Imagine you’re shopping online for a new coffee maker. You search on different platforms like Google, Amazon, and even Facebook and narrow it down to two options: an unrated one with all the ideal bells and whistles and one that’s missing some of your desired features but has thousands of four-star or higher reviews.

Buoyed by the plethora of positive ratings, you decide to go with the latter, feeling confident you’re getting an overall quality machine.

The truth is, virtually everybody does this—including for the products or services your business sells. In fact, a PowerReviews survey indicates that 93 percent of consumers consider reviews a top factor in whether or not they make a purchase, making them absolutely essential to your business’s growth, reputation, sales, and long-term success. But what makes such ratings so valuable, and how can you take advantage of this element of the purchasing journey?

The impact of reviews

In the predigital age, customer feedback was generally limited to face-to-face meetings, letters, and printed articles. An angry reviewer might have ranted in a local newspaper, or a happy buyer could have told a few friends about their experience. But these kinds of comments ultimately had limited scope and reach, allowing businesses to take more control over their brand narratives.

Today, though, the internet and social media have put greater power in the hands of consumers, making it easy for them to share their positive or negative experiences with the click of a button. And such feedback not only carries enormous weight with people’s buying decisions but can also greatly affect a company’s image. A slew of positive ratings may help build credibility and inspire confidence in your brand, while a series of poor reviews could cause customers to flock to competitors—even if your product is better. If you want to garner more of the former and avoid the latter, you need to get proactive with strategies meant to capitalize on this essential asset.

Incentivize positive reviews

While you ultimately can’t control who leaves a review or what they say, there are still various ways you can encourage customers to share their positive experiences. For instance, try gamifying the process, looking to the success of websites like Yelp—its users can gain badges and rewards for leaving feedback, which works to encourage community interaction and recommendations. Likewise, you can design contests or social media campaigns that reward users for posting reviews. Other ideas would be to give away a gift card for each review left within a certain time period or establish a points system for when your customers purchase a product and leave a star rating.

Leverage social media

With their massive popularity, social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok offer a means to greatly boost your company’s image through alliances with influencers. Reach out to those who align with your branding to discuss ways you could collaborate, such as by sending products for them to share through unboxing videos or letting them do a “takeover” of your accounts. These bloggers can get in front of a massive number of consumers that traditional feedback channels could likely never reach, helping inspire more people to trust your company and try your offerings for themselves.

Engage with feedback

Building a reputation of dependability and quality is as much about crafting a narrative that reflects your commitment to consumer satisfaction as it is about earning five-star ratings. A Google study found that businesses that respond to reviews of any kind are 1.7 times more likely to be perceived as trustworthy and customer focused. To start, this means addressing negative remarks head-on. Leave an empathetic response that demonstrates you value the poster’s opinions and intend to solve their pain point, and you may just turn them around on your company. Even better, other buyers will see your engagement and appreciate your accountability, leading them to think of your company as one worth patronizing.

While negative reviews are perhaps the most important to respond to, don’t neglect positive comments. Recognize and thank customers for their praise and gratitude, and acknowledge any good ideas for improvement they offer. By making it a conversation and showing that you’re noticing them, you can help foster stronger, lasting relationships to ensure that they become loyal patrons who continually return to make more purchases.

Utilize reviews in your marketing

If you haven’t yet, it’s time to start utilizing your excellent ratings as a free marketing tool. Sort through reviews and testimonials from satisfied buyers to find the ones that are especially effusive or highlight specific products or services, then include quotes from them on your website, social media, and email marketing. Such endorsements act as social proof, which then stresses the quality of your offerings to potential new customers.

Customer reviews have become remarkably influential in today’s modern business world, shaping both consumer decisions and brand images. Companies who actively manage theirs—that is, engage with customers, capitalize on positive feedback, and grow based on criticism—are better destined to succeed in an increasingly competitive virtual environment.

TAKE ACTION:
Look over current reviews of your company left on platforms like Yelp and Google, and craft smart, professional responses to as many as you can, both positive and negative.