Why Do Google Reviews Matter to Businesses?

Knowing your business reputation in the market is an invaluable asset to any entrepreneur. In this age of digitalization, it is extremely important to know what the customers are saying about you online. Customer feedback is very important for the success and growth of any business. Companies should monitor all the online reviews as the majority of the people rely on them to make their purchase decision.

Let us enlighten you about the utter importance of the Google reviews in today’s e-commerce businesses. Anyone can easily access google and see the reviews about your business from anywhere and anytime. Doctors, restaurants, salons, auto repair shops, and so on, almost every business nowadays is affected by the trusted 5-star rating.

Take a peek at some interesting revelations of statistics from a recent survey conducted by Podium.

Data Revelations

The study reveals that around 60% of consumers look at online reviews weekly. These online reviews impact the purchasing decision of around 93% of customers. The evolvement of customer engagement with B2C and B2B businesses illustrates that approximately 82% of them read online reviews before making a purchase decision. Around 68% are willing to pay more for the same service/product on the assurance of a better experience. So if your reviews are rated below a 4.5-star rating, then you are a less likely consideration for these customers.

You need to understand and evaluate your customer responses, whether negative or positive. Engage with them positively because the way you respond and resolve their issues greatly impact your chances of success. Another data suggests that around 59% of customers research local businesses through their smartphone or tablets. Remember everyone has easy access to the information any time anywhere through internet.

For instance, ‘Which is the best restaurant in my area?’ ‘How to respond to Google reviews?’ and so on, all such answers are available at our fingertips.

5 reasons why online reviews are very important for your business development

84% of customers trust online reviews as much as their friends

Yes, that’s right, the vast majority of customers equally trust the opinions of unknown people on the internet as they do with their own friends. It also depends on the fact that the reviewer is verifiable through a Google or Facebook account and provides concrete details.

Online reviews can be thoughtful, personal and thorough, like casual advice from a friend.

68% of customers form an opinion after reading online reviews

Many people believe that if they read something on the internet so that must be true. We often turn down this statement as a joke, but it possesses great strength in the rating world.

Yelp hosts around 207 million visits per month, consisting of people sharing and looking for reviews about different businesses. Customers form their opinion after reading up to six reviews, negative and positive both.

So it’s extremely important for you to monitor what is being said about your business carefully.

Recent changes by Google in their star rating threshold

Previously, a business required five customer ratings before it could appear on Google. The average of those five ratings was taken as an overall star rating. However, recent changes in the threshold allow a single customer rating to appear on Google.

It helps smaller businesses who have fewer customer reviews to appear on the platform quickly, but, it also has some drawbacks. 

For example, if your first few ratings turn out to be 1 star or 2 stars, then it’s already an uphill battle for you. New firms competing for local SEO, have higher ratings, but fewer reviews will mostly be placed on the latter pages of the google search results. That’s how the Google algorithm works; it always shows the first higher reviews in terms of star rating and reviewer amount.

According to the Local Search Ranking Factor Survey conducted by MOZ’s, online reviews make up 10% of how search engines like Google decide the ranking of search results.

Customers are more likely to post negative reviews than positive

The easiest way to release your frustration of a bad online experience is to share it with other customers. It feels good to inform others about how you’ve been wronged. And you feel good about yourself in trying to save others from having the same awful experience. So how about your last negative experience as a customer – did you share it with others?

The critical point is that you should ask for positive reviews from satisfied and happy customers as around 77% of the customers would be willing to leave a review on your product if you ask them.

Also, try making the review process easier, like through an email or even as SMS (text messages).

Turning a negative review into a positive one

Whenever you receive a negative review about your business, take it as a chance to excel at customer service. Try replying to negative reviews on all the platforms you monitor. Make efforts by offering them a gesture of goodwill and apologize to them publicly for the inconvenience caused. If possible, offer them some discounts and free gifts. It helps in creating a positive image in the mind of the customer that the company is serious and trying to remedy the wrongdoings.

Conclusion:

Carefully monitor the review sites like Google, Yelp, etc. and listen to the feedback of people about your business. That can be negative or positive, or worst case there won’t be any feedback at all. Remember, in order to achieve success in today’s dynamic business environment; you must care about what people say about you online. Make a strategy to turn the negative experiences of customers into positive ones to achieve long term success.

Are you or your business suffering from negative reviews? Reach out to us through the form below and let’s help transform your online image!