Online Reviews: What’s in it for Consumers and Businesses?
If you’re new to a certain place, it’s going to be quite hard to choose which is good or not. Thankfully, a lot of people share their experiences online and express their heart out on how satisfied or dissatisfied they have been on a certain restaurant, hotel, etc.
Surveys reveal that over 70% of customers trust online reviews. About 60% of these customers are millennials who generate a huge increase of approximately 18% in sales.
How do online reviews influence customers?
Online reviews have a huge impact on the buying decisions of consumers and on the reputation of businesses. It has been found out that the sales revenue of several businesses has increased by about 7% in every star rating they get. On the other hand, a single negative review can cost them about 20% of their consumers as they’ll likely not continue purchasing a product or paying for a service.
The top five industries that are found to be greatly affected by online reviews are:
- Restaurants
- Hotels
- Doctor’s offices
- Hospitals
- Hair salons
Which industry has more customers who read online reviews?
The top three industries where online reviews are essential are:
- Travel
- Health
- Restaurants
More than 50% of these consumers, who read online reviews, are travelers. About 80% of patients were also found to read online reviews before heading to the doctor’s office, while approximately 60% of consumers do so before going to restaurants. Moreover, 70% of professionals perform some research before deciding where to apply.
BUT, do you know that..
Not all customer reviews online are genuine. In fact, about 30% of the whole “customer experiences” you’re reading may be fake. In New York, more than 10 companies were fined for making fake reviews.
Does this affect online reviews in general? Not that much.
With the increasing popularity of social media, customers are able to verify the authenticity of the reviews by reading comments and posts in Facebook, Twitter, and other online platforms. About 40% of consumers learn about a new brand or service in Facebook alone.
Here are the top review sites in various categories:
- Yelp for Restaurants
- TripAdvisor for Hotels
- Glassdoor for Company reviews
- CNET for Technology-related stuff
- IMDB for Movies
- ZocDoc for Health
Conclusion
Online reviews are unquestionably important most especially for a customer who’s a stranger to a certain product or service. They do not only save a customer their time and money, but they likewise preempt any sort of inconvenience. Customers just have to be smart in figuring out which review is too good to be true or not.
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