Should your business strive for five-star reviews? On the surface, it’s glaringly obvious: of course! Your business should strive for as many five-star reviews as it can muster. That way, its reputation will be greater, brand awareness will soar through the roof, and consumers will trust you more than ever.
So, when it’s implied that mediocre or negative reviews are okay, it might take you by surprise. The reality is that there is space for both as far as your marketing department is concerned. This is why.
Evidence for Reviews Is Irrefutable
Once you delve into the evidence of reviews, you can’t help but be astounded by the impact of peoples’ opinions. For example, a shopper is 2.7 times more likely to purchase a product with five reviews than a product with none, highlighting the power of quality reviews. Going even further down the rabbit hole, the judgement of strangers is now more important to customers than that of their friends and family. In the US, the influence of trustworthy reviews is 68%, compared to 42% for recommendations from loved ones.
Every industry is impacted by these statistics, but some of them showcase why you need positive reviews more than others. After all, the odds are high that you’d never take a risk on a hotel or restaurant without researching it first, and you wouldn’t be the only one as over half of TripAdvisor’s clientele report that they wouldn’t pay for a hotel room that has no reviews.
If the hospitality seems fair game, what about the medical arena? In 2020, as the number of online appointments boomed, surveys showed that around 90% of people used reviews to research doctors, doctors’ surgeries, and customer service. The same applies to the legal market, with more than two-thirds of clients willing to travel to speak to a solicitor if they have better reviews than their peers.
However, it’s the online casino industry that proves the significance of customer reviews beyond doubt. Pre-2010, the sector was quite small and not growing at the rates you might expect. This changed due to many factors, from the improvement of wireless connections to the decrease in the cost of mobile devices.
Still, part of the reason the global market is anticipated to be valued at over £68 billion by 2023 is due to the impact of high-quality reviews that cover a series of topics, removing the uncertainty. This is particularly crucial for slots since there are thousands on a given website or app, making it hard to select a suitable game. Thankfully, for users, a website that has a rating for a lot of them, such as the top online slots for 2022 or the slots with the best RTP percentages, indicates which are worth trying and which need avoiding.
Unfavourable Reviews Show Transparency
After that, you’re probably wondering why businesses entertain negative reviews, and the answer is that they highlight your willingness to be transparent. After all, customers understand that brands frame things to make themselves appear good in the hope of engaging more consumers. However, people aren’t naive. Indeed, shoppers go out of their way to search for unfavourable opinions as it helps them to add balance to their research. If you’re wondering, the percentage of customers that do this is as high as 85%.
The key is to prove that the worst-case scenario isn’t too bad. For example, restaurant and hotel guests have different standards. Therefore, what they find beyond the pale will be acceptable to you. Instances can include everything from not providing facilities (hairdryer, towels, etc.,) to not accepting certain payment options. If you know to bring towels and a hairdryer and not to pay with American Express or cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, there’s a decent chance you won’t be put off using the service.
Essentially, customers decide how much the potential downsides mean to them. And if your site is filled with positive reviews from top to bottom, the likelihood is they’ll smell a rat and instantly distrust your brand. In this case, it pays to be open and honest because it’s empowering for the people you rely on the most – your customers.
Overall, reviews are essential because they are used frequently by consumers. Plus, the better they are, the better it reflects on the company. A caveat remains, though, since unfavourable bring balance and show that you have nothing to hide. Therefore, a mixture of good, bad and indifferent is what businesses should strive towards.
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