Today, customers have endless opportunities when it comes to interacting with brands. If you love a certain product you just ordered, you can leave a personal review on the company’s website. If the service at a particular restaurant was poor, you have the option of leaving a negative review on their site for everyone to see. Nowadays, the consumer’s voice can be heard loud and clear.
Although customers like being heard and speaking their minds, businesses also benefit from consumer feedback. Online reviews and other feedback tools can be used to improve almost all parts of a business, from the quantitative to the qualitative.
1. Don’t fear the negative feedback:
Numerous brands are hesitant to use online review systems because they’re fearful of airing their dirty laundry, which is a foolish concern.
Most online reviews are positive, believe it or not. Also, studies have found that nearly 80% of customers think user reviews are treasured, so your brand will satisfy shoppers by having reviews. Nevertheless don’t think you need only positive reviews, customers trust a reviews’ validity more when some are positive and negative.
2. Put your review form in the correct spot:
Placing your review form in an easily available part of the site at checkout is a great example since your brand will appear more trustworthy and be customer-focused, which encourages customer loyalty and retention. If consumers can easily see and read others’ comments, your word-of-mouth marketing will progress significantly.
Studies have shown that brands using online reviews can increase sales by as much as 60% possible because 70% of patrons are confident in their purchase after reading reviews.
Other effective pages to ask customer opinions are: the home page, about page, the shopping cart screen, search result page, and social media business pages.
3. Resolve bad reviews and include them into operations:
Never ignore a negative customer review, whether in an internal review or on social media. It’s best to reach out to the customer and honestly try to solve the situation. Thus, your brand will seem human and compassionate, and customers will feel appreciated.
Research from PeopleClaim found that 90% of customers continue to shop for the brand they once criticized if issues are taken care of quickly and proficiently.
There are also other amazing benefits when resolving a negative review with a customer. Handling customer complaints does please the unhappy person in the short-term, but it also lets you realize why your business is receiving bad reviews in the first place. Closely look at negative feedback and use it to course-correct and to advance your company.
4. Personalize your requests for feedback from consumer:
Instead of offering review forms on your website only, or making up a general email blast, send out personalized requests for feedback. Using customers’ names and being truthful about why you’re collecting shoppers’ comments will allow people to more likely to write true reviews.
5. Use social media and third party review sites
A study from Google has found that companies with reviews-based online ratings have 15% greater click-through rates than those that don’t contain them therefore your business will be in front of more possible buyers. Social media reviews also have a big influence on traffic. So big, in fact that Sociable Labs found that three-fourths of individuals have gone to a brand’s site from something they read on social media.
