Ever searched for a restaurant in your local area? Did you find yourself a bit spoilt for choice? Perhaps you narrowed it down to 2 restaurants, each with a menu that looked super tasty, but here’s the decider: restaurant 1 has 5 stars and restaurant 2 has only 3, which one you picking now? Thought so.
For business owners, having the best reviews is important in getting customers to do business with you instead of your competitors. 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business and those who do show a 133% higher conversion rate. That’s what you want, but of course, customers are only likely to invest in you if you have good reviews. Here’s why...
Good experiences ring well
When searching for a service, you as a customer want to know that your provider will carry out the task paid for. Reviews are written for customers, by customers, to show people’s experiences with a particular company, be it good or bad. New clients can then read these and make their minds up about whether to carry on business with said company or not.
For definite, good feedback will instill a sense of trust in a company, whereas bad reviews most people back away from. In fact, a whopping 86% of people hesitate to purchase from a business with negative online feedback, so make sure yours are good. What you want is to give your clients the best possible experiences you can, then get your clients rating you and rating well. It takes about 5 positive reviews to make up for 1 negative one, so grab what you can get.
They’re more reliable
Most of the time, reviews are more reliable than comments made about companies on social media. If you have people posting about you, that’s great and keep that up. On the other hand, spreading positive awareness over a series of search platforms (not just one) will be much more beneficial for your company's future than one fleeting Facebook comment.
They’re more searchable
If you’re a tech-savvy business owner, you’ll know already that businesses with better customer reviews are boosted on the Google search, pushing them up a few places and in turn, generating companies more online interest. Another good reason to push for ratings.
Customers trust other customers
Finally, and possibly most importantly, consumer reviews are significantly more trusted than descriptions from manufacturers, so remember this one thing – NEVER add ingenuine reviews just to reel in custom. People only trust in reviews they feel are authentic. So only ever invite your clients to comment after working with them. If they’ve just received quality service from you, they’ll be more than grateful and happy to spell out how great you are. So, don’t worry, if you have the support of your long-term clients, you have the support of new potentials too.
You really want lots of reviews saying you’re the best. Remember number of ratings count too – 3 ratings at 5 stars isn’t as reliable as 30 ratings at 5. So again, always ensure you ask for testimonials and reviews after you finish work with a client – if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Choose Purple are a digital marketing agency based near Sheffield. If you are a business owner and you are looking to boost your online presence, don’t hesitate to contact our 5-star company today.
