World had changed considerably after the 21st century started rolling. Spread of digital technology is encompassing more areas of the daily life of human beings. This result is underlining the need to get customer reviews for the progress of a business. Let us consider this matter in detail.
Yellow pages have become an abandoned thing as everybody is searching the web for knowing each and everything one needs to know including the availability of certain things and the location of certain companies show rooms etc. According to the results of some recent surveys 88% of the present day transactions are based on the ratings or reviews published in sites and social media.
Free advertising
Each and every review published online can be considered as a form of advertisement for the business concerned. Each review makes your product known to the readers and it creates a new awareness among them. Online reviews are considered to cover more business areas than any other social media ever would include. These reviews provide more exposure than that can be obtained through traditional channels used for marketing.
Improved search engine results
Internet search results are influenced by customer reviews. Search engine giant Google actually takes into account how many times the name of your business is mentioned in reviews. If a lot of reviews have been made about your product or service your name would have been mentioned many times and this will naturally improve your search ranking.
Peer recommendations
Recent studies have shown that peer recommendations are more trusted by consumers than advertisements. Often consumers pay heed to the recommendation of their friends or relatives or whom they know. But they also consider the online sources as credible alternative to the recommendations of friends or relatives.
For example in a Nielsen survey conducted in the year 2015 in which 30,000 people from 58 countries participated, it was found that 83 percent of the participants valued the recommendations of the people who were known to them. It is also found that 70 percent of these people considered consumer opinions or reviews posted online as reliable. Therefore any review which recommends your product is a powerful tool in the marketing of your product as well as your goodwill.
Constructive criticism
In some online reviews there will be some concerns mentioned by the customers. By trying to solve them, one is actually improving his business and making it more user-friendly and useful to the customers. Actually by conceding to these suggestions one is actually helping the customer to feel satisfied and to get rid of any drawbacks being felt by them. People who have posted complaints about your product or service will naturally convey their ill feelings to their colleagues even if they have not filed any negative reviews.
When they file the negative reviews you are getting an opportunity to understand your flaws and get them rectified. When you do this and mention this in your reply to the review you are giving a good message to your customers that you are keen to keep them satisfied. This will help others also to tell their suggestions and give some good reviews also. Thus the negative remarks can be made an opportunity to improve your customer relations and the company in general.
Closer customer relationship
Online review sites provide a chance for closer customer relationships like many other social media. You get an opportunity to read reviews from a wide range of customers many of whom will remain silent but for the online review sites. You can also reply to all kinds of reviews showing that you are ready to respond and change according to customer’s needs and opinions. This makes the customers understand you are not just a business X. Some review sites like Yelp allows the owners to give reply only after they post photo so that the customers can see you personally and evaluate you based on your reply. In some cases at least, this helps the customers to become loyal clients of you who feel that they can rely you for all your reasonable demands.
In this connection, it will be better that if the business owners know how face book and twitter can help you to develop relationship with your customers. Also every business owner should understand how to create a business digital strategy to bring your business to the fore front. If a business owner succeeds in the above tactics then there is no need to install online review generator and run after that.
