Hey there and welcome to another blog series with ethne.! This time we are diving deep into those online reviews and what it means for your business. For our first instalment, we’ll be explaining why they are so important (there’s a reason everyone raves about them, guys!)
What are considered online reviews?
Have you ever had an AMAZING meal at your favourite local spot and just wanted to tell all your mates so they can experience it too? In the age of everything digital, this is where online reviews come in. Reviews allow customers to rate their experience with businesses (whether that be amazing or really bad) in order to inform others who may also be interested in that service.
Why are they so damn important?
Reviews take the idea of word of mouth, online, for the rest of the world to see.
It has long been known that word of mouth is the one of the most valuable tools for either winning or losing new business. But while the world evolved into digital, so did word of mouth into online reviews. Now we can rely on the recommendations of our friends, family and even strangers with the click of a button. This new and highly transparent form of word of mouth means businesses have to work harder than ever to ensure their service or product is seen as valuable to customers.
94% of customers will avoid a business based on a trend of negative reviews
We don’t know about you, but for many of us when searching for a product or service, seeing a number of negative experiences by previous users is the sure way to turn us off. With 94% of customers avoiding businesses due to negative reviews – it’s never been more important to make sure you are meeting customer needs because if not, the flow on effect could be never ending.
Just like consumers trust a good review rating, so does your local search ranking
Saying hello to online reviews platforms such as Google reviews within your Google My Business listing has now ensured that reviews have a significant impact on where you rank when customers are searching for local products and/or services. Great and consistent reviews mean that your business has a stamp of legitimacy and trustworthiness attached to it – and search engines most definitely pick up on this when delivering content to customers.
So now that we know why reviews are so important, which review platforms should you be focusing all that limited time and energy on? We’ll get into all of the review platforms we think you should be working with in our next blog in the series!