20 Facts About Business Reputation Management
Are Your Customers Interacting With You?
Online reviews are becoming a driving force for growth and revenue. If your business wants to succeed, it’s important that your customers are able to review your products and services. And that those searching online are able to see those reviews.
These 20 facts reveal why reviews are important and how these reviews are shaping the way consumers interact with businesses. Including yours!
Online Reviews Will Increase Your Websites Click Through Rates
A star rating on search engines can increase your CTR by as much as 25%. Since CTR improve search rankings even for organic search it’s important that you include a review function on your site.
Customers Need To Be Encouraged To Leave Reviews
PEW Research found that few Americans make a habit of leaving reviews. If you want to increase your reviews you need to ask customers to leave their feedback, as 7 out of 10 customers will leave a review if asked to. You can easily ask for reviews with software we produce.
Negative Reviews Make Customers Spend More Time On Your Website
You shouldn’t be against receiving negative reviews. In fact, after a visitor to your website has read a negative review they’ll spend 5x more time on your site. And of those that read a bad review 85% will be more likely to convert. That’s not to say you should have a low star rating, but a few bad reviews can actually help your business.
User Generated Content Influences Consumers More Than Search Engines
While you’d like to think search engine advertising and a high organic ranking influence your consumers, they do not. Surprisingly more are influenced by user generated content than anything else. A study by Turn To discovered that reviews influence consumers product purchases more than any other factor.
Reviews Are Winning The Race Against Discounts
Reviews are more important than any discount or deal you could offer. Only 34% of consumers are focused on discounts while 50% are focused on reviews.
Reviews Influence Your Ranking On Search Engines
If you’d like to rank higher for local search results you’ll need online reviews to do so. According to research conducted by the University of California Irvine, LocalSEO Guide and PlacesScout reviews helped business climb in rank. These findings also show that reviews influenced search engine ranking more than any other factor.
More Reviews Equals More Money
According to research done by Psychological Science consumers pay as much attention to the star rating of reviews as the overall number of reviews. Surprisingly, consumers will spend more money on products and services with more reviews than those with less reviews.
Your Reviews Need To Be Recent To Be Relevant
In order for your reviews to matter to consumers they need to be very recent. 44% of consumers said they wouldn’t consider a review if it was more than a month old.
Reviews Are More Important Than Word Of Mouth Referrals
While people may trust what their friends and family say, they trust what they read online more. In a recent survey 88% of consumers said that online reviews had just as much influence in their purchase decisions as a recommendation from a friend. But a study by Kingsley Associates found that reviews are far more influential than referrals.
Online Reviews Will Increase Foot Traffic To Your Business Or Store
Even if you’re a brick and mortar store most consumers make their purchasing decisions online based on information at their disposal. According to Think With Google nearly 70% of consumers will visit a store in person after reading their online reviews.
Your Reviews Shouldn’t Be All Positive
Negative reviews aren’t the end of the world. In fact, consumers trust businesses with varied reviews more. Having only positive reviews can be more detrimental to your business. What businesses should know is that 95% of consumers suspect censorships when reviews are only positive. But a sprinkling of negative reviews, and how you respond to those reviews make consumers more likely to interact with your business.
But Your Rating Should Never Fall Below 4.0 Stars
While negative reviews aren’t the end of the world, your rating shouldn’t fall below 4.0 stars. As a rating below 4.0 stars can turn potential customers away. Approximately 94% of consumers will consider a business with a 4.0 star review but that number falls sharply when you drop below 4 stars. As only 57% of consumers will consider a business with 3.0 stars.
Responding To Reviews Is Just As Important As Receiving Them
To build relationships with your customers and foster long term post-purchase engagement it’s important that you respond to reviews. Besides building a relationship with current customers responding to reviews improves your businesses image to potential customers. As 26% of consumers say it’s important that a business responds to reviews.
Purchase Decisions Are Affected More By Reviews Than Anything Else
A business’s star rating is more important to a consumer than any other factor. Over 92% of consumers take reviews into consideration when they’re thinking of purchasing a product.
Just Having A Review Function On Your Website Increases Search Engine Traffic
While the data doesn’t point to why reviews are so important, it has found that by having a review function increases web traffic.A study conducted on 30,000 American businesses found that just by having a review function websites receive nearly twice as much web traffic. Across all the sites surveyed those with a review function increased their search engine traffic from 5,500 average visitors to 8,000 average visitors a month.
Customers Read Reviews More Now Than Before
The amount of customers who read online reviews are increasing. That’s probably because 80% of consumers search for a product online every week before making a purchase.
Customer Call Businesses After Reading Their Reviews
Even in today’s digital world telephonic enquiries can help businesses increase their sales. If you take into account that 9% of customers who read online reviews call businesses you should certainly be adding the function to your website.
Keywords In Reviews Are As Important As Keywords In Content
When people search online they’re likely to encounter reviews that include keywords they entered in their search. Even though reviews are littered with keywords, most reviewers are likely to write more about the service than the product. 13.5% Of reviews included the word “friendly” and less than 15% included the word “rude”.
10 Reviews Are All You Need To Make A Good First Impression
As much as 88% of consumers formulate an opinion about a business after reading only 10 reviews. With approximately 12% saying they’re willing to read more than 10 reviews. If you’re fairly new to business or have only recently installed a review function on your site you’ll still get just as much traffic with a few reviews. Many consumers are only looking at the first 10 reviews anyway.
“Review” Is A Popular Autocomplete Keyword
Google itself has recognized the emphasis users place on product reviews which is why you’ll find an increase in searches being autocomplete with the word review.
