This article is going to cover why you should be using online customer reviews to boost your eCommerce revenue.
What if we told you that a single customer 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? In this article we’ll cover how to use customer reviews to boost eComm revenue.
While you may think we’re just pulling your leg, this occurs more often than you think. In fact, 94% of consumers admitted to avoiding a business entirely if they read a bad review.
On top of that, 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.
Here are six reasons why you need to think of online customer reviews as a secret salesperson—someone who can convince potential customers that your product is worth buying.
| TLDR Key Takeaways |
| Customer reviews provide a level of transparency and honesty that marketing messages cannot match, giving customers peace of mind when making their decisions. Aside from providing feedback for customers, reviews often reveal areas where improvements can be made, such as streamlining processes or fixing bugs. Word-of-mouth is often limited in reach, which isn’t true with customer reviews, though, as these affect everyone online who visits any website where they’ve left an opinion. |
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 customer reviews.
They do the hard work of building credibility and trust without you even needing to lift a finger.
Customer 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 customer 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 reviews are a key 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 the 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.
There’s a hard truth every business must face: People trust people more than they trust salespeople. 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 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.
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 feedback 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.
Reviews 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.
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 Google’s search engine nearly eight years after they initially posted.
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 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, online customer reviews 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 reputation on word-of-mouth, 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.
It’s no secret that people love sharing their opinions and feelings online (Facebook, we’re looking at you).
So giving them the opportunity to share their experiences via reviews makes 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, 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 truth is, many businesses simply don’t know when it’s the right time to ask for reviews, 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 your customer’s engagement and loyalty, letting you make adjustments as necessary.
So whether you’re looking for a better way to collect 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 customer reviews!
In this practical guide, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up automated review requests that customers will actually want to complete.
With these five simple steps, you can grow your consumer base and referral traffic by maximizing the potential of each person you reach.
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