Long time back, when the Internet had not flourished back then, customers had a very passive role in determining the company's reputation. But today in the digital epoch, things have changed drastically and continues to be every next minute. A customer possesses enormous power to lift up your business or ruin its reputation if they do not get content with your products and services. That's where Online reviews come into the picture.
Having easy access to internet services has changed the complete scenario. Researches say that 90% of customers before buying a product or opting for any service tend to holistically analyze the ratings and reviews on the product, and 94% of them claim that even one negative feedback can affect their mind leading them to search for something else and eventually buying from somewhere else. Okay Just imagine if you liked a product on Amazon owing to it's incredibly descriptive, written, and visual content. But when you proceed to buy and hardly see any review, straightaway, what would you do?
You would simply exit from the page without even thinking once!
From mobile phones to other services, it’s rare to see people blindly make a purchase decision without reading through several online reviews. Survey in 2016 revealed that 90% of shoppers read at least one online review before deciding to visit a business.
Even if a person visits a restaurant, he checks the reviews and ratings of the taste of food, ambience, services, and every other thing that they need to know. Then what makes you think that your users won't be looking for your reviews to proceed with your service?
This means that whatever your area of expertise is, however having a positive online presence gives you several key advantages over others, which is why it has become a key part of branding.
Now, let’s understand why Online Reviews are essential for your business and how it can help you craft out a strategic plan to optimize your customer's satisfaction and help them create positive online reviews for you. Let's pay attention to the six valuable reasons why online reviews are vital for your brand and why your company should focus on them.
1. Online reviews make you more visible in Search engine rankings
Most customers directly search for a product they are looking for in Search engines like Google and Bing rather than any eCommerce website or specific websites. Online reviews are highly valued by search engines when it comes to displaying results to return. No doubt that all sites have their own unique and different way of indexing and surfacing content, but they need to keep in mind that having positive customer reviews unique and fresh content can always keep your brand favored by the Google algorithms. If your website ranked higher in search engines and local search listings, then the algorithms and people get access to your website quickly.
2) They make you look genuine
As mentioned earlier, 90% of the customers wish to review the online feedback and ratings before proceeding to purchase, so it's quite evident that having online reviews may be positive or negative, and can make your brand look trustworthy and credible. Even if you work on some strategies that have comprehensive plans, then surely, those positive reviews can overshadow those negative reviews. Having negative feedback can help you realize where your brand lacks and what loopholes you need to fix to give the perfect service to your customer. Whatever the situation might be, even some customers respond personally, which can build and establish a positive relationship for your future transactions.
3) They are essential for building a Strong decision
Even if strangers find the product to be good, they believe them, and finally make the sound decision to purchase items or go for the service. There can be no gain to your brand and business if your customers, specifically online customers, opt for your facility without leaving any impressions and reviews.
4) They help your brand build its identity
Another important aspect of online reviews is that many customers expect companies to respond to the reviews as soon as possible. How you can quickly resolve, rectify negative feedback and your gratitude play a positive role and can further improve your brand reputation in the eyes of the customer. Giving customized responses to the reviews and ratings can help your brand build an identity of itself, and having a friendly and open-to-feedback platform can help your brand achieve wonders.
5) They enhance the conversation about you
You must be quite aware that bad mouth spreads faster than something said good for any entity. This has been the trend since ages, and the digital network follows the rule. You should encourage your customers to review the company's services, its product and all essential things so as to expand the growth of a brand's reach among all other potential customers. When your customers have an entirely positive impression regarding your brand, then they are most likely to read, post them and share those reviews on personal websites social or even platforms like Quora. Just imagine if your product has something very wrong and it's displayed on quora or any other platform, then most likely, you are going to lose all of your customers. Ensuring that your customers are happy can help you increase your multi-channel footprint.
I hope by now, you must have realized how valuable online reviews are for your brand and the establishment. Even if you have negative feedback deleting them is not the solution. In this manner, you are hiding your reality. Instead, work on your weaknesses, work on your loopholes to see them evolving as your greatest strength one day.
Rannkly is an all in one destination for the holistic management of online reputation services, and Online review Management. Rannkly can help you manage all your online reviews on different social media platforms simultaneously and can respond to those reviews and even track those loopholes with an analytical approach to help you know in which aspect your brand lacks. A yardstick for your review management, look no further than Rannkly