Online reviews are a powerful tool for brands

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Online reviews are a powerful tool for brands

Today’s brands have few tools more powerful than the customer-written, online review. Essentially, regardless of how amazing your logo is, how engaging your website or how compelling your communications and messages, customer will seek out online reviews, other people’s opinions of your products, services, staff, brand and business.

  • 88% of people read or use review to determine the quality of a local business
  • 93% of people check reviews before shopping and dining
  • 85% read up to 10 different reviews while researching a purchase
  • 88% of people trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation
  • Online reviews are the most trusted form of advertising by consumers

Customers don’t just accept the first review they read but rather, they triangulate feedback to determine the real story behind your business. The advantage of this trend is that one bad review isn’t likely to damage your brand forever. Your business must have a strategy in place to earn, manage and respond to online reviews.

Online reviews have a huge impact on your brand and therefore your revenue. Whether the impact is positive or negative is largely up to you and your internal processes for handling reviews.

How to get more online reviews:

  • Ask for them
  • Encourage a customer to review online from the very beginning of your relationship
  • Remind your customer to review online at the end of the transaction
  • Be patient, timely and make it easy for them – give your customers time to provide a review without feeling pressured into it
  • Ensure you know the rules of engagement on each review platform
  • Put signs up at your bricks and mortar business
  • Incentivise check-ins
  • Use remarketing campaigns – use Google retargeting campaigns to ask for a review from customers that have purchased from your website
  • Showcase reviews in store, on your website, on social media platforms and other marketing materials
  • Harness digital marketing – email marketing and social media to ask for more online reviews

Identify the most important sites where your business is already being reviewed by your customers. There are a huge amount of review sites and trying to manage them all not possible or practical. Do your research to find out which sites are the most influential in your niche market and with your target audience.

You want to make it as easy as possible for people to review you, so focus on the platforms and review websites your customers are already using.

Google reviews has become the primary source of business reviews for many service-based businesses as more and more customers and clients want to let others know about their experiences. A quick business name search in Google will reveal how people are already talking about your business or product. It might be easier to encourage more activity from an existing source like Google reviews than to asking people to review products or services on your site.

Finally, don’t forget to set up or claim  your Google Business profile so that you can engage with your customers and address complaints before they are left there and damage your reputation. Positive customer reviews are a godsend to many businesses, but bad customer reviews can be wrecking balls to your reputation.

Learn more about how we can use your customer testimonials and reviews by contacting the team at Liquid Creativity team, your local branding specialist.

Categories

Related Posts