How Important Are Customer Reviews?

A lot of businesses ask, how important are customer reviews? Let’s put it this way. A shopper is in the market for something new. In person, they run into a store, pick it up, buy it, and bring it home. Online, it’s an entirely different story.

If they Google it, they can instantly compare several makes and models and as they narrow down their selections, they can look for distinct benefits. The one thing that seals the deal over all other comparisons is customer reviews.

According to a 2022 survey run by BrightLocal, in 2021, 77 percent of consumers “always” or “regularly” read reviews when browsing for local businesses, up from 60 percent in 2020. People don’t just use customer reviews as an afterthought; they purposely seek them out.

Why the rise in the importance of customer reviews? It could be our reliance on the internet, thanks to the pandemic. We’ve learned how to harness the power of the internet to fulfill our every desire and have the results delivered right to our houses.

Why Customer Reviews Are Important

As a business, you need to be aware of this trend and learn how to use it to your advantage. While developing an online experience, ensure customer reviews are a part of your positive footprint. Consider this as you build your own online presence.

Create Credibility and Social Proof

Having customer reviews can be incredibly useful in attracting new customers. While using positive testimonials can drive more people to make that purchase, it’s not the only reason.

Search rankings also use customer reviews as a consideration for a higher search ranking. The more customer reviews you have, the more likely you are to show up high in the results for searching consumers. Buying positive reviews can be a black hat SEO tactic, so it’s essential to strive for legitimate reviews.

To build social proof, it’s important to have a plan for the entire customer experience. Build a push to leave a review in your marketing. BrightLocal’s survey showed that 34 percent of consumers only leave positive reviews, while 7 percent leave only negative ones. Moreover, 80 percent would be “likely” or “highly likely” to leave a review if a negative experience was turned positive. It’s all about focusing on the full-circle customer experience.

Gain a Better Understanding of Your Customer

The internet has brought transparency to an entirely different level. Not only can your customer feel more comfortable buying from you, but you can also learn more about your customers.

Pay attention to reviews, and you’ll know more about overall customer satisfaction. Engage with them, providing feedback shortly after they leave their reviews. You may be able to turn a negative experience back into a positive one and even create a customer for life. This interaction can also be a great motivator when someone finalizes their buying decisions.

Increase Your Visibility

Online, visibility works in two ways. First, search engines look for ways to improve their own internal customer experience. They know people are happier with well-loved products and services so they reward these businesses with a higher ranking in the results. When used correctly, you can quickly start to move ahead of your competition just by working to gather positive reviews.

This also works in a second way by improving your clout with customers. Who would you prefer to buy from, a company with 10 five-star reviews, or one with 50 three-star reviews? Customers aren’t afraid to read through multiple products or services to find one that best suits their needs. Even if you have just a few reviews to start, work hard to make them as “five-star” as possible.

Create a More Trustworthy Brand

Which industries are most in need of positive customer reviews? The BrightLocal survey found that service-area businesses and tradespeople, care services, and healthcare ranked highest for the importance of gaining reviews.

However, you only have to look at your own search patterns to discover how important customer reviews are in your everyday purchases. Do you search for reviews when buying new appliances? How about when selecting a book to read or a restaurant for dinner?

Yes, a five-star rating can boost your confidence in making a purchase, but it’s more than that. It’s also about how customers talk about you. This is a chance for customers to get “real” with their service. They can talk about how they were treated, and how they felt throughout the purchase. Those words can significantly impact whether another customer says “yes” and makes a purchase.

Essential to the Decision-Making Process

Years ago, customer reviews weren’t as valuable because they were harder to display. You might have included a small testimonial in a brochure, but there wasn’t a good way of pushing the information out to prospects and customers.

The internet changed that. Google, Yelp, and even Facebook are powerhouses with their ability for consumers to share their information. While it may have started as simply a way to share ideas and resources, it’s changed into something more. We now rely on this as a part of our decision-making process, even through “friends” we’ve only communicated with online. Today, more than 99 percent of consumers say that customer reviews have pushed them to make a purchase, and 98 percent say customer reviews have been essential to finalizing a decision.

It’s just one more step being used when finalizing any purchase in today’s world. If you don’t factor that into your sales process, you’re losing out to your competition.