Why Online Reviews Matter to Small Businesses
Online reviews are in the news again. Big businesses are setting out their stall for 2013 – motor manufacturer Kia has published its intention to focus on customer reviews this year, and Amazon has caused controversy by tightening its book review policy, deleting thousands of ‘suspect’ reviews in pursuit of accurate customer feedback. Consumers are relying more and more on reviews when buying products and services, both off- and online.
This will come as no surprise: people have always used word-of-mouth to recommend good suppliers or complain about poor products and services but, where this used to be confined to friends and family, the power of the Internet now spreads this word-of-mouth far and wide and keeps it on the record permanently, especially if it turns up in search engine results.
Maybe you’re a small business that gets most of your custom from passing traffic or traditional word-of-mouth referral. You don’t have much of an online presence and you think online reviews don’t apply to you. But like a lot of social media ‘conversations’, it could be happening with or without your participation. Someone could write a review online about your business and, if it’s positive, your business might benefit from an increase in customers and you’ll be happy. On the other hand, a negative review could leave you wondering why your business is suddenly falling away and, if you don’t know about it, you can’t do anything to stop the rot.
Customers who write reviews tend to fall into two camps: those who have bought a great product or received such superior service that they can’t wait to tell everyone, and those with the exact opposite experience who want to punish the supplier and warn people off. The former are your business champions and potentially worth their weight in gold. Negative reviewers can damage your business but, if you handle it correctly, you can turn this situation around.
You can regard negative reviews as a form of market research, showing you how to improve your product or service and, importantly, to be seen to care enough to make that effort. Even the best businesses get it wrong sometimes, but admitting this and taking steps to put things right can turn a negative reviewer into a business champion. Where you can, always take the opportunity to respond online to negative reviewers and tell them (and everybody else reading the reviews) just what you are going to do to make amends. You can even thank them for pointing out the problem and giving you the chance to improve.
There are another couple of reasons why you shouldn’t be too afraid of negative reviews. Firstly, one person’s negative might be another’s positive. I read an article online recently where someone was complaining about a cinema that asked them to leave because they were using their mobile phone during the film. Well, that sounds like the sort of cinema I’d like to visit!
Secondly, the problem Amazon is trying to control – of people playing the system by posting positive reviews about themselves, getting their friends and family to do so or even offering to pay people to post reviews – is one that most web users are well aware of. Consumers often regard with suspicion those businesses with 100% positive reviews: those with a mix of both (but tending towards the positive) are more believable. So, as long as it’s not too damning, the odd negative or neutral viewpoint might do more good than harm, especially if you take the time to respond positively.
Keep listening to what the internet says about your business – and build on what you hear.