The importance of authentic reviews
Think for a moment about purchases you have made during your life?(purchases of a product or service). I am not talking about small purchases (even though it can also apply for many small purchases as well), I am talking about significant purchases that involve a high budget. Usually in this type of purchase, you as a consumer are interested in getting the best service or product, so if you are looking at this significant purchase the final budget may be less important, but will look more into the quality that you will get after the purchase. But how do you check quality? How do you know that the product or service you are purchasing is indeed reliable with high quality? So the next step of course will be to do your own research where you will read about the company or service provider from which you would like to purchase.
Okay, so you read about the company or the business owner and even signed up for his email list and you are still not convinced. So what to do? The next step is to look for the reviews/feedbacks of that company on the net or elsewhere. Here is a simple example: Suppose I am a tourist in a certain country and I am looking for a good restaurant to dine in. The problem is that I do not know good restaurants in the same destination. Suddenly, as I wander the street, I notice that there is a certain restaurant that has a sticker of Tripadvisor on it's window. The same sticker actually indicates that the restaurant was rated, the restaurant has quality, and a lot of tourists visited that restaurant before me. So it will be easier for me to choose this restaurant over other restaurants. If you are a business owner, you probably know that reviews/feedbacks are a critical thing for you, since authentic reviews will create a long-term reputation.
There are many companies that provide reviews/feedback platforms but even here you need to keep in mind that not everyone is reliable and you should choose a provider who is committed to conducting authentic reviews for you from real people and not fake or opinion based reviews. A reliable review company will manage the reviews for you from A to Z, use the best technology to encourage your customers to rate you and will make sure to increase the number of reviews for you significantly. Keep in mind that the higher the number of reviews, the higher the legitimacy of your business. So what are the methods by which you can approach customers and encourage them to give you reviews? The main methods are:
and of course there are many more other methods.
Choosing the right strategy to increase the amount of reviews also depends on the structure of your business, and therefore a reliable and quality review company will provide you with a professional onboarding team, that will choose the right strategy for you.
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?It is important to note that in a good review company/provider there is also an effect on Google's search engine, which means that you can see the ranking of the same company with the number of stars in Google's search engine, including the content of the review (also if you advertise on Google ads, the right feedback provider will make sure that the stars will appear on your ad, and therefore it will increase your CTR (click through rate). Once?you will have more clicks, you will eventually gain greater traffic as well and gain higher ad quality, which will ultimately lead to higher exposure that will lower the costs for you in your Google ad campaign).
The review service can also be very significant for small business owners who are in a competitive field with a limited budget, because if they use the main marketing channels (btw, like everyone else) such as SEO, Google ads, Facebook's ads and even Linkedin ads, they may lose all their budget as they compete with huge companies with a gigantic budget. So once you are a small business owner with a limited budget your budget management should be done in a proper way that yields you results.
I am personally in favor of splitting your advertising budget into different channels and not putting the entire budget on one channel. That way you will actually know what works best for you in the long run. If you have a limited budget and you choose a review company as one of your channels, you can differentiate yourself from those huge companies with higher budget and then when someone searches your business name on Google, checks several businesses in your field at the same time and also sees credible reviews written on you, in the end most likely he will choose you because you have credible and authentic reviews, while your competitors do not.
You as a business owner must be wondering, what happens if I get a negative review of the service or product I provide? How will it affect my business and why do I even need the service of a review management provider? Suppose, I am currently starting a business and want to attract potential customers. My goal right now is to create interest and awareness towards my new business, so even if I get negative reviews once in a while, it will not really bother me. My goal is to reach a large number of potential customers so I must create awareness for my business. Keep in mind that your strategy should be to reach the highest number of reviews and not necessarily the highest level of rating (at least not at the beginning) so if you are a business owner, the only way to build an authentic reputation is to use a reliable and professional review management system. Keep in mind that if you provide a quality service or product, then you have nothing to worry about from negative reviews in the long run (in addition, you can always streamline and improve along the way). So in the long run even if you have 97% positive reviews and 3% negative reviews out of all your reviews in general, It should not affect you. Beyond that, keep in mind that people are looking for authenticity so you as a business owner will not be able to satisfy all your customers. You will not be able to reach perfection and that is fine. You want to build trust between yourself and the potential customers and for that you need a reliable review company provider that will manage the reviews for you in a professional manner.
I remember that always in significant purchases I made with large amounts, what ultimately decided for me from a consumer point of view was the number of reviews, their reviews quality, customer interaction with the business owner and of course no less important is the quick response of the business owner /company from the moment I approached them.