93% of customers read online reviews before buying a product. Find out how to use online reviews to connect with your customers, improve your brand image and encourage positive buying recommendations.
Your customers are talking online
Like it or not, in the confusing and busy world of online shopping, people want reassurance before committing to a purchase. Your potential customers are turning to online review sites to learn all they can about your service or product. Sites like Yelp, Google Maps and TripAdvisor allow customers to give advice, or to read past customer experiences directly from the source.
How powerful is this route to market is on customer buying decisions? The answer is very. 91% of 18-34 year olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and 93% of consumers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions.
Why do customers leave online reviews?
Online reviews give power to the customers to tell their side of the buying story. This provides social proof to other potential customers.
Social proof is the level of credibility that the public provides to a service or product. The more people that use, or enjoy a product, the more likely others are to follow. Positive public endorsement of a brand by a celebrity can provide high social proof, which can directly impact sales. Likewise, a negative review can drive customers away.
There’s also evidence to suggest that online reviews are the primary way to choose where to shop locally. Nearly all consumers (97%) now use online media when researching products or services in their local area.
The value of positive reviews
Positive reviews remain a key way for companies to sell their product, with customers willing to spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews. But there are other benefits too:
- Increased consumer trust - As you’ll know, trust is hard to gain and easy to lose following a bad experience. 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review.
- Having a direct line to customers - Hearing feedback from customers will give you insights to help you improve the customer experience. You’ll soon be able to draw up a picture of the entire customer journey, and find out areas you perform well and others that need improving. With most review sites, you can also respond back to the customer and start a dialogue to find out more, and close the loop to ensure their issues are resolved.
- Appearing higher in search engine rankings - Online customer reviews gain more weighting (6.47%) in organic local searches. What customers say in their reviews also mattered - ‘Negative Sentiment in Google Reviews’ is a negative ranking factor.
The cost of negative reviews
On the contrary, negative online reviews have a devastating effect on your brand.
- 3.3 is the minimum star rating of a business consumers would engage with and only 13% of consumers will consider using a business that has a 1 or 2 star rating.
- 94% say an online review has convinced them to avoid a business.
- Four out of five consumers have changed their minds about a recommended purchase after reading negative online reviews.
In fact, businesses risk losing as many as 22% of customers when just one negative article is found by users considering buying their product. If three negative articles pop up in a search query, the potential for lost customers increases to 59.2%.
If you have a star-rating for your company, negative change to this can have serious consequences. A loss of a half-star rating means a restaurant is 19% less likely to have full seats during peak dining times (UC Berkeley). Likewise, a one-star decrease in a Yelp rating could lead to a 5-9% decrease in revenue (Harvard Business School).
Which review platforms do customers use?
General review sites
Social review sites
Industry-specific review sites
- Food and drink: TripAdvisor
- Travel and hospitality: Air BnB, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com
- Property: Home Away
- Cleaning: UK Cleaning Company
- IT/Computers repair: Computer Repair Companies, Computer Repair Maintenance UK, Which?
- Weddings: Guides for Brides, The Wedding Planner
- Trade: MyBuilder
Be aware of the danger of fake reviews
Fake online reviews are dangerous as they don’t help you or the customer get what you’re after.
Malicious fake reviews impact the credibility of your brand by reporting bad service where there is none. To real potential customers, this can be enough to turn them off a sale.
If customers can spot one fake review, it calls into question the trustworthiness of all the other genuine reviews.
You can spot fake reviews by a few tell-tale signs.
- If the reviewer does not provide profile information, or has inconsistent reviewing methods (lots of reviews or none at all), you could be dealing with a computerized spam persona.
- This is more likely if they have included links to third-party websites or products, in an attempt to draw away customers to competitors or unprotected sites.
- The review messages will be repeated as new reviews for other companies. The messages may be non-specific, created in a different language or misleading.
You can report these reviewers to the platform administrators, so they can remove the review as soon as possible.
5 ways to use online reviews to your advantage
What can you do to help promote positive reviews and work with your customers?
1. Ask for online reviews from your customers
If you’re not already working to improve your online reviews, you can start now by educating your customers on the importance of leaving reviews - and encouraging them to do so, optimizing your listings on each platform, and providing excellent customer service.
Instead of waiting for customers to volunteer a review, you can ask customers if they would like to leave one on a site of your choosing - one study found that 68% of customers will leave a review if they’re asked.
This could happen automatically at the point of purchase, through a personalized email campaign or a satisfaction survey. This way, you can direct the reviews to an online review platform that suits you and allows for direct communication to customers.
Don’t solicit good reviews in exchange for money on ethical grounds. If you’re found out, it can damage your credibility and consumer trust.
2. Respond to online reviews from your customers
Periodically check review sites to check if there have been any reviews recently, and make sure you respond back to each one. If a customer is taking the time to write a review - positive or negative - you can't ignore it.
Be careful about how you respond to the customer. Check that your message and tone is on-brand. It’s true that 89% of consumers read businesses' responses to reviews, so they will be watching how you react.
Thank the customer for their view, and where there are negative comments, offer to take this case off-line to investigate further. This shows you’re proactive about giving good customer service and that you take their views - and experience - seriously.
3. Be transparent about your online reviews
Show you’re a transparent, customer-focused company that cares about what their customers say by sharing your online reviews.
Some companies put their Trust Pilot ratings on their websites, using HTML widgets, and others create a testimonials page. Whatever your way, complement your sales with real reviews.
If you want more online reviews, make it easy for customers to do so by giving them direct access to these review sites. This way you can learn from their feedback.
From a consumer’s viewpoint, a company that offers online review opportunities is a company that is confident in providing high-quality products and great customer service.
4. Share online reviews in your communications
Use the positive reviews you have in your company communications. Try the following:
- Promote reviews that mention a product by name, so you can link this to the product’s homepage. When new customers see the review, they can click on the link to learn more, and this will help to endorse the product naturally. A company can say a product is good, but it means more coming from fellow customers.
- Use the reviews in your recruitment material. Harvard Business Review found that a bad reputation costs a company at least 10% more per hire.
- Share customer success stories internally where you have closed the loop and turned a bad experience into a good one. This will help to humanize the brand and show employees the value of taking action on poor experiences.
- You can also help resolve the need for reassurance by increasing the visible reviews for customers at the point of purchase. For example, where the cost of a product is great, like in IT software sales, people will use more reviews to feel comfortable before investing in the purchase (64% of software buyers want to read at least 6 reviews before purchasing)
5. Have a physical shop presence if possible
Consider this: According to Google/Nielson, 93% of people who use mobile to research go on to complete a purchase of a product or service. Does your brand have a physical shop presence?
If you’re unable to get shop space, you can use your online shop or sales process to mimic the person-to-person experience. You can ask for a review once an order has been placed.
Alternatively, get third-party endorsement to sell your product in the real world. 49% of consumers depend on influencer reviews and recommendations, so find someone that reflects your brand and can connect with your target audience.
FAQs
What percentage of people read online reviews? ›
98% say they read online reviews at least “occasionally” while 77% say they read them “frequently” or “always.” The number of people who “never” read online reviews has decreased significantly, falling from 13% in 2020 to 2% in 2021.
How many online reviews is good? ›Even just one review is great, but the more the merrier. Businesses who have 200 or more reviews have twice as much revenue compared to others. Average local business has 39 Google reviews. Hotels have an average of 309 reviews.
What percentage of customers look at reviews? ›In fact, according to their data, 97% of participants said customer reviews factor into their buying decisions. And 92% of consumers hesitate to make a purchase when there are no customer reviews.
How many people read online reviews before making a purchase? ›12. As many as 89% of global customers read reviews before making a purchase. Customers like to make an effort and read a few online ratings and reviews before deciding whether or not they will spend their money on the item they're eyeing.
Why do visitors only read 20% of websites? ›The short answer is because visitors tend to look for quick answers when browsing the internet. The internet has the answer to most things so people want to do their own research and find the answer they need fast. In short, they prefer to scan and spot what's attractive to their eye.
How many people are influenced by online reviews? ›97% of consumers report that the customer reviews they read influence their purchasing decisions.
What is a good number of reviews? ›Review Quantity – According to an article by MarketWatch, 20-50 is enough reviews to prove a product has been tried by enough people. If you don't have many reviews now, this is a good starting goal because it will show potential customers that others have tried you.
Do the number of reviews matter? ›First things first: review quantity does indeed matter to shoppers. Our research found that 99% of consumers pay attention to the number of reviews available for a product, at least to some extent. So, how many reviews do shoppers want? In an ideal world, 43% indicate a given product should have more than 100 reviews.
What is missing in online reviews? ›Find why a review is missing
In most cases, missing reviews were removed for policy violations like spam or inappropriate content. We do not reinstate reviews that were removed for policy violations. These removal measures help make sure that reviews on Google properties are relevant, helpful, and trustworthy.
Generally, positive comments tend to prompt consumers to generate emotional trust, increase confidence and trust in the product and have a strong persuasive effect. On the contrary, negative comments can reduce the generation of emotional trust and hinder consumers' buying intentions (Archak et al., 2010).
How do you analyze customer reviews? ›
- Collate your data. ...
- Determine how to categorize the feedback. ...
- Get a quick overview. ...
- Code the feedback. ...
- Refine your coding. ...
- Calculate how popular each code is. ...
- Summarize and share.
Research shows that 93% of consumers say online reviews will affect shopping choices, indicating that most consumers have the habit of reading online reviews regularly and rely on the comments for their purchasing decisions (Vimaladevi and Dhanabhakaym, 2012).
Do online reviews affect product sales? ›Research found that 79% of customers who buy on Amazon are influenced to purchase best-reviewed products. This is a clear sign that online reviews have outgrown brand loyalty, free shipping, product quality, and price when customers are in the purchase process.
What percentage of product reviews are fake? ›Online reviews often make or break a product and major retailers and search engines show them in an attempt to help customers make the best choice, but research indicates many of them may be fake. An analysis which student 720 million reviews on Amazon, deemed 42-percent of them as fake or unreliable.
What is a good number of site visits? ›Websites that post daily are more likely to get between 15,001 and 250K visitors per month, and less likely to get between 1,0001 and 15K visitors than websites that post monthly.
What is the most visited website per day? ›Most Visited Websites Ranking Analysis
google.com is ranked #1 as the most popular website in the world for October 2022. The average amount of time that users spend on the website is 11 minutes, and they see, on average, 8.67 pages per visit.
Reviews produce an average of 18% increase in sales. 9% of consumers will call a business after reading positive reviews. 88% of consumers form an opinion by reading up to 10 reviews. 85% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendation.
How social media influences 71%? ›54% of social media users research products on social media platforms and 71% are more likely to purchase products and services based on social media referrals.
How many 5 star reviews do I need to negate a 1 star review? ›Assuming that only one of every 10 happy customers leaves a positive five-star review, and knowing that it takes four five-star reviews to make up for each one-star review, you can figure it takes 40 positive customer experiences to make up for a single bad review.
Is 4.7 A good Google review? ›A study by the Spiegel Research Center determined that ratings of 4.2 - 4.5 are the most trusted. This is a great goal to aim for, and realistic as well. Mistakes happen in every business in every industry. It's a waste of time to stress over a single negative review or an unattainable perfect rating.
What are 5 star reviews? ›
The 5-star rating system allows respondents to rank their feedback on a 5-point scale from 1 to 5. The more stars that are selected, the more positively your customer is responding to your question.
What are fake reviews called? ›Some companies write fake reviews in an effort to improve their reputation and drum up new business. Often referred to as review “astroturfing,” this is the practice of preparing or disseminating a fake review that a reasonable consumer would believe to be a neutral, third-party testimonial.
Is it illegal to buy fake Google reviews? ›Is it illegal to buy Google reviews? Yes. Paying for fake reviews on Google, other review sites and review platforms (such as the Google Play Store) could result in legal action.
How many Google reviews are fake? ›Google -- the top local business review site in the U.S., which is used by about 70% of consumers -- had the highest rate of fake reviews at 10.7%, although the company removed about 130 million fake reviews in 2019 and 2020. Yelp came in second with 7.1% fake reviews, Tripadvisor with 5.2%, and Facebook with 4.9%.
How many reviews is good for a product? ›Products are 270% more likely to sell with as few as five reviews—however, one study found that shoppers want to see at least 40 reviews to justify an average star rating. So, while you don't need a review from every single customer, the more you can secure, the better.
Are longer reviews better? ›An overwhelming majority of previous works find longer reviews to be more helpful than short reviews. In this paper, we propose that longer reviews should not be assumed to be uniformly more helpful; instead, we argue that the effect depends on the line of argumentation in the review text.
How many reviews is good for a business? ›And the more positive Google reviews your business has, the better. For new businesses, a minimum of five reviews that are mostly positive can be enough to help your business engage more customers. Fewer than five, or no reviews at all, is not going to be as effective - if at all.
Can Google delete reviews? ›...
Understand which reviews to report for removal
- Report only reviews that violate Google policies. ...
- Don't report a review just because you disagree with it or don't like it.
- Google online reviews. Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 158.03 million. ...
- Amazon online reviews. ...
- Facebook online reviews. ...
- Yelp online reviews. ...
- TripAdvisor online reviews. ...
- Better Business Bureau online reviews. ...
- Yellowpages online reviews. ...
- Manta online reviews.
Reviews with disclosure of reviewer's identity and high reputation are useful. Review ratings and review elaborateness positively affect the perceived usefulness. Enjoyment and readability of reviews have positive influences on the usefulness.
What are the four 4 affecting consumer behavior? ›
There are four psychological factors that influence consumer behaviour: Motivation, perception, learning, and attitude or belief system.
What are the 5 factors most affecting consumer behavior? ›- Psychological Factors.
- Social Factors.
- Cultural Factors.
- Economic Factors.
- Personal Factors.
- Step 1: Customer Segmentation. A customer needs analysis begins by identifying which customers to engage with. ...
- Step 2: Direct Customer Feedback. ...
- Step 3: Leverage Customer Data. ...
- Step 4: Unsolicited Customer Feedback. ...
- Step 5: Analyze and Visualize Customer Data.
Online reviews
You can also use your competitors online reviews to derive insights. First find your competitors public product reviews online. Then upload the reviews to your text analytics product, and analyze the reviews. In a product like Thematic, you can also compare the results against your own analyzed feedback.
Customer satisfaction is one of many key performance indicators (KPIs) that enterprises–whether for-profit, nonprofit, public, or private–routinely measure. Your customer satisfaction KPI is like a vital sign for your business; improve it and you improve the overall health of your venture.
Do reviews improve SEO? ›The short answer is yes, Google Reviews do help improve search rankings and overall SEO efforts. While there are a lot of factors involved in search rankings, online customer reviews can be a strong signal to search engines that communicates trustworthiness and authority.
What are the disadvantages of online review? ›The Negative Impact of Reviews on Businesses
An impact on the perceived reputation of your business. Damage to trust levels (Too many negative reviews or no reviews at all can impact the trustworthiness of a business) Increased costs (some 3rd party review sites will charge to use their services)
Short answer Yes, Google reviews do affect your local SEO rankings. They're not a game-changer that will instantly catapult you to number one in search results, but they can influence how Google evaluates your relevance for local searches.
What percentage of people trust online reviews? ›16.6% of shoppers wholeheartedly trust third-party review sites – like Yelp – for product reviews, while 41.7% of shoppers somewhat trust third-party sites more. 7.9% of consumers need to believe a reviewer “actually uses and likes the product” before they place their trust in that online review.
Do reviews increase conversion? ›Shoppers visiting web pages with 1-10 customer reviews are 52.2% more likely to buy than those who visit pages without any customer reviews. 50+ reviews for a product can contribute to a 4.6% spike in the particular product's conversion rate.
How many consumers rely on reviews? ›
Surveys show that 95% of consumers read online reviews before they shop and 58% say they would pay more for the products of a brand with good reviews.
What percentage of customers leave online reviews? ›About 5%–10% of consumers write reviews, influencing around $400 billion of the total e-commerce sales revenue. 84% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends. 82% of shoppers specifically seek negative reviews.
Are most online reviews fake? ›In its own transparency report, Trustpilot, an online review community that connects businesses and consumers, said it removed 2.7 million fake reviews from the almost 50 million reviews it received in total last year (about 5.8%).
Why people leave fake reviews? ›Business competitors write negative fake reviews to persuade people not to purchase their rival's products or services, which can cause catastrophic damage to a company's reputation. Fake negative reviews leave consumers wondering if they can trust what they're reading online at all.
Do people believe online reviews? ›Although 91 percent of people trust reviews as much as personal recommendations, nine percent of people are pretty skeptical about online reviews and only trust a few reviews.
How many people have read my Google reviews? ›To see your overall review stats, go to Your contributions on Google Maps for Android or iOS. Then, tap REVIEWS. At the top of the screen, you'll see how many people have liked and viewed all of your reviews. You can also see likes and views on each individual review.
What percentage of people leave a review? ›Around 81% of consumers say they've left a business review around four times a year or less. Only around 20% of customers say they've never left a business review. However, the vast majority of consumers are more likely to read reviews than leave them.
What percentage of reviews should you respond to? ›Increasing your response rate is something you can do immediately to improve your online reputation score. Strive to respond to 100% of negative reviews and at least 20% response of positive reviews. Over time, set goals for maintaining these rates consistently and improving upon them.
Can Google detect fake reviews? ›“Reviews are automatically processed to detect inappropriate content like fake reviews and spam,” Google states in its prohibited and restricted content page, “We may take down reviews that are flagged in order to comply with Google policies or legal obligations.”
Which review site is most reliable? ›- Google online reviews. Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 158.03 million. ...
- Amazon online reviews. ...
- Facebook online reviews. ...
- Yelp online reviews. ...
- TripAdvisor online reviews. ...
- Better Business Bureau online reviews. ...
- Yellowpages online reviews. ...
- Manta online reviews.
Can customers delete Google reviews? ›
Instead, there are only two ways that a review can be removed. The person who posted the review can delete it or your business can "flag the review as inappropriate." Flagging the review alerts Google that the review is fake or that it doesn't comply with Google's review policies.
What is the main reason that people leave reviews? ›According to another recent consumer report from Trustpilot, the top three reasons customers write reviews are to help others make a better buying decision, to share an experience, or to reward a company for good performance.
Are 90 day reviews normal? ›It's customary for employers to perform a 90-day review to ensure continued employee success following the new employee's first few months at work. In this article, we explain what a 90-day review is, highlight the value in your 90-day review and offer tips for a successful 90-day review.
Can you get a review removed? ›To ask Google to remove or delete an inappropriate review from your Business Profile, report the review. Google can remove reviews that violate Google's policies.
What is a good review score? ›A study by the Spiegel Research Center determined that ratings of 4.2 - 4.5 are the most trusted. This is a great goal to aim for, and realistic as well. Mistakes happen in every business in every industry. It's a waste of time to stress over a single negative review or an unattainable perfect rating.
How do you increase 5 star reviews? ›- Ask for Google reviews. ...
- Add a review link to your website or thank-you email. ...
- Provide excellent customer service. ...
- Respond to your existing Google reviews. ...
- Share your positive reviews. ...
- Invest in review generation tools. ...
- Frequently update your Google Business Profile.