Why Customer Reviews are Important to Drive Business Growth and Performance

What if we told you that a single customer online review could defeat even your best salesperson? Better yet, what if we told you that your whole sales team is missing out on a plethora of customers because a review got to them first? 

Are online customer reviews important?

Yes, they are! In fact:

• 94% of consumers admit that a bad review made them avoid a business.
• around 70% of customers filter search results by four-star ratings or higher.

So if your review game isn’t up to par, your sales team isn’t even coming close to millions of potential customers.

So let's review why online reviews are important and how they can help boost your eComm revenue.

Reasons why customer reviews are important

There are six reasons why customer reviews are important and why you need to think of them as a secret salesperson—someone who can convince potential customers that your product is worth buying:

• Online reviews build credibility and trust
• Positive reviews boost your conversion rates
• Negative reviews help identify areas of improvement
• Online reviews boost your organic search visibility
• Online customer reviews amplify the impact of word-of-mouth
• Online reviews cultivate customer loyalty

1. Online reviews build credibility and trust

With so many businesses vying for attention, it’s crucial to stand out and show customers why you’re the best choice. Luckily, you don’t need a PR team running 24/7—You just need online reviews. 

They do the hard work of building credibility and trust without you even needing to lift a finger. 

Customer online reviews provide an honest and unbiased review of your product or service, which is far more credible than any marketing message you might be able to conjure up on your own.

After all, nothing speaks more highly than the positive testimony of those who already use it. The more positive reviews you have, the more credible and trustworthy your brand appears. 

Take Amazon, for example. It’s one of the world’s most popular marketplaces, and customer positive reviews are a vital factor in its success. Every listing shows the item’s star rating along with how many reviews contributed to that rating.

When customers look for products to purchase on Amazon, 94% of Amazon users are influenced by reviews from other customers. And if there are mainly positive reviews, that’s more likely to convince them to buy it.

2. Positive reviews boost your conversion rates

There’s a hard truth every business must face: People trust people more than they trust salespeople. Consumers trust online reviews. It’s all about that social proof. We’ve all seen it. 

Your sales team has done its best to convince potential customers that your product or service is right for them, yet, they’re still hesitant to take the plunge. Why? Because they want to make sure they’re going to get exactly what you’ve promised.

So they turn to customer reviews. They know your sales pitch; now, they want to be reassured by first-hand accounts from real people who can speak with authority about their experience with your product, service, or brand.

Glowing customer reviews show them that you have a good track record of providing quality products and services, instilling confidence in their choice, and increasing their chances of conversion.

In fact, customers that read through your reviews are 58% more likely to convert. For example, the hair care retailer Denman knew that modern consumers wanted more from a business than just a solid reputation (which they had already established).

To help prospects build meaningful connections with their brand, they leveraged the power of their customers and shared their positive reviews on their website.

The result? They saw a 30% increase in revenue and orders placed that were directly related to their use of customer reviews.

3. Negative reviews help identify areas of improvement

While many reviews focus on your products and services, they also tend to cover their entire experience with your brand—from the first interaction all the way through to your after-sales support.

Carefully reviewing both positive and negative reviews helps you identify areas of improvement, such as streamlining processes or fixing bugs in your product or service.

Look for trends and recurring issues that customers are having, which could indicate a larger problem, like complaints about slow response times or poor product quality. 

By addressing these issues, your customers will have a better experience, higher levels of satisfaction, and a greater sense of loyalty to your business.

Southwest Airlines is an excellent example of a business using reviews to improve customer experience. When customers share their feedback, the airline is quick to respond and make necessary changes.

How do they do this? Well, they created a state-of-the-art social media “Listening Center” where dozens of team members scour social media, looking for and responding to reviews in real-time.

As a result, their brand loyalty has skyrocketed, and their customers now enjoy a much smoother travel experience.  

4. Online reviews boost your organic search visibility

Reviews (website reviews, Google reviews, Yelp reviews, and feedback coming from other review sites) provide potential customers with valuable information about your business, products, and services and influence how Google ranks you in search results. 

Customer reviews are rich in long-tail keywords, which makes them an invaluable asset for boosting organic search visibility. 

For those unfamiliar with long-tail keywords, they are highly targeted keywords or phrases that are, well, longer than typical keywords. It’s the difference between “at-home exercise bikes” versus “Is Peloton one of the best at-home exercise bikes.”

This is why reviews are so important for long-tail keyword visibility. When customers search with long-term keywords, they’re looking for detailed information about the product or service—this could be anything from price comparisons to quality ratings. 

Online reviews provide that information in an engaging, user-friendly way.

Plus, adding customer reviews to your website increases its relevance and authority in the eyes of search engines. This helps bump up your organic ranking, which in turn brings more long-tail traffic.

For example, River Pools and Spas used long-tail keywords to generate large volumes of traffic to their website.  

They researched their target audience and used a combination of content and reviews to answer common questions surrounding their products and services, such as “How much does a fiberglass pool cost?” 

This helped establish them as an authoritative figure that customers could trust. Plus, they’re still holding strong at the top of search engine rankings nearly eight years after they initially posted.

5. Online customer reviews amplify the impact of word-of-mouth

Word-of-mouth has been around since the dawn of time—people talk about their experiences with anyone who will listen. But it’s often limited to the reach of the people who receive it—friends, family members, and colleagues. 

That’s not the case with online customer reviews. These can be seen by anyone with access to the internet, meaning you can reach a much wider audience than you can with traditional word-of-mouth.

And in today’s modern era of commerce, customers have more tools than ever at their disposal to amplify the impact of opinions. 

Instead of relying on physical interactions with friends and family, a positive review can be shared via social media, reaching a much wider swath of potential customers.

Take the example of the clothing retailer, Everlane. This brand has built its word-of-mouth reputation, relying heavily on customer reviews to spread awareness about its products.  

They leverage their customers’ stories via social media posts and influencer collaborations, creating an organic network of devoted fans who are eager to share their experiences with the brand.

6. Online reviews cultivate customer loyalty

It’s no secret that people love sharing their personal recommendations, opinions, and feelings online (Facebook, we’re looking at you). 

So giving them the opportunity to share their experiences will encourage customers to write reviews and will make them feel like their voices are being heard, which is a key factor in creating customer loyalty. 

When you show customers (both current and prospective) that you value their opinions and are listening to their feedback (even if it is a negative review), you build brand loyalty and create an environment of trust and transparency between you and your customers.

Once they are committed to your brand, they become more likely to advocate for you and your products, creating a snowball effect that lets you reap the benefits of every item on this list so far!

Take Zappos, for example. This online shoe retailer has cultivated an incredibly loyal customer base in part by listening to and implementing their customers’ feedback and ideas.

They use reviews as a source of data that helps them determine what products to stock, how best to communicate with customers, and how they can improve the overall shopping experience. 

With the help of customer reviews, Zappos built an incredible community of loyal customers who continue to come back and recommend the store to friends.

The Ultimate Solution to Get More Customer Reviews

The truth is, many businesses simply don’t know when it’s the right time to ask for reviews or customer testimonials, so they don’t. And, even when they do ask, customers sometimes forget to leave a review. 

That’s where Patch comes in. 

With automated review requests, you can set the perfect timing for each request so that it’s sent out exactly when your customers are most likely to respond, such as post-purchase or after an interaction with a customer service representative.

With our easy-to-use templates and customizable options, you’ll be able to tailor your requests to match your brand’s style and personality with just a few clicks.

Plus, with Patch’s intuitive dashboard and powerful reporting capabilities, you can track dozens of metrics surrounding customer engagement and loyalty, letting you make adjustments as necessary. 

So whether you’re looking for a better way to collect company reviews and customer feedback or simply want to increase the number of reviews your business receives, Patch is the ultimate solution.  

Request a demo and see what a difference it can make in your online customer reviews!