Internet Shopping has provided easy access to customers to buy stuff anywhere anytime. From purchasing a mobile phone or a dining table, customers rely on online reviews to go down the purchase funnel. Shoppers’ buying decision is based on the online reviews posted by fellow buyers, and a negative review might lose that potential customer. This comes down to the fact that whatever positive reviews are posted online about your brand are a key advantage for you.
Create a positive online shopping experience by understanding the need for online reviews for your brand and also optimizing your customer experience.
Online reviews can help boost a brand’s credibility by highlighting the advantages of its offerings. At the same time, they can also create a negative impression if customers are dissatisfied with the brand and talk negatively about it online.
A review is also a great way for prospects to learn about a brand and customers. Additionally, online reviews help dissatisfied customers tell others about their experience online, rather than seek retribution directly from the company.
Why customer’ experiences posted online about your brand are vital for you?
Customers love sharing online reviews because they help them engage with a brand on their terms. Furthermore, online reviews highlight customer experiences with direct inputs from end consumers and allow prospects to form opinions about a product or service.
Trust in online product/service reviews has increased significantly in recent times. Consumers have found value in online review sites beyond just finding unbiased information about products and services.
- 97% of online consumers believe online customer reviews are one of the most influential factors when purchasing decisions.
- Online customer reviews boost conversion rates for businesses by 270%
- In comparison, 84% believe online customer reviews are as reliable as reviews from their trusted friends.
In the world of e-commerce and drop shipping, online reviews have the power to make or break your brand.
🌟 Online Reviews Boost Sales & Credibility
People are like to buy a product if they see positive reviews on it, it doesn’t matter if it’s posted by some stranger. Your online reviews are social proof on the online platform that has a very clear impact on sales.
Social proof also creates trust among customers that encourages new visitors to buy. The idea of social influence states that a product or a service will be liked by a customer if other people also agree with the same fact. Products accepted by social media influencers also build brands loyalty.
A positive review is trusted by people on all landing pages be it a website or some eCommerce platform. Your testimonials are highly credible and leverage future pacing. Now you just need to understand what kind of review is posted, the content of the review, and then placement. Always be mining for all the reviews & then differentiate them to better analyze the scenario.
🌟 Reviews increase your brand awareness and visibility
A successful brand is always visible on the web. Most people go on search engines to research the product or service before putting money on it. From Google, Bing or Yelp people will get all the fresh and original content and reviews about your brand.
Now online reviews provide you with a regular stream full of positive, negative, and neutral content that is favorably appreciated by search engines when choosing results to offer, and when you are ranked higher, people and the algorithm tend to see your brand as a ruler of the industry, which eventually leads to more exposure.
🌟 Expand Conversations About Your Brand
Good or Bad reviews spread like a wildfire. Motivating customers to review your brand’s products and services is an effortless way to expand your brand’s reach and visibility.
TripAdvisor, Yelp, Quora, FourSquare are such websites where people tend to post reviews when like or dislike a product, service, or brand itself. It is essential for a brand to be present on such epicenters because google will collect data from such places to build its search result ranking. Reviews on the online store are always useful but happy customers are likely to share the same on as many places as possible in some or the other way, this increases your multi-channel footprint.
🌟 Reviews Highlight Customer’ Experiences & Sentiments
Every customer is one-on-one with you through social media. They might be using their online voice to tell the world about their good experience or using it to alert people about some negative feedback they’ve gotten during an online interaction with your brand. No matter what type of business you’re in, online customer reviews are crucial for growing awareness and perception about your brand online.
If you are a business looking to build a strong market presence, you can show the world that your brand truly cares for its customers by encouraging interactions, resolving queries, and responding to online reviews on time.
Using social listening tools and online reputation management software like Konnect Insights is a huge bonus. You now have a way to track and respond to every brand mention or online review.
Let’s dissect a few examples of positive, negative, and neutral reviews.
I Positive reviews
This is when people have good things to say about your brand or its offering. Let’s look at a positive online review about George and how he handled a potential customer’s panicky situation over the call.
“I placed a call to George when I blew out a fuse in my apartment and sparks started flying. George patiently walked me through what to do step-by-step even though it was late at night for free. Whenever I need the services of an electrician, I will definitely be calling this company.”
- Chanel B
George did something really cool and helped a person in need. This increased his company’s reputation and saved a distressed customer, who now will recall this experience every time she needs an electrician.
That’s how brand recall value is built through experiences and when customers share positive reviews, people trust your brand.
II Negative reviews
Now, people may have had bad experiences, and they could be infuriated. If you get on the bad side of a customer, he or she is surely going to give you a negative online review.
Let’s look at an Amazon review that shows a customer’s frustration and anger at the quality of a product he received.
“Do not go for this, no quality waste of money. Faded shirt. I ordered it to save my time. But that was my mistake. Better invest time on yourself to buy the shirt from a showroom. At least you get an original product.”
- Arpit
You can see that Arpit is angry because he feels let down. If he had the option of giving them no stars, he probably would have. But since Amazon requires at least one star to give a review, he did just that.
A bad online review is going to hinder your business. And if you don’t know how to respond to negative online reviews, then you’re in real trouble.
III Neutral reviews
These are reviews of people who don’t have anything really bad or extremely good to say. But, they want to share their experiences to inform the public about what they faced.
It’s tricky because sometimes a customer would blatantly suggest an alternative to your product or restaurant because he/she wants others to have a better experience. But in some cases, it could be good to know their opinion as that helps you improve your services.
Here’s an example of an online restaurant review.
“I went in with the expectation that Etta was the next best thing in town. After the meal, I realized it was just another pop-up average at a best new American restaurant charging premium prices. If you’re in the area, I’d recommend Lillie’s down the street.”
- David G
Here David isn’t really angry, but he expected more, and what was delivered didn’t match his expectation. So he chose to inform people in the area that there are better options for fine dining.
From a business perspective, this may be hurtful. But take a look at the business owner’s response to gather a sense of how he tackled the situation practically.
“Thank you David for your honesty! I am sorry that we were just average, I would love to know more about how we can change that in your eyes. I will send you a direct message so we can talk more about what happened.”
- Adam Scholten, General Manager
Now that’s a good way to maintain ties with customers who can turn your business around. The General Manager took full responsibility and opened a communication pathway to ensure that his customers do not consider him average but help him improve. That’s one way of making sure that your reviews don’t affect you. Instead, it can be leveraged to instigate conversations and create a sense of responsibility between you and your customers.
The Final Review
That being said, online reviews are a great determinant of a brand’s recall value, and you should take them seriously. Social listening is the most efficient way to ensure that customers feel heard and that your brand becomes a people-centric business.
The way you market your brand is very essential, but people conversating about you is also a great way to enhance your brand’s awareness. By encouraging positive conversations you improve your brand’s marketing efforts.
Tags: customer experience, Customer Experience Management, Customer feedback, Online Reputation Management, online reviews