Whether you’re looking for a new hair stylist, plumber, or restaurant to try out, chances are you’re in the 90% of people who report consulting the all-important online reviews first.

You check the amount of stars a vacuum got on Amazon; you look for pictures of customer’s food and listen to their experiences; you see on a scale of 0-5 if your prospective stylist is highly recommended or not. And this makes sense, right? Because we want to trust a product or service before taking the plunge, and what better way to do this than from authentic users, not paid endorsements?

What does this mean for your business? It means you can’t ignore the power of online reviews, and you shouldn’t – from the positive to the negatives, let’s dive into why all online reviews are good for business.

1)Trust: Build a positive image around your business based on authentic users and their experiences. By giving your consumers a platform to share a review, it does a few things. It keeps the business motivated because the promise of a positive review or threat of a negative one is always looming, but in a good way. Allowing your potential users to show your transparency in service/product builds a level of trust before they even try you out.

Let’s say you’re taking an important client out to eat; you want to impress her, so you start searching online and have a few contenders.

Option A looks promising but has no reviews.

Option B has 10 reviews in the medium to high range.

Option C has 30 reviews in the medium to high range.

Yup, we thought so – we’re taking her to Option C, too. And that’s too bad for A and B because they’re equally as delicious.

2)Advertising: Who doesn’t like free advertising? Let your consumers do the marketing for you with little work on your part. You need to be proactive in this venture though, letting consumers know you collect reviews and give them a no-brainer way to do it.

Any business knows that traditional marketing and advertising channels are expensive, but online reviews can do the same (if not better) work than big-shot commercials or billboards because they feel so trustworthy and authentic.

3)Data: Collect valuable information from your audience to better understand their wants, needs, what’s working for them, and what’s not. Think – free focus group.

When you review your customers’ feedback, you learn such valuable information that goes way beyond what you think you know. You may think you know your customers best, but by allowing them to give you good qualitative data, you can improve your communication and sales. Win-win.

4)Customer service: By encouraging users to share their experiences, you’re showing them you care about their experience. Happy customers means more loyalty and revenue.

Who would have thought negative review could be an asset to your business? Studies show that “Software products that received a mix of positive and negative online reviews were perceived by buyers as being more trustworthy” because you’re putting yourself out there and not being biased with the data you present. Negative reviews also give you an opportunity to promptly address and correct a situation that can easily turn a negative into a loyal customer.

5)Revenue: Of course, more positive reviews, establishing trust, building confidence in your business, and providing superior customer service has one result you’ll care most about – more money. Pretty straightforward, right?

How to get more online reviews

Alright, so we have you convinced you need to collect online reviews, but how do you go about it? You need to be proactive and make it easy for your consumers to share their experiences, which is why we’re making it easy for you to get started.

When you’re ready to start making more money and attracting new customers, give us a call to talk about setting you up with our online review software.

Getting hundreds of verified reviews doesn’t have to be difficult and we can help you with it. Here’s a great idea Michael Irvine, Senior Growth Marketer from Logojoy, shared with us: “Gathering 1,000 customer reviews in one week couldn’t have been easier for us. We simply signed up for an account with Trust Pilot, uploaded a list of our historical purchasers, and sent out a well-crafted email. We incentivised our customers to leave a review by giving them a chance to win 1 of 20 $25 gift certificates to Amazon.” We can implement your reviews strategy – get in touch!