Whether you are running local based or internet business, online reviews play a vital role in your success or breakdown. Making a reputation takes a lot of efforts, time as well as money but breaking it, takes nothing! Here is what you need to know about the need for monitoring your business reviews.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. – Warren Buffet
There are many popular online review websites and finding business reviews is lot easier. This can mean good or can be bad news for businesses. A good online review will bring in more customers; while on the other hand, a negative one can be detrimental to your business. It will remain online from days to weeks or years and potentially turn away your prospective customers.
According to Local Survey Review 2014, a huge number 88% people read reviews to determine the quality of a local business. This implies that mere 12% do not read reviews. There has been steady decline in number of consumers who are not reading reviews. In 2013, the figure was 15% and now, it has come down to 12%.
Another noteworthy figure in this survey was that 85% of consumers say that they read up to 10 reviews for a local business. This places emphasis on having at least 10 reviews to reach out the maximum number of consumers. The reviews should be positive as well as updated ones. 92% of users say that they use a local business if it has a 4 star rating while 72% trust business when it has a 3 star rating. Also, 72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a business more. Only 10% of consumers ignore online reviews.
Online customer reviews are essential for the reputation of small as well as large businesses. Irrespective of the size and nature of business, no organization can afford to ignore negative reviews coming up its way. Yelp has over 132 million monthly visitors and over 57 million reviews. Thus, regularly monitoring your online reputation is essential. You should make sure that you respond to negative reviews with genuine efforts. Your customers watch how you respond to them.
It’s advisable to know what others are saying about your business online, and make sure that continue to enjoy good reputation in the online world.
CouncilSoft provides reputation management services to help you improve your online reputation. Contact us today and learn how we can help your business!