I have written more than a couple of articles that stress the importance of customer reviews. Look at all the figures I included in this article to get an idea of how crucial online reviews are to your business.
Seen them yet?
As you may have deduced from those studies and surveys, online reviews are going nowhere. If anything, they are growing in relevance at a high rate. And with growth come trends and patterns.
Therefore, seeing how important customer reviews are to your business, you need to pay attention to it. You should be remain constantly aware of online review growth trends so that you can position your business to take advantage of it.
Fortunately for you, I have put together 5 top trends you should watch out for in online reviews in 2020. Knowing these trends will help you understand customer reviews better and add them to your marketing tool box.
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Google Is The Largest And The Fastest Growing Review Platform
Relegating sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp to the back burner, Google has become the largest review platform.
How so?
Well, that’s simple. Google is the largest search engine on the internet. Internet users perform 5.6 billion searches a day on Google.com. Add customer reviews to that, and you have got yourself an online review monster.
To this end, you should list your business on Google My Business to take full advantage of this trend. This will improve your business exposure and will ultimately bring in sales.
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A Brand’s Response To Customer Reviews Will Be Expected
When customers write a review about their experience with your brand, they actually want to communicate. They aren’t just testing to see if their keyboards work.
Don’t believe it?
Check this out:
- 7 out of every 10 customers expect to get a reply from brands they review.
- 52% of them expect this reply to their review within 7 days after posting a positive review.
- 72% of them expect this reply after posting a negative review.
But in reality, 63% of reviewers have never heard back from a business after writing a review, according to ReviewTrackers.
The bottom line here is that consumers’ expectations of responses to reviews will continue to grow. It may even become a yardstick for gauging a brand’s credibility.
Responding to your customer reviews tells your customers that you value their opinions, whether good or bad. It makes them feel heard and considered. Did you know that 80% of customers feel that a brand cares about them when they respond to their reviews?
In addition, other potential customers who come on your page will get a feel of how you value your customers. Consequently, this will increase their willingness to buy from you.
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Bad Reviews Will Drive Away Customers
Did you know that 98% of consumer reported that a negative review has caused them to avoid a brand? That is really scary. And more so if you consider the fact that a business can lose 59% of its customer to just 3 negative reviews.
But it doesn’t have to be…
Negative reviews present an opportunity to learn more about your customers, and also about your business. They can help you discover flaws in your business that you need to fix.
Even though negative reviews hurt, they are not intended to. Customers provide negative reviews as a way to share their experience and seek redress, not to hurt your feelings.
If I would rephrase this subheading, it would read: Unmanaged bad reviews will drive away customers.
Know that potential customers aren’t looking for a perfect review sheet. A few negative reviews bring balance to the system.
They tell the customers that you aren’t perfect, and that’s okay.
And when you respond to poor reviews correctly, it shows them that you are willing to listen and improve your customer experience.
That is priceless.
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Star Ratings Will Have a Dominant Influence your Online Visibility
70% of consumers search for businesses with star ratings of 4 and above.
Some review platforms provide filters that help users see only businesses that are within a certain star rating range. And so, if you do not have higher star ratings (4 stars and above), you may miss out on potential customers.
Here are 5 reasons why proactively getting a 5-star rating can help your business.
Picture this: 57% of customers will only do business with brands that have 4 stars and above. But that doesn’t mean people are looking for businesses with perfect ratings. Negative reviews show a little imperfection which is accepted in our world.
Remember, what makes the difference is how you respond to poor ratings.
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Social Media Will Be A Major Source Of Reviews
While Google is growing as a review giant, social media will play a big role in the customer reviews game. In recent times, customers have taken to social media to interact with their favourite brands.
Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are serving as platforms for review content. The reason for this is that it is easier to write reviews on social media because most customers already have an account there. Plus, most of them never log out of their social media account.
The easier it is for customers to leave reviews, the more reviews they will leave. For this reason, you should keep an eye on your social media business page and manage it accordingly.
Do you want to take advantage of this ease to get more reviews on your social media business page? All you have to do is to integrate SpotOn Wi-Fi into your Wi-Fi system.
With our Wi-Fi marketing & analytics software, you can create a captive portal that has social media as a login option. Using the right incentives, you can encourage your customers to leave you a review on social media when they access your Wi-Fi network.
Contact us right away and we will tell you more about how our product can help your business.
POSTED ON November 14, 2019Share:
