Why are customer reviews so important?
Building a positive reputation is essential to help raise awareness of your business. It takes time to build these impressions in customers’ minds, beginning with their first visit to your online or physical store. Online reviews can help market your business to potential customers and develop sustainable, long-lasting growth.
How important is it to start getting customer reviews online? Potential new customers who read reviews about you will be more likely to see your business as reliable and trustworthy – a retailer they can confidently spend their money on. Customer reviews can also help you learn from your customers’ experiences to improve them down the line.
A few locations where you’ll see online customer reviews include Google Business Profile, Tripadvisor, Yelp, Facebook and Trustpilot.
Ways you'll benefit from customer reviews:
Trust building: When a customer sees positive reviews from other customers, they will be more likely to trust your business and spend money with you.
SEO: Customer reviews can improve your search engine rankings. Google and other search engines use reviews to rank pages. The more positive reviews you have, the higher your online store is likely to go in search results.
Feedback: You can learn from customer reviews to help improve your products and services. Identify areas of improvement and better meet the needs of your customers.
Stronger sales: Positive reviews can boost your sales. According to a study by BrightLocal, 88% of consumers said they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations and 73% said positive reviews make them trust a business more.
Inform customers: Customer reviews help potential customers make informed purchasing decisions. Insightful reviews about product quality, as well as service, give first-hand insights about how the experience really is.
How to get online reviews
How should you get customer reviews then? Firstly, ask for a Google review directly using the SumUp Online Store. In settings, you can turn on automatic review request notifications to ask customers for a Google review once they’ve completed a purchase.
Another way is asking customers to leave reviews on social media. This is especially relevant if you’re active on social media, or have a sizeable following, as it can considerably amplify each review.
Lastly, if you have a physical store, you could display a link or scannable QR code inside a leaflet, on a countertop stand or on a window that customers can use to leave a review.
Customer reviews are an essential part of running your business. They can help you build trust with potential customers, improve your visibility in search engines, become a source of feedback – and ultimately increase your sales.
