Consumers are trusting other consumers more and more. When someone needs a service, they turn to consumer reviews rather than advertisements and claims made directly by the company. They want to hear how other customers’ experiences were with that business first-hand. Paying attention to reviews your company receives on Google, Facebook, Yelp and other online review sites are necessary.
First of all, reviews are free feedback for your company to use to your advantage. Although negative reviews are never a good thing to receive, it allows your company to see what wasn’t perfect and tells you areas you need to improve.
Positive reviews are necessary to bring in new customers. You should be encouraging and incentivizing your happy customers to leave a positive review. This will show potential customers that, they too, will have a great experience with your company. Look into what customers rave about the most and capitalize on those aspects. Share these positive reviews socially to show that not only do you appreciate your customers, you hear what they have to say and want other future customers to hear it too.
Having reviews are necessary for a business because no reviews at all give the consumer nothing at all to go off of. This can signal to a customer that your company is newer or flying under the radar. No customer is going to want to try out a business on their own dollar when they have no indicator on how their experience will pan out. Pay attention and monitor all these reviews because it will give you a signal as to how you are performing in relation to your competitors. Today, these reviews act as a personal recommendation from a friend. Good reviews signal to consumers that your service or product was so amazing that the customer felt the need to rave about it because they want others to experience it as well.