Online reviews are necessary when building your brand, and we’ll show you how much of an advantage they are for small businesses and multi-location enterprises.
For instance, recent statistics reveal that 95% of modern consumers check online reviews when shopping as real-life experiences influence their decisions.
So, we’ll go over the importance of online reviews and tell you how to get more, especially for multi-location businesses looking to grow even further.
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What is an online review?
Online reviews are, essentially, personal assessments offered by modern consumers of certain products, services, or brands, and they often include a ranking system to summarize the user’s experience. Here’s a brief definition:
An online review is feedback or a written assessment posted online by a customer about a product, service, or company. This feedback can appear on dedicated review websites, social media platforms, e-commerce sites, and more
What is the meaning of online review?
While Google Reviews is by far the most popular online reviews platform—it hosts over 70% of all online reviews—users also check other specialized platforms depending on the product or service in which they are interested. For example, Yelp hosts reviews for local businesses, Tripadvisor for hospitality locations, Capterra and G2 for software solutions, etc.
Ultimately, online reviews offer the opportunity to give ratings, opinions, and comments that help others make informed decisions about products and services.
7 main benefits of online reviews
Wondering why business owners consider their online reviews a valuable asset?
Basically, regardless of your niche, the more online reviews you have, the more visible you are online and the more visitors you convert to loyal customers.
That’s not all! Here’s why you need more online reviews right away:
- Customer reviews boost your local SEO
- Reviews provide social proof that influences buyers
- Both positive and negative reviews help improve your services
- You generate brand trust and credibility with many reviews
- Online reviews create buzz and reviews for your brand
- Responding to online reviews helps you connect with customers
- Great reviews directly boost your sales numbers
1. Customer reviews boost your local SEO
Customer reviews are among the top ranking factors for Google and other search engines.
A recent Semrush study of 5,624 local businesses reveals that businesses that rank highest on Google:
- have an average star rating above four stars (high star ratings),
- have more positive reviews (quantity), and
- have keywords in Google Reviews (keyword density).
On top of this, when talking about conversions (i.e., clicking or calling businesses), the top factors in Google Business Profiles, other than the ones we’ve mentioned, are:
- positive sentiment in review texts,
- the recency of reviews, and
- presence of owner responses to reviews.
For example, when searching for the best pizza near Washington, you’ll see that the top result has significantly more reviews on top of superb star ratings:
2. Reviews provide social proof that influences buyers
Have you heard about social proof? In essence, it’s the phenomenon that helps customers form opinions and make decisions based on other people’s experiences.
Well, online reviews are the best source of social proof you can get, and they come for free (most of the time) to nudge your visitors during the consumer decision-making process.
For instance, according to PowerReviews’s latest survey, almost everyone nowadays says they look for the social proof they need to make the right purchasing decision:
As for frequency, BrightLocal reveals that 75% of consumers say they always or regularly read online reviews when browsing for local businesses, indicating how important reviews are in the decision-making process:
3. Both positive and negative reviews help improve your services
When someone leaves a positive review, the feeling is always amazing. After all, positive feedback from satisfied clients boosts the morale in your team, tells you that you’re great at what you do, and helps your business grow.
On the other hand, negative reviews are an “open door” to making your business grow.
So, instead of being discouraged when you get bad reviews, look at it as an opportunity to convert your dissatisfied customers with negative review response templates, and improve your product and services after learning what you can do better in the future.
According to the same BrightLocal study, 88% of consumers say they are highly likely to use a business that responds to all positive and negative reviews:
4. You generate brand trust and credibility with many reviews
A steady stream of positive reviews is a simple yet effective way to build valuable trust and credibility and indicate that your business is a reputable choice in your niche.
BrightLocal’s study also examines how many reviews you need if you want consumers to trust you, and the 31% majority believe that number is between 20 and 49:
As you see, regardless of whether you are a new brand or a company with multiple locations, collecting glowing reviews will always be a plus for your online credibility.
5. Online reviews create buzz and reviews for your brand
Getting online reveals puts you on Google’s (and anyone else’s) map and creates buzz around your brand, which helps more customers discover your products and services and motivates them to leave you even more reviews—a growth strategy that pays for itself!
Furthermore, once you establish a touchpoint with these customers, you can help them with anything they might need, thus encouraging them to leave excellent comments, reviews, and star ratings for your brand, which steadily boosts your reputation.
However, if you have no ideas on how to get the “ball rolling” when it comes to collecting reviews, you can always try the incentivized reviews approach.
That said, you must remember that certain review platforms prohibit incentivization and may penalize your brand by removing your reviews.
That said, this practice is up as per recent studies: 45% of consumers were asked to write a review for a discount:
6. Responding to online reviews helps you connect with customers
Personalizing your products and services to individual customers or groups of customers will help you deliver unique and memorable experiences that will most likely lead to a high level of satisfaction and, eventually, plenty of positive reviews for your business.
Regardless of whether you are a small business owner or a representative of a multi-location enterprise, the least you can do is respond to your reviews with a personalized message. After all, customers who feel valued become your unofficial ambassadors.
Podium’s 2021 State of Reviews report reveals that over 55% of consumers have changed their opinion about a business for the better after receiving a review reply:
Maintaining a strong connection with your clients helps you create an online community of loyal followers that matches their values with your business goals.
7. Great reviews directly boost your sales numbers
Ultimately, every business looks to boost its sales numbers, make a profit, and grow, which is one of the biggest benefits of great online reviews as a matter of fact.
Getting more reviews on Google and other platforms and implementing sound online reputation management strategies will effectively boost your sales numbers.
According to Medill Spiegel Research Center’s (SRC) report, we’ve learned that even if a product has five reviews, it will sell 270% more than similar products without reviews:
Online reviews statistics: Infographics
To show you just how important is successful review management for your online reputation, take a look at this infographic full of recent online Google review statistics:
How can multiple-location businesses get more reviews?
Since getting reviews on Google and other platforms is extremely important, let’s take a look at how multiple-location businesses can get feedback for all their locations:
As you can see, there are several methods to get more reviews:
- Embed Google reviews on your website – showcase the reviews you receive across your online channels to show your users you value their opinions;
- Keep an eye out on social media – monitor what people are saying about your company online, perhaps by using apps such as Google Alerts;
- Respond and ask for more reviews – when you answer all your reviews, you encourage further client feedback as your customers feel heard;
- Help customers leave reviews – streamline the process of review collection by getting your review link and embedding it in simple widgets on your websites;
- Motivate with incentives – discount codes, a chance at promotion, or thank you gifts are all excellent incentives if you want to generate more reviews;
- Subscribe to a review management platform – third-party review management platforms can help you collect, moderate, and display reviews from everywhere;
- Register your business on review sites – if you want your business to get reviews, you must register it across all important review sites: Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.;
- Improve your products and services – naturally, if you offer quality products and services, your customers will be thrilled to share good words about you.
Want to learn how to manage Google reviews for multiple business locations? Check out our full guide at the provided link!
Cons to using negative and positive reviews
Even though there are many benefits of online reviews, many local business owners also encounter some difficulties when using Google, Yelp, Facebook reviews, or any other types of testimonials, especially when they have to include a negative review.
These disadvantages include but are not limited to the following:
- Reviews with ulterior motives—when false feedback with an ulterior motive is mistaken as a genuine one, it can impact your reputation. Plus, posting reviews can be done and abused by anyone online, regardless of whether they tried your product;
- Fake reviews and review bombing—fake review manipulation that happens after an organized review bombing action is used when someone wants to deceive customers by imposing the wrong picture about a business and its product and services;
- Lack of objective interpretation—reviews cannot always be taken at face value since people’s feelings are mostly subjective and what can be seen as an awful (or good) experience for someone, for others may be a pleasurable (or bad) one;
- Lack of information—some client’s opinions may not be based on fact and experience as they may not have tried the products or services of the business in question. For that reason, businesses may have difficulty detecting the areas that need improvement.
At the end of the day, the benefits of quality Google reviews far outweigh the above cons. That said, keep in mind these disadvantages when developing your strategy.
Conclusion: Online reviews are a business necessity!
The numbers speak for themselves: getting more online reviews for your business is necessary to survive, grow, and maintain a strong online presence!
Thankfully, there are several review sites where consumers read online reviews and leave new feedback after purchasing money for a new product or service.
For that reason, you should focus on several important steps when it comes to online reviews, including but not limited to converting prospective customers, soliciting reviews from them, and checking out the best review sites regularly to collect new feedback.
Remember: your customers’ personal recommendations always bring new business to you, and even negative feedback from disgruntled customers is beneficial!
FYI: You can automatically embed Google reviews widget on your website and show authentic user-generated reviews, increasing trust for more sales. Try it now.
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FAQs about online reviews
What is the best website for reviews?
The best website for reviews depends on your specific industry. For general consumer products and services, websites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp are highly regarded for their comprehensive user-generated reviews. For tech products, CNET and TechRadar offer detailed professional reviews, while Tripadvisor is pivotal for reviews in the hospitality industry.
Are online reviews trustworthy?
While many online reviews are trustworthy as they are genuine reflections of customer experiences, providing valuable insights, others may be biased or even fabricated. Factors such as the presence of unusually high numbers of positive or negative reviews, the specificity of feedback, and the reputation of the platform can all influence the reliability of online reviews.
Are customer reviews really important for my business?
Yes, they can easily affect your business reputation for better or worse. Handling online reviews is one of the main aspects of keeping consumers’ trust in your brand intact.
How do you manage online customer reviews for a multiple-location business?
There are a few ways to manage Google reviews for multiple business locations.
For instance, you can add all your business locations in your Google Business Profile Manager. However, this method is too time-consuming since you have to access each separate location. The better way is to use a third-party review management platform like EmbedSocial that lets you handle all your review management needs throughout each phase from within a single dashboard.