The Importance of Reviews
Raise your hand if you make a purchase online without reading a review? Yeah, me either. In fact, it’s become essential for many businesses to put a focus around collecting these humble brags to generate more sales. As customers, we want to know from our peers what they thought about the product/service we are looking into before we call or purchase. This has become the new start to the purchase journey for many customers. As a business it’s important not only understand the importance of a review, but how to encourage customers to leave them.
1. Proof from peers drives considerations
People are curious what other people’s experiences were with your brand. If you are a service industry brand with a high dollar price point, people will spend time researching prior to picking up the phone to call. Your website is often the first place they go to learn more about you, so this is a great place for your reviews to live. If you obtain reviews through google or Facebook you could consider using a widget that adds these to your website for you. This will keep the reviews up to date and take the work off your shoulders.
2. The higher the stars the more trustworthy the brand
Having a high rating holds you accountable for the products and services you deliver. When you have a higher rating and take the time to obtain that status it shows you and your team care about your brand. Think of when you travel. You only get to eat out so many times before you head home, so you want to try the very best local spots. Reviews from other patrons will help you seek out the best places so you don’t miss out on something delectable before making your way home.
3. Reviews have a positive impact on sales
We work with many clients that rely on reviews to get them into a considered set against competition. Within the home improvement industry specifically you already know customers are going to get 1-3 bids. Referral sources continue to be a strong lead generator for many of our accounts. Most of these come from reviews and past customers singing their praises. With positive conversations being done online, it helps your sales team before they even walk in the door to your customer.
4. Negative reviews help too
Yes, I know…no one wants a negative review. When a customer sees a negative review they are looking for how the business resolved the situation. You can see the conversation online so having a good response to a negative situation can spin a positive light to communication with your team. Also, if all your reviews were positive it would look staged. You can learn from these reviews too. Keeping them to a minimum is suggested of course, but if your goal is to work to be highly rated then these will not be the majority of what you collect.
We recommend brands we service to have a review program. Start by making sure the reviews are visible within social platforms and websites. Next, incentivize your team and your customers to leave a review. We’ve seen many different approaches to this. There is really no one good way to go about it, and we believe they should be customized to the brand. Make one of your 2021 goals to work with your team to create a review program that allows you to see continued sales generate from your current customer base. If you don’t have the time to create one we may just know some people that could help you. Contact us here to learn more. https://www.11twentythree.com/contact
By: Shana Boyd