
• Secondly, when you address consumer’s issues in the reviews and provide the required solutions, the relationship between you and the consumer strengthens, and they return to you in future.  

• Finally, when new prospects visit your business and find how you value consumers’ reviews and provide them with timely solutions, they get impressed by your customer service and consider buying from you.    

What you tell about your brand is less effective than what your consumers have to tell about your brand. Your business is different from your brand as a brand projects a more humanistic approach to marketing. A brand is of the consumers, for the consumers and by the consumers and hence, value every consumer’s review to build a successful brand.  

Though it might be tricky to get reviews from your customers during the initial days of your business, you can play with a few marketing gimmicks to get it done. For example, encourage your customers to leave a review about your business in return for a discount coupon or loyalty points or reward points. Once you get a few reviews, there is no looking back as reviews generate more reviews. If you are looking to grow your business with top-notch UI/UX designs, marketing and IT services, feel free to connect with Entitledarts that has helped several businesses across the globe to boost their revenue and customer relationship.