Most businesses strive to strengthen their position in the market, attract more loyal customers, and increase sales. However, few consider that these goals can be achieved with the help of customer reviews. How does this work? Let's take a closer look at how reviews can benefit a business.
Studies conducted in the US have found that more and more customers are reviewing seller feedback before making a purchase decision. Approximately one in eight buyers do this, and almost all of them admit that it is very important for them to hear other people's opinions about the goods or services they plan to purchase. That is why a customer feedback section on a website can become a powerful and influential marketing tool.
Customer reviews offer the following benefits:
- They increase trust in your company, products, or services.
- They influence the decision-making process.
- They shorten the purchase time.
- They improve SEO rankings.
However, there are a few important things to keep in mind. First, reviews must be authentic. Sometimes companies, after realizing the benefits of positive feedback, start buying fake reviews and filling their pages with polished comments. But there is one problem — fake reviews don’t work. Collecting real feedback may take much longer, but in the long run it brings far greater benefits. People do not trust perfect reviews because nothing in life is perfect. Although it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether a review is genuine, it is certainly possible. Just like your product or service, reviews cannot be flawless. Real customer feedback usually contains mistakes, and may also include suggestions or negative opinions.
What should you do to get customer reviews?
This is a rather difficult task, as you have to accept that people don't like and don't have time to fill out various forms and write a few sentences about the products they have purchased. However, there are a few tips that can help you get customer reviews:
Simplicity
There is nothing more annoying than having to click on links several times to write a review. Most people close forms before filling them out, so it is essential that the process is as simple as possible. When asking for feedback, you can include a link to your social media accounts or a specially designed form. However, the latter should be short and not require a lot of clicks. When creating a feedback form, you can use humor to encourage people to fill out the questionnaire.
Find out where your customers are
Invitations to leave a review should be sent to places where customers spend their time. No matter how good your product is, no one will want to create accounts on unknown platforms just to leave a review there. Therefore, it makes much more sense to make smart use of social networks. If you want customers to leave a review on Instagram, you can ask them to use the appropriate hashtag. If you use the Facebook platform, you can send a message via the Messenger app.
Many social platforms have created their own ecosystems. Including them in your feedback collection mechanism demonstrates technological advancement, which customers can also appreciate. For example, if you want customers to leave feedback on Instagram, it is worth creating a special hashtag that they can use when sharing photos.
Ask at the right time
The right time to ask customers for feedback depends on the products or services you offer. Transportation apps such as Uber ask customers to leave feedback immediately after the service has been provided. Products such as shoes, household appliances, or software take time to evaluate, so it is best to ask for feedback after a few days or even weeks. Let customers get to know the product, feel its benefits, and form an opinion. And if you do ask for a review, don't bombard customers with unexpected emails and messages, as this can have negative consequences and discourage customers from leaving a review.
Encourage
One of the most effective and powerful ways to encourage customers to leave a review is by offering an incentive. This can be done by providing discount codes, gift cards, or free delivery. Not only does this help them make a decision, but it also shows that you value and care about them.
However, receiving feedback is only part of the job. It is equally important to respond to it appropriately. Although responding to feedback is not mandatory, it can become the cherry on top that highlights your company’s level of customer service. Of course, this task can be quite challenging, especially if you are quite popular on social media. If your company receives a lot of mentions, you can use various tools to control the flow of feedback and comment on it.
Response time is also important. The sooner you can do this, the sooner you can avoid potential inconveniences, especially if the feedback is not the most pleasant or if customers are trying to make a suggestion or ask a question. In addition, a quick response shows that you care about your customers and their opinions.
In addition to responding quickly to feedback, there are several other important factors that allow you to interact successfully with customers. The golden rule in this activity is to never offend those who leave feedback, no matter how unpleasant it may be. It is better to move disputes to a private channel and find out the reasons for dissatisfaction. If you are not at fault for the incident, there is no need to apologize. All people are unique, and so should be the responses to comments, even if responding in a different way takes longer than simply posting a standard "thank you" or smiley face.
It is worth setting rules from the outset. For example, remove any comments that incite hatred or discrimination on the basis of race or religion. Websites that monitor these actions remove such content themselves, so make sure it doesn't end up in your feedback section.
Customer reviews add social status to a website. They help customers understand that you are trustworthy and help you understand how to improve your products, services, or customer service. You really shouldn't miss out on this opportunity.
Google is also not left out when it comes to customer reviews. The search giant uses review snippets—short excerpts from website reviews, often simply a summary of many user reviews. This presentation method is one of the most common ways of structuring data, used on many websites for products such as books, movies, events, and more.
When Google finds a suitable review or rating, it displays a fairly detailed result with stars and summaries of information. This information can be presented simply as a search result or as part of the Google Knowledge panel.
In order for your website's data to appear in search snippets, you need to take certain steps to help achieve the desired result. You should start by providing structured data. In other words, you need to help Google search engines better understand the information and content presented on your website. This is a standardized format for presenting information about a website and classifying its content. For example, on a website dedicated to cooking and recipes, structured data includes ingredients, cooking time, temperature, calories, etc.
Google uses structured data found on the internet to understand the content of a website and to collect information about the internet and the world in general. It is also used to display specialized search results, including snippets of reviews. Structured data should not be separated from the content, i.e., you should not create empty pages just to store data or add structured data to pages that are not visible to users.
However, it is often possible to find specialized websites where you can find reviews of companies in a particular business area. One of the best-known examples is TripAdvisor, where you can find the impressions of many people about hotels and restaurants. However, Google is undoubtedly the leader in this field. Here you can find not only business hours, photos, and contact details, but also reviews linked to Google My Business accounts. Constantly generated reviews make it likely that your business will appear in search results. They are also very important for those seeking greater visibility on platforms such as Google Maps. In addition, Google My Business gives businesses the opportunity to be displayed in visible locations in searches. In such cases, Google search engines evaluate the total number of reviews, the average star rating, and the number of new reviews.
To understand the impact of reviews on search rankings, you need to understand the basics. The main criterion by which search engines rank websites remains their authority. This is partly determined by backlinks, which can also be reviews left on various websites and platforms. It is especially important when customers write them on well-regarded websites such as Facebook or TripAdvisor. Over time, they can improve your search rankings. So, basically, customer reviews can not only improve your website's visibility, but also have a positive impact on business indicators such as sales and profits.
To take full advantage of all the opportunities offered by online reviews, you should take the following steps:
- Create and implement a review program that engages customers and encourages them to leave feedback.
- Set a target number of reviews that your business needs. On average, you need at least 40 to strengthen customer confidence in your brand.
- Run review campaigns on a regular basis. Almost half of buyers only trust reviews received in the last two weeks.
These steps will not only help you communicate more actively with your customers, but also show your attention and effort to those who are just considering your products or services. However, in order to get feedback from customers, you also need to keep in mind what others want to see in it. The vast majority of shoppers who read reviews want to learn more about other shoppers' experiences and how your product or service helped solve their problems. They also care about how you handled complaints and how well the product actually met expectations.
Almost 90% of customers admit that they trust reviews as much as verbal recommendations. However, this only works when the review is genuine and provides valuable information. Similarly, people avoid companies that receive a large number of negative reviews. They have a negative impact on the quality and reliability of products or services. However, a complete absence of negative comments can also reduce the credibility of a website.
Negative reviews should be seen as an opportunity to improve customer service. The ability to address customer concerns and dissatisfaction expressed in negative reviews can have positive consequences and show that you care about your customers and value their opinions.
Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/02/review-snippets.html
