Failing to embrace customer reviews can have detrimental effects on a brand’s social proof, conversion, and traffic driving potential. The fear of bad reviews sometimes turns business owners off from requesting and publishing them, but this can be a huge mistake. Customer reviews are a terrific means of engaging with the customer, providing peer recommendations, and obtaining vital information about how a business can improve to satisfy their customers, leading to business growth. Internet marketing firm, fishbat, discusses customer reviews and how to obtain and use them.
Failing to embrace customer reviews can have detrimental effects on a brand’s social proof, conversion, and traffic driving potential. The fear of bad reviews sometimes turns business owners off from requesting and publishing them, but this can be a huge mistake. Customer reviews are a terrific means of engaging with the customer, providing peer recommendations, and obtaining vital information about how a business can improve to satisfy their customers, leading to business growth. Internet marketing firm, fishbat, discusses customer reviews and how to obtain and use them.
Customer reviews are a window into the consumer’s perception of a brand. Reviews provide feedback on service, product, functionality, and more, resulting in a business’ ability to fine-tune the customer experience and drive greater results. Reviews also provide SEO juice to drive traffic. Reviews allow businesses to demonstrate to the audience that the brand is committed to the consumer and delivering quality goods and services by giving businesses a public platform to respond to issues and by demonstrating the ability and desire to try to rectify issues for the consumer. This will build consumer trust in the brand which will lead to traffic flow and customer conversions.
Understanding why businesses should value customer reviews is clear, but how can brands solicit this engagement and what should they do with them once they have? Sometimes obtaining reviews can be as simple as asking for them with a bold CTA. Action-inducing CTAs, such as “Let us know what you think,” or “We’d love to hear from you, please take a second to provide a review,” demonstrates a desire to meet the consumer’s needs and a culture of transparency, both of which boost consumer trust. Other means of obtaining reviews could be to provide an incentive, such as a bounce-back coupon, to fill out a short questionnaire about their experience, or simply providing a bold section on your website for customer reviews to bring them to the user’s attention. In cases of inter-person contact, representatives can request that customers go to the brand’s website to complete a review. It also makes good sense to be active on review platforms such as Yelp, where many consumers research brands before using them.
Obtaining reviews is step one, but what to do with them once they start rolling in? In the cases of positive reviews, letting them live on websites, landing pages, and review platforms is a great way to increase customer acquisition, boost social proof, and improve SEO potential. Bad reviews should be viewed as an opportunity as well. Responding to online reviews shows the audience a commitment to their satisfaction and serves as an example of how the brand handles their business. If a company cannot take the time or effort to respond to reviews or make an effort to resolve customer issues, what does that say about the quality of their work, attention to detail, commitment to the consumer, or ability to respond promptly? Reviews are a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate excellent customer service. Reviews should regularly be monitored to allow for quick responses online, establishing a quality institution in the brand’s work and a resolve to rectify customer issues swiftly.
Another beneficial way to use reviews is as supplemental analytic information. By finding commonalities in customer reviews, it’s easy to identify opportunities to improve the business. Where analytic programs provide information such as traffic flow, customer conversions, page retention, user engagement online, and much more, reviews offer an in-depth look at the customer’s experience in their own words. This feedback is invaluable to fine-tune user engagement, processes, products, service interactions, and more. A company that listens to its customers is a company that’s setting itself up for success.
Remember to listen to the consumer; after all, without customers, businesses wouldn’t exist. The added social proof from reviews and the business’ response to reviews can provide SEO juice, and above all, reviews are a great way to do the right thing for the consumer while improving the business. How can you know how you’re doing and how to do better, if your eyes and ears are closed to the customer?
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