How important are customer reviews for your business?

Customer reviews have become a must

Ignoring customer reviews is dangerous for your business, because even if you do, your future customers will not miss it.

In fact, in 2020, 90%⁽¹ ) of consumers will consult online reviews before visiting a store, whether physical or digital. These are potential customers who can be influenced by the online comments that make up your e-reputation and as many customer feedbacks that you would have missed.

The influence of customer reviews in the buying process

In the past, when we identified a problem or a need, the buying journey was "funnel" i.e. :

 

Of course, many marketing theories have come to complicate this buying path over time, taking into account new aspects of our daily lives.

Gone is the scarcity, made way for the abundance of supply: many models, different brands, greater competition, highly variable prices and quality, fashion effects... whatever your priority purchase criteria, diversity is raging and the consumer no longer knows how to choose.

The future customer is overwhelmed with information and possibilities in the context of his purchasing act. Therefore, he needs tools and techniques to facilitate his decision making.

Cognitive biases

Reducing the possibilities in a logical or instinctive way is above all letting cognitive biases sort out the information collected. This is what distorts or strongly influences decisions: whether or not to choose a product, to buy it or not.

For example, the scarcity bias is the one that will encourage you to buy the product you want now because the site tells you that "there are only 2 left in stock".

The authority bias is the one that reassures you by the word of an expert or a reliable source. In fact, it makes you think that if specialist X says it, "it must be true" or the recommendation of an expert site.

But above all, many biases can be identified and "amplified", because they are there to validate our decision-making. Thus, we can send positive messages to our future client or limit the impact of negative messages by paying particular attention to certain tools.

Social proof

So what is the interest and importance of online customer reviews? It's simple, they constitute what we call "social proof", that is to say the bias according to which we trust more easily a close relation, a user, a neutral person who will have had the experience of the product and will give "spontaneously and subjectively" his opinion on it.

Before the explosion of online reviews, friends and family reviews accounted for 50%⁽²⁾ of consultations before a purchase act in 2015. Even if the weight of friends and family is still strong, the weight of online reviews has also increased when we see that 89%⁽³⁾ of consumers worldwide say they ALWAYS consult online reviews before making an online purchase.

It has truly become a reflex for consumers to express their opinion on the purchase, delivery, use of a product or an experience: 70%⁽¹ ) of consumers say they have already written an online review. This is the basis of influencer marketing, which asks influencers to test a product or a vacation spot and then give their opinion and show the results to their followers.

This social proof is one of the 6 biases studied by Google in the new shopping journey study⁽⁴ ) andit has been proven tohave a real impact in decision making. It is even the most powerful one identified by their study as it had the biggest or second biggest effect on the purchase decision in 28 of the 31 categories tested.

Encourage, welcome and value customer reviews

In conclusion, the importance of online reviews in our society today is strong. They are a kind ofpeer insurance to reassure the consumer on the validity of his choice. This abundance of choice creates doubt, hesitation, comparison and the reviews are there to support a positive choice or avoid error.

It is therefore very important to know:

• encourage customers to leave reviews to improve their e-reputation,
• welcome all opinions whatever they are to draw conclusions business
• enhance its online reviews so that future customers are reassured in their act of purchase or subscription.

 

To learn more about how you can turn your online reviews into growth levers, watch the replay of our 30-minute webinar by filling out this form :

⁽¹⁾ Brightlocal Study - 2020

⁽²⁾ 2015 BCG Study. Internet survey conducted in 2015 among 227,000 consumers in the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Canada.

⁽³⁾ Canvas8 Study - 2020

⁽⁴⁾ Think with Google