What impact do customer reviews have on your business?
To fully grasp the importance of reviews, we need to look into the impact they have on businesses. Organisations place their customer at the centre of their priorities, and rightly so. Their clients are their best marketing tool, particularly when they are satisfied and share their experience with others. Reviews left by customers on products or services are important for four main reasons:
Customer reviews constitute valuable feedback
Reviews are the result of the perception that customers have of the service or the product they purchased. As such, their content can contain valuable information on what clients want. Reviews should be read thoroughly and should be analysed on a regular basis to understand if the solutions delivered meet the audience’s expectations. They may contain compliments, complaints or suggestions. These can be powerful tools for innovation, general improvements or simply to understand what the customer base wants.
Customer reviews are testimonials of the experience of clients
Prospective customers trust feedback provided by other customers on the products they are looking to purchase. Reviews are genuine and reveal insights that future customers will find valuable and trustworthy.
Reviews contribute to building a brand
Customer reviews are highly sought after by prospective customers looking to purchase a service or product. As such, they contribute to the company brand, its reputation and its loyalty. For example, multiple positive customer reviews on the quality of a product will emphasise this characteristic of the brand.
Customer reviews are a form of advertising
Reviews are a key deciding factor behind purchase choices. They are credible and convey the value of your products or services. Prospective customers will make a judgement on your solutions based on the reviews they can access. As such, customer reviews are a form of advertisement, they have an impact on the popularity of your products and influence the sales conversion rate.
Positive reviews will lead to building trust and confidence. It is highly likely that they will result in increased sales. They boost the reputation and the brand of the business in the marketplace. Conversely, negative customer reviews can have a daunting effect on sales and, if not addressed promptly, on the business’ overall reputation. They may affect the brand value. Negative reviews should serve as learning opportunities and be addressed to limit their impact.
How do you leverage customer reviews to benefit your business?
The key with reviews is to leverage them, learn from them and even utilise them to create a competitive advantage. The section below focusses on how to treat reviews and how to make the most of them to benefit your organisation.
Encourage customer reviews to make them work to your advantage
Customer reviews are often unsolicited, but this does not have to be the case. To keep control of your reviews, seek feedback from loyal customers. Utilising happy customers and encouraging them to share their experience will contribute to establishing loyalty to the brand and promote it. Here are a few ideas to encourage reviews:
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- Follow up after the purchase: You can do so by asking them to describe their experience or talk about the quality of the product or service provided. Make sure you explain how to leave the review and keep the process simple.
- Get the timing right: Timing can make a big difference to the content of the review. It is tied to the customer’s emotions at the time of the review request. As such, evaluate what the best timing is and send the review request accordingly.
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- Share the reviews with prospective customers by displaying them on your webpage, social media or sales materials: Reviews are proof of success. They are genuine and trusted by prospective customers. Making them available to all demonstrates the value of the product.
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- Share the review on multiple channels: Ideally, all your customer’s points of entry should display reviews. They can be present on social media, the company’s website, sales pitches and more. They serve as advertisements and will influence the brand reputation.
Leverage the reviews to create success stories
People like to compare, understand other’s experiences and make informed decisions based on the information they collect. Customer reviews can be used to create success stories. This type of content is engaging as it refers to the customer experience. This approach places the prospective customer in a relatable situation.
Don’t ignore bad reviews — use them as feedback for improvement
A common mistake is to ignore bad reviews. However, the content often contains valuable feedback and highlights opportunities for improvement. Bad reviews should be looked into and businesses should identify if there are trends or if the issue experienced by the customer was a one off. Organisations can transform these reviews into constructive feedback and take action to ensure that customers are heard and to demonstrate that the business is making the necessary improvements to meet expectations.
Use customer testimonials in your website content
Some customer feedback will convey the message you want about your product. With the client’s approval, marketing teams can publish them on the company’s website or on other channels. This will give customers a voice while maintaining the desired image for the brand. When doing so, focus on the value that the product or service brought to the customer.
Utilise customer reviews to promote product features
Some customer reviews will focus on specific products or features. If you want to promote these features, use those specific reviews. They will provide prospective customers with a customer view on the solution and will build confidence. This might have more impact if the review includes comparisons with similar solutions from competitors.
Use reviews to push traffic
Social media and webpages are powerful tools to promote products and solutions. Businesses can use customer reviews to drive traffic on their social media pages or their website. This can be done by encouraging reviews and being responsive. It is also possible to create widgets based on positive reviews to showcase them to prospective customers.
Analyse customer reviews and overall feedback to enhance existing products or services and to create new ones
Customer reviews can drive innovation. Companies should constantly look at enhancing their solutions or diversifying. Inspiration can sometimes come from customers themselves. This is where reviews come in. They are generous in feedback and valuable suggestions on how to address certain challenges. They will highlight what the audience is looking for, thus leading to the appropriate prioritisation. Customer reviews can be the starting point for new product lines or solutions.
Add some customer reviews to your newsletters and email campaigns
Sharing other’s experiences as part of your email campaigns or newsletters will put things into perspective and allow the audience to relate with their peers. As such, it can be a good way to market the business.
Create case studies that can be incorporated in your sales pitch
Case studies are often used as part of sales pitches or marketing initiatives. They take an in-depth look at a client situation and how the business dealt with it or how the solutions proposed benefited the customer. Case studies provide granularity and highlight the outcomes and values. They are proof of the business’ expertise. Customer reviews are a good way to identify if there are opportunities to create a case study.
Don’t dwell on negative reviews — address them and move on
Perfection is nearly impossible, so there will be negative reviews. When the business or its product receive a negative review, it does not have to be all bad. Organisations should use these reviews to strive for improvement. They should reach out to the dissatisfied customer and should implement the necessary actions to address the issue encountered. This will lead to enhancements and greater performance in the long run.
People trust reviews more than they trust sales pitches. Feedback and testimonials from other customers allow them to relate and to trust. Collect reviews, encourage them and make use of the feedback to create a competitive advantage for your business.
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