Customers nowadays are savvier than ever. Gone are the days of window shopping to do product comparison. Almost everyone owns a mobile phone. With a few finger flips, you can get access to hundreds of product feedback before you jump into a purchase decision. If you’ve just learned about a new brand of a product or a service that you are particularly interested with, chances are, if you are like me, it will send you googling it right away.
Customer feedback and online reviews play a great part in the buying journey of a customer. Stellar reviews change the game for small businesses and startups. Studies show that 88% of customers believe in online reviews. What does this say to businesses? If you haven’t entertained the idea of letting in customer feedback into your site or your social media channels, chances are you are missing a great deal of attention from potential leads.
Being found on the internet is one thing. Getting reviews from customers is entirely a different story. Good feedback influences customers to buy your products and create a positive ripple effect for your company. While negative reviews could shy away new onlookers and even create a cloud of doubt on existing customers, having no feedback at all in the massive online space could mean a few things:
- You aren’t confident about getting feedback about your products and services
- People don’t care about your business, and that is keeping you outside the radar
- Your business is new
If the reason for not getting feedback is that your business is new, you may have to double your effort to increase your online presence before you can reap its rewards. Sample your products so you can request a review. There are a few things you can do to up your game.
Simply ask for honest feedback. It is normally not second instinct for customers to leave a review (unless in the instance of an utterly striking negative experience). However, if you solicit their opinion, it gives them a feeling of being valued. Make them realise that their feedback will not only help you improve your service. It will help others who were once in the same shoe as theirs.
Personalise your approach. When you ask for feedback, might as well invite your customers to share a unique story about how your product or service has created an impact on their life. Today’s customers, particular millennials, are eager to be part of conversations.
Be quick to respond to customer feedback. When a customer makes an effort to leave a review, take it as an opportunity to further interact with them and build rapport. Whether it is a stellar review or negative feedback, the ball is yours on how you will turn it into a positive experience for your customers. The attention you give to your customers’ feedback is tantamount to the care and concern you have for your business. If you can get your relationship going through spontaneous and genuine conversations, you are doing a good job in driving traffic and consequently, long-term growth for your business.
Share your reviews. Getting a review doesn’t happen all the time. It takes a lot of people to write a review. So if you received some, feel free to share it wherever possible. A good review can go a long way. Remember the ripple effect - people trust review, and it contributes a lot to their buying decision.
If you have worked these out and have gained reviews from your customers, your business can reap the following possible benefits:
Free Advertising
Each review your receive is a form of advertising that helps to bring your brand closer to potential customers. It exposes your brand and your product to readers and improves customer awareness. Thus, reaching more potential leads than traditional marketing channels.
Improved Rank in Search Engine Results
Remember that every review written by your customers is a unique content added to your site. Each positive reviews and mention can influence search engines to use that as a factor in ranking your site pages. More mentions can get your website to appear higher in the results compared to that of a business that hasn’t been reviewed.
Recommendations
People tend to trust recommendations from people they know. In a Nielsen survey in 2015 on 30,000 internet consumer respondents, 83% said they trust recommendations from people they know, and 70% trusted opinions posted by consumers online. This only suggests that online reviews have a powerful influence on buying decisions.
Get Insights on Improvements
Online reviews are also a venue for people to raise concerns or suggest how your brand can service your customers better. Take this as a good opportunity to know how you can wow your customers. That’s free business advice without the consult fee.
More than ever, we cannot ignore the relevance of online reviews on businesses and their many benefits. You need no special skills to gain positive reviews. Though understandably, it will take hard work and effort to build your brand’s image and get people to notice and leave stellar reviews for an outstanding product or a job well done. Aside from putting up a review section on your site, spend a little effort to build presence on offsite review channels. Take action on negative reviews and reinforce or optimise the positive ones. Keep working until you find you have gained a wealth of reviews to support your marketing campaigns. Before you know it, you’d be reaping its benefits.
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