A lot of business owners mistakenly believe that, if they’re not selling products online, there’s no need to encourage their customers to leave reviews on Google, Facebook or any other platform. And if you’re one of them, you could be missing out in a number of ways.
The truth is, online reviews are important, regardless of whether you do business online or not.
If you don’t sell products or do a lot of other business online, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the belief that reviews don’t really matter. After all, you rely on face-to-face interactions with your customers every day. However, for local businesses everywhere, reviews are essential, and if you want your business to be a success, you need to start focusing on them.
Five Reasons Local Businesses Depend on Online Reviews
#1. Reviews help your business show up in search results.
In this day and age, most business owners realize that, without some kind of online presence, it’s impossible to stay competitive with other businesses in your industry and to attract new customers. That’s because, instead of checking a phonebook or getting a recommendation from a friend, most people look online first when they’re searching for a local dentist, plumber, etc.
Being online isn’t enough though — especially when you consider the amount of competition online today — your business needs to be able to be found by people who are using relevant search terms. According to a study conducted by Advanced Web Ranking, 67 percent of clicks go to the top five listings in the SERP (search engine results pages), and if your business doesn’t show up in the top five or even the first page, you may as well not have an online presence at all.
Luckily, online reviews can play a powerful role in your website’s SEO (search engine optimization). A key part of SEO is regularly adding new, fresh content, and posting customer reviews on your website is a great way to do that. Furthermore, customers will often use long-term keywords in their reviews, which will help your website rank better for more of those keywords. Plus, Google trusts consumers a lot more than they trust businesses, so when your customer describes you as “the best plumber in Colorado,” you’ll get much better results than if you were to claim that about yourself.
#2. Reviews are the new word of mouth.
Every day, we write featured articles for our Top Rated Local award winners across the country. Because of this, we get to talk with the men and women who own these award-winning businesses every day to find out what makes them different and how they have managed to build such a successful business. We’ve learned quite a bit in these interviews with business owners, but one of the biggest things that stand out to us is how many of them rely heavily on word of mouth for new business.
Word of mouth is an incredibly important marketing tool for many reasons:
- It’s free! – If you have a lot of word of mouth, you don’t need to invest so much in expensive, out-bound marketing strategies that end with mixed results.
- People trust their friends and family – Not only can advertising be expensive, but people are a lot less likely to trust ads than they are to trust their friends, neighbors and family.
- It’s the gift that keeps on giving – You don’t have to reinvest in word of mouth to keep it going. Simply focus on doing a good job, and let your customers spread the word for you.
While word of mouth is still one of the most powerful marketing tools available to you, online reviews aren’t too far behind. In fact, 84 percent of people now say that they trust an online review as much as they trust a recommendation from a friend. That’s staggering, especially when you consider the fact that most people these days are more likely to look do a little online research before consulting a friend for a referral.
#3. Reviews help you gain more valuable insight into your business.
Most business owners honestly and truly want to do the best they can for their customers and to provide them with the best services or products. And in order to do that, you need to pay close attention to what your customers like and don’t like about what you’re offering. Here are a few reasons as to why getting that feedback in the form of reviews is so helpful:
- People are most honest in reviews – Most people don’t like confrontation or the idea of telling something off to their face, and when you ask for feedback in person, it can lead to dishonest or at least incomplete feedback. Since reviews don’t happen face-to-face, it makes customers feel more willing to openly communicate how they really feel.
- Customers can take their time and organize their thoughts in a review – When you ask a client for feedback on the spot, they may not have had enough time to fully understand the product or service in question. For instance, say you’re a painting contractor. Immediate feedback is great, but if the customer has had time to truly inspect the work, it will help them provide you with better feedback.
- Reviews allow you to revisit feedback – Feedback of any kind can be valuable, but with a review, you have a permanent record that you can look back on for references and revist when you need to.
#4. Reviews from the basis of your online reputation.
Your business’ online reputation is important for so many reasons, and almost nothing is more important for your business’ online reputation than reviews. Your reviews — as well as your overall rating score — are the first thing people see about a local business when the map results pop up on Google. And chances are, the more reviews you have and the higher star rating you have, the more likely those people are to visit your website and take advantage of your services.
With so much competition in your industry and so many consumers looking for the very best company to work with online, your online reputation could quite literally make or break your business. Think about it — if you’re deciding between two restaurants, and one has a handful or two- or three-star reviews, while the other has hundreds of five-star reviews, which one would you be likely to choose?
The bottom line is that reviews — even if the only thing consumers know about them is how many there are and what the average rating score is — are one of the first things potential customers come into contact with. When you take the time to focus on getting more reviews for your business, you can make it a point to ensure that your first impression is a good one.
#5. Reviews help to build trust with new customers!
Trust is a vitally important part of your business’ success, both online and offline. In fact, it could be argued that establishing trust is the number one reason why businesses market at all. However, trust isn’t an easy thing to develop, probably because it’s one of those rare things that can only be earned or built over time, and you certainly won’t be able to build it overnight. Luckily, one of the easiest ways to establish more trust is with online reviews.
Every business claims to be the best at what they do, and every business owner will tell you that their business is capable and able to handle anything and everything. But not all businesses are created equal, and they can’t all be the best business.
These days, consumers don’t have to take a business’ word for it. With so many reviews to choose from, they can gain insight into what it’s like to work with a business without ever having to do so themselves — or having to know someone personally who has. If a potential customer sees that you’ve had hundreds of reviews with an average rating of 4.75 stars, it will give them confidence in your service and help to establish your reputation as a trustworthy business.
Getting more reviews is just the first step.
No matter what industry you are in or how much business you do online, you should never downplay the importance of online reviews for your business — yes, even if it’s a local business. So make it a point to start asking for reviews with each and every customer interaction.
Getting more reviews is a great first step towards building the kind of online reputation you want, but you shouldn’t stop there. Take ownership over your business entire online reputation with the help of Top Rated Local. With the five-pillars of customer service behind them, customers are able to leave more helpful reviews, and businesses are able to say goodbye to common pitfalls, like fake reviews and competitor reviews.
See the difference for yourself! Get your business listed for free today!
