IMPORTANCE OF ONLINE CUSTOMER REVIEWS

The Internet has become a major media for business to shown. It has influenced how customers find new businesses, products, services and decreases the need for closeness to conduct business.  As the closeness is decreased and f2f interaction is longer the term of doing business, your customer relay on reviews which are available online for your business and products.

According to a survey “70% of your prospect customers look for your product/business reviews online before making a buying decision. So, having your customer’s review online is the important task.

However, whenever we hear term “Online Customer Reviews” few doubts/questions always come into our mind, like…

How much does an Existing customer reviews affect your new customers’ buying decisions?

How important are customer reviews? 

Does anyone really trust online customer reviews?

Let’s look into some facts and try to get answer of above questions.

 Facts of Traditional Customer reviews: 

The average customer references specific brands over 90 times per week in chats with friends, family, and colleagues. (Keller Fay, WOMMA, 2010)

90% of customers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. (Econsultancy, July 2009)

Based on these facts, it is clear that more people trust opinions of their friends, family and colleagues when looking to purchase or after purchasing a product or service.

Facts of Online Customer Reviews: 

Customer reviews are knowingly more trusted — nearly 12 times more — than explanations that come from makers, according to a survey of US mom Internet users by online video review site EXPO. (eMarketer, February 2010)

44% of Moms use social media for brand/product references; 73% trust online community references. (BabyCenter LLC, July 2009)

61% of people rely on user reviews for product information or research before a buying decision is made. (Razorfish, 2008)

After analyzing all these facts, one thing realizes that online customer reviews increases confidence in a product and service and over two thirds of people trust online customer reviews. Therefore, it is very significant to allow potential customers to read and write reviews about your company’s product or service on your website.

Facts of Social Media Reviews:

53% of people on Twitter endorse companies and/or products in their Tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product. (ROI Research for Performance, June 2010)

67% of shoppers spend more online after references from online community of friends. (Internet Retailer, September 2009)

Facebook, Blogs, Twitter and Online customer reviews are considered the most effective strategies for mobilizing customers to talk up products online. (Etailing survey of 117 companies, September 2009).

As a Business Owner, all these recommendation systems you can follow to build better online reputation for your business. 

Each of these recommendations/review works in different ways. The Traditional System is going to happen irrespective of what you do as a company. If you have a product or service, people are going to discuss it with their friends, family and colleagues.

The Online Customer Review option is optional; however, it is a main power on people’s decisions, provides a company with positive reputation. Online reviews on a company’s website or on another website, increase assurance in your product or service and eventually will lead to more leads & sales. 73% of people trust online customer reviews and 63% of people aggressively search for online customer reviews when making a buying decision.

Social Media reviews are also powerful with individuals who are looking to make a purchase in the near future. However, social media also turns as a recommendation system. When looking for a product or service, a person using social media to get references will ask their community for a recommendation and will be focused to a particular product or service.

Conclusion:

Finally, not every company is doing online customer reviews. If your competitors aren’t doing online customer reviews until now, then you have a great chance to increase your business.

With all these customer review systems, prospective customers have to find your content and then read the reviews. This increases brand awareness, allows people to trust your product or service and leads directly to purchase.

Register today @ www.revbay.com to collect and manage your customer reviews, It’s Free!!!