Client Reviews Are Essential to a Successful Marketing Strategy
Client reviews affect the trust your customers have for your brand, as well as the overall credibility of your business. They are very important to businesses as they increase sales by giving consumers the information they need to make the decision to purchase a product or service from a business. People are always much more likely to purchase a product or service that has already been recommended by others. The greater the number of positive feedback you receive about your products and services online, the better your reputation will be. A solid brand image is one of the keys to getting more clients. Reviews are crucial to any business that wants to keep control of its reputation.
Customer testimonials and reviews can help you in multiple ways. Here are some of the most important reasons why you need to get as much client reviews as you can:
1- It helps you improve your product
No matter what product or service you are selling, a customer review will tell you how your customers view and use your products or services. Even an average review or a negative one might be useful for your business. If a customer tells you he did not like your product or service for a specific reason, he/she is sharing with you some flaws that might be improved. Keep in mind that for each unsatisfied customer that says something, there are many others that were probably not happy with the service or product, but did not tell you anything about it.
If you get a bad review, do what you can to contact the customer and rectify the problem but whatever you do not delete it, unless it’s offensive of course. People will be suspicious if they see pages and pages of five star positive reviews. The odd average or poor review shows consumers that you are being truthful and posting all reviews and not just deleting the poor ones, which will make your business look honest.
So when someone spends their time sending you feedback, listen and see if you can upgrade or improve your product to better serve your customers.
2 – Measure customer satisfaction
Reviews allow you to measure your average customer satisfaction. While you can look at metrics like sales and repeated purchases, client reviews help you understand your audience and know exactly how your audience thinks about the quality and usability you’re providing. Thanks to these reviews, you can once again use the data you get and turn it into upgrades or changes that will improve your customer satisfaction rate. Online reviews can tell you whether you are doing a good job or what you are doing wrong and how to improve your service.
This allows you to better serve your consumers by quickly and efficiently resolving any issues consumers have, thereby creating a positive experience for the consumer that will only help your business in the future.
3 – It’s an outstanding marketing tool
Client reviews act as a social proof of your product or service quality. We all do it as consumers, and you can be sure your customers look at your reviews before they buy something from you.
Customers usually do not want to take many risks. They prefer to buy from the most reputable sellers, and those sellers are only reputable because they have top client reviews supporting them.
Even on the conversion rate, client reviews and customer satisfaction improve your sales page conversion rates. And that is why all businesses should get as many positive reviews as they possibly can.
4- Reviews Breed More Reviews
When a business, product or service has already received reviews online it seems to encourage other visitors to leave their own feedback. Just the appearance of a number of reviews appears to be enough to give new visitors the confidence to add their own views on that particular product or service. It is a new form of online ‘crowd behaviour’ that psychologists are still working on figuring out!
Now that you know why client reviews are so important, here are some ways to get more reviews for your business:
- If you have a local business or a shop, ask your customers to leave you a review once they buy from you. You can even have an iPad there and ask your customers to leave a review on your app or website. That will boost your reviews and your website sales.
- Many consumers take to social media to vent their frustrations or sing a business or products praise. Monitoring social media using tools, such as Social Mention, Twitter Advanced Search and Google Alerts can help you get a good idea of how people are feeling about your brand. This works well for your business in two ways. The first is that you can address any unhappy customers and try to sort their issue out; this also shows your business is proactive in ensuring your customers are happy. The second is that if you see anyone singing your praises, you can thank them and ask them if they would like to share their thoughts on your website and send them a link to a review page.
- Just ask! If you are providing a good service or selling a good product, your customers love your company and would help you if they can. If you are in touch with them regularly (for example if you have them on your email list), ask them to leave their feedback or fill a satisfaction survey. Some of them will be glad to help you since they understand that the more you understand your business, the more you can upgrade your products or service.