In case you do not own a food business, you may think that online reviews do not matter at all. However, this is not true. Regardless of the type of business you own, internet reviews can significantly enhance your business. The prime reason why many people do not actively welcome reviews is that they think that managing reviews is a big hassle. However, with many review management software out there, reviews have become easier to manage than ever! Another reason is that small business owners think that negative reviews may destroy their business. If this sounds like you, think again!

Why should online reviews matter to you?

In this article, we put together a number of good reasons for welcoming online reviews from customers. These include:

Online reviews determine the buying behavior

According to ¾ customers, online reviews mean a lot to them. However, the importance of online reviews will depend on the type of product that you are selling. For instance, in the case of technology products, more than 80% of the customers regularly check online reviews. In the case of home items, about 50% of people are likely to rely on online reviews. Similarly, in the case of restaurants and other services such as divorce lawyers, about 40% of people strictly rely on reviews. In the case of local retail stores, however, only about 23% of people consider online reviews to be important.

Most of your consumers will read online reviews

According to some surveys, about 70% of people check internet reviews before buying a product or service on the internet. According to the respondents in these surveys, they either ‘always’ check the reviews or take a brief look ‘most of the time’. The remaining respondents say that they check reviews ‘sometimes but not always’. Only a few respondents claim that they never check consumer reviews.

Still, the point is that the majority of your consumers are likely to check the reviews. In case they find nothing, chances are that they will not develop enough trust in your service (especially if they are a new customer). Similarly, if they see positive reviews, your conversion rate may increase significantly.

Consumers rely on several websites

Consumers tend to rely on several websites to look for online reviews regarding a product. For instance, Amazon happens to be one of the top sources for consumers in this regard. Even if you are not selling a product on Amazon, chances are that the products you sell are being reviewed on Amazon. So even before buying from you, consumers are likely to read online reviews about your product on Amazon. So, if you encourage positive reviews on as many websites as possible, your business will flourish even more.

Most consumers don’t write reviews

It is quite surprising that the majority of your consumers will read the reviews, but most of them will not write one. In the online world, it is said that customer reviews are always a result of extreme experiences. Hence, only two types of people are likely to write reviews, and these include those that are extremely satisfied or those that are extremely dissatisfied by your service/product. In this regard, you do not have to worry about negative reviews and should only be focusing on improving your service/product.

Ending note

In order to encourage your consumers to write more reviews, add i on your websites. Using these links, customers should be able to write reviews on various websites. For instance, if you are a restaurant, include “find us on yelp” on the website and restaurant invoices/checks in various languages. To manage all of these online reviews, make use of a versatile review management system to keep a check.