Here are some review stats and facts, as well as some easy-to-implement review tips for your business. Since the dawn of commerce, customers have relied on the opinions of their friends, family and community to drive their buying decisions.
Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Today's customers still have these conversations about your business, just on a much larger scale.
Check out these ten awesome review stats and facts about your Hellopeter review community, and tap into curated social proof, organic growth and sustainable consumer relationships.
Customers are smarter than ever. For purchases that mean something, customers very rarely complete the transaction before checking out other consumer experiences and reviews. The numbers are in—online reviews will define the conversation around your business, customer service, and product offering.
Hellopeter tip: List your best reviews alongside your big-ticket items to let potential consumers know that the purchase has been peer-reviewed.
Either during their shopping or while researching their purchases beforehand, a vast majority of traditional consumers will use their mobile devices to try and gain some purchasing insight.
Hellopeter tip: If you're publishing your Hellopeter reviews on your business's website or social pages (and why wouldn't you?), ensure your site is optimised for mobile viewing.
This means that not only do you know exactly where your customers are (social media spaces), the numbers also tell us that you cannot afford not to share your social proof across your business's platforms.
Hellopeter tip: Reward your customer base for engaging with your business's website and social media pages. This drives engagement, builds loyalty and creates a receptive audience for your 'sell'.
You might've spent a fortune in research and development, ensuring your product line is of the first water and perfect for your particular market.
Unfortunately, if your online review community doesn't agree that your products are amazing, then you've just wasted time and resources.
Hellopeter tip: Tap into your review community before engaging in product or service updates and changes. Find out, from the horse's mouth, exactly what your customers are looking for.
Generally, when customers pay you for a product, they expect a certain level of service satisfaction. Often, customers take the time to leave a review only when your service is either well above or below average.
Hellopeter tip: It's accepted that businesses should share their good reviews as widely as possible. However, sharing negative reviews that you could turn around and resolve positively may resonate even more with customers seeking honourable, responsive businesses.
Most consumers are reasonable individuals. They understand that everyone makes mistakes. When businesses demonstrate publicly that they are willing and able to fix their errors, customers and potential customers tend to respond positively.
Hellopeter tip: Don't be afraid of negative reviews. They indicate that a customer cares enough to take the time to write about your business. Be super-responsive, especially to negative feedback, and demonstrate to the market that you're a consumer-focused business.
As business owners and managers, it's easy to lose oneself in spreadsheets and data projections, forgetting that the most important growth driver is positive customer experiences.
Hellopeter tip: View each customer interaction as uniquely important. Spend the time and effort needed to publicly turn unhappy customers into happy consumers, and you're well on the way to forming a community of fiercely loyal patrons.
Generally, the more consumers agree on a product or service's quality or efficacy, the more reliable the opinion. Ask yourself—are you more likely to frequent a shop that's been reviewed once or by a hundred other customers?
Hellopeter tip: Constantly refresh your published reviews. Consumers are savvy, and constantly posting the same positive review may come across as disingenuous and self-serving.
When an online review contains a star rating, it helps someone make a quick purchasing decision compared to reviews that don't. When you use a registered, legitimate, third-party review platform to display and manage your online reviews, Google displays your star rating in search results.
Hellopeter tip: SearchEngineWatch advises that businesses "should have at least 30 unique reviews during the past year, with an average of 3.5 stars" (at the minimum) if you want Google to take notice.
Hellopeter tip: Review management shouldn't be a passive process if you're serious about growth. Take full ownership of creating, leveraging and managing your online review community, on your terms, via your businesses own platforms.
Check out your FREE Hellopeter Business account today. Partner with Mzansi's most popular, most trusted consumer-review and review management platform and connect to curated growth.