I’ve just been reviewing the latest research on how people use reviews online. And it’s an eye-opener.

Faster now than ever, consumers are quickly deciding if they trust a business.

The respected Local Consumer Review Study from BrightLocal shows that 88% of consumers read less than 10 reviews before they form an opinion.

And the number saying they only need to read 1 – 3 reviews before they can trust a local business jumped 11% to 40% of respondents, in just one year!

Let’s just consider those figures . . .

The conclusion is that your prospects don’t need to read many reviews before developing a clear opinion about your business. Almost 9 out of 10 are satisfied after reading just ten.

PEOPLE TRUST THE STAR RATING

Actually, the star rating is the biggest factor to which consumers pay attention.

The research shows that while 94% of people will happily use a business with a 4-star rating, only 57% will deal with a 3-star business. Worse, just 14% of consumers say they will try a business with only 1 or 2 stars. (This means a business with 4 stars will get nearly 7x more customers than a business with two stars!)

The next most important factor is the quantity of reviews is and we learned above that if a local business has up to 10 reviews then 88% of readers won’t look any further!

THEY DON’T TRUST OLD REVIEWS

But there’s a catch: the study shows that up to 84% of consumers don’t consider a review to be relevant if it’s older than 6 months.

Why does this matter? Well, if you’re like me then the most recent comments are the ones you read first, of course. If they’re negative, few people will scroll down to find better ones further down the page.

Therefore it’s important to monitor comments regularly, to ‘manage out’ bad reviews and focus on generating regular, positive feedback.

CUSTOMERS RESPOND TO REVIEWS

The really interesting question was: “When you read positive reviews for a business, what is the typical next step you take?”

By far the most common ‘next step’ for consumers reading reviews is to visit the business website (48%). That’s no surprise, after all they’re already online and most review sites will have a link to the business website.

However, this means it’s now absolutely essential to make sure you optimize your website to make sure you capture every possible lead.

And the other thing you should do is review your reputation management system, to make sure you keep fresh, positive reviews coming in from your customers, clients, or patients. Remember, they need to be less than 6 months old if they’re going to be trusted.

Need a tool for managing customer feedback? Check out reviewinvestigator.com

Was this helpful?
Please leave a comment below.

. . . and get onto my ‘Insiders’ List
Be notified when I publish new posts with valuable information
you can use in your business. Just enter your details, here:

(You can unsubscribe at any time.)