Consumer reviews...Love 'em or hate 'em. But according to research, the majority of consumers shopping for products and services will start their search online.  Consumer reviews can make or break or break your business.

Jillian Ney, a social media researcher, writes on Social Media Today that "As a customer, I like that I can see performance and opinion based reviews on the products or services I am thinking about purchasing. Yes, these reviews are predominantly subjective opinions and can be of varying quality but it is the subjective opinions I want to see."

Ney's research has found that most consumers share her love of online reviews and that these reviews support their decision making process as they look to other consumers for advice.

Build your online reputation with consumer reviews.  Ney uses the example of a trendy hotel that actively uses employees and customers to build their online reputation.  They actively monitor all mentions of their brand and work openly to understand their customers.

Ney offers these tips to successfully build your online reputation:

Word of Mouth Advertising:  Referrals have always been a powerful tool for your business.  Now it has evolved online to include consumer reviews.

The benefit to online reviews is you get to see what customers really think and you have the opportunity to overcome any negative reviews. "Be proactive in harnessing your online reputation." says Ney.  "In service recovery we all learn the benefit of overcoming a failure; you can create a loyal customer." 

Turn the Negative Around:   Use both positive and negative reviews to your advantage, says Ney.  "(This allows) you to 'innovate' or at the very least improve product or service qualities."

"Essentially reviews provide feedback and you have the option to act on that feedback and improve," writes Ney. "This can be important in small businesses, sometimes we feel bad reviews are personal attacks especially if we are small business owners.  Don't feel like that, take it as constructive criticism and work with it."

Get to Know Your Competition:  Not only should you keep up with your online reputation but you can also see how you compare against your competition and where you stand in the marketplace.

Defend your online reputation with quick response to all consumer reviews and by building a base of positive customer reviews.

Read the full article on SocialMediaToday.com.

photo credit: dolmansaxlil

Posted in Marketing

Comment on this article

Name

Email
Your email address will not be displayed.

Site/Url
Your URL will be displayed.

Your vote

Poor Excellent

Comment text

Options

  Line breaks become <br />

  Remember me

  Allow users to contact you through a message form.

Captcha

Please enter the characters from the image above. (case insensitive)

Captcha code