Over 90% of all consumers will read an online review before buying a product or hiring a company for a service.
This means that, more than ever, businesses need to be on top of their game when it comes to quality and level of service. There truth is, multiple companies exist in the same arena – offering the same products and services. Price aside, the only thing to set one apart from the other is reputation.
People believe other people when they feel the information is coming in an unbiased way. Online reviews trend in the top of Google search results due to their popularity and this isn’t going to change any time soon. That last sentence – go back and read it again. If online reviews naturally drive more traffic to the top of web search results, it should be your goal to get positive reviews.
While we all want the positive reviews to help us shine, it is important to not let the negative ones get you down. Inevitably, someone is going to leave a bad review at some point. Maybe it was deserved, maybe it wasn’t. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that how the company handled the situation. A lot of times the negative reviews are just as important as the ones offering praise because it gives consumers insight into how things will look if something goes less than perfect.
Reviews will continue to play a huge role in daily business activity and help to attract consumers to you over the competition. Ask for positive reviews from your happy customers, respond to negative reviews in a timely manner and offer solutions rather than excuses and watch your referrals continue to grow.
