YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION IS YOUR REPUTATION
More and more, consumers are turning online to verify businesses before they call or visit. Even if you run Google Ads, billboards, radio or TV ads, word-of-mouth or any other method to get known, 90% of consumers will check between 1 and 10 review sites before they call.
https://searchengineland.com/70-consumers-will-leave-review-business-asked-262802#:~:text=90%20percent%20of%20consumers%20read,reading%20one%20to%20six%20reviews
MORE THAN GOOGLE
While Google remains the #1 source for reviews, even Google wants you to get reviews from multiple sites.Here's what matters with online reviews:
01
Average Star Rating
Google can see if you have a 4,8 rating on Google, but a 1.7 on another site. So can many customers. Google knows you can manipulate their reviews, but if they think that's what you are doing, they won't rank your site very high. Consistently good reviews across many platforms will get your business found online and generate calls for visits to your business.
02
Recent Reviews
Often, new businesses will work hard on reviews until they reach a "magic number" they feel comfortable with. Having 50 reviews with a 4.7 star rating is great, but if your last review was 2 years ago, your review profile will begin to lose relevancy. Most searchers won't read reviews older than 3 months, and for some businesses is less than that.
03
Review Frequency
If you are a restaurant service a couple hundred customers a day, you'll probably get more reviews than a small plumber serving 10 clients a day, but both businesses should be receiving reviews each week. Reviews that come in groups look unnatural, and customers (and Google) will assume you were offering rewards for good reviews. Besides violating Google's Terms of Service, if customers suspect shady practices, they are likely to skip on to another business.
04
Realistic Reviews
Did you know that people are more likely to call someone with a 4.6 rating than a 5.0 rating? That's right! People assume that perfect 5-ratings either come from too few reviews or from fake reviews. Of course, it's possible to blow away every single customer, but the old adage "nobody's perfect" tends to dominate the thinking. Many businesses are afraid to ask for reviews because they don't want to mess up their perfect score. It's more important to address negative reviews in a positive manner, so potential customers can see that you care.
05
Total Number of Reviews
When is a 4.7 better than a 5.0? When a business with a 4.7 average star rating has 120 reviews, and the business with a 5.0 average star rating has 2 reviews, the 4.7 star rating will win all day long. Some businesses with a 5.0 star rating are afraid to ask for more reviews because they don't want to ruin their perfect score. The reality is that a 4.7 rating is far more believable, especially if there are a ton of reviews.
06
Average Rating Across Multiple Sites
Consumers often look at more than one review site before doing business with someone. If Google is great, but Facebook is bad, the consumer will naturally assume that the Google reviews are not reliable. Also, Google looks at other review sites, and if one site is great and other sites show bad reviews, Google is less likely to highlight your business on the map listings.
07
How A Business Responds to Negative Reviews
Profitable businesses with lots of customers will inevitably face a customer that is impossible to please. Other customers know this. What consumers are looking at on the negative reviews is how the business responds to the negative review. Attacking the complaining customer is not likely to garner confidence that you care about the satisfaction of your customers.
08
Sentiment of the Reviews
A majority of consumers read multiple reviews on a company before making a decision. Even if the star ratings are high, if the overall sentiment is neutral to slightly positive, the consumer is likely to look elsewhere. This phenomena occurs when the business offers an incentive for a good review (a violation of Google's TOS and most other review sites). The incentivized customer clicks 4 or 5 stars to get the discount, but the review itself seems neutral. This does not go unnoticed by future prospects.
WE WORK WITH AND MONITOR
OVER 200 REVIEW SITES
From general review sites to industry specific sites,
we have you covered.
The numbers you need to know
93%
Consumers who used the internet to find a local business in the past year.
34%
Customers who use the internet every day to find local businesses.
87%
of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.
52%
of consumers would not consider using a business with less than 4 stars.
79%
Consumers who trust online reviews more than word-of-mouth from friends and family.
73%
Customers who only pay attention to reviews written in the last month.
72%
of consumers have written online reviews for local businesses.
81%
of consumers trust reviews on BBB more than any other site.
