“Online reviews” or online customer reviews are pieces of feedback given to a business based on a customer’s experience with the organization. It is a review of a product or service where it reflects the opinions, and experiences of a customer purchasing a product or a service.
Online reviews can reveal a lot about your online store. A wealth of positive words can have a measurable impact on your sales. Online reviews give you a steady pipeline of hopefully positive content that search engines value highly. Online reviews play a significant role in shaping your brand.
Online reviews in general can help provide an accurate profile of your business or organization to potential customers.
According to Dictionary, a review is a critique or evaluation. Rightfully so, when feedbacks, and reviews are taken online, customers who have bought a product or a service, leave a review either on the company’s website, if it has that option or on other reputable review websites.
The first ever online reviews website was Epinions. It came into existence in 1999, which means that the concept of posting feedback, and online reviews is more than two decades old!
Online Reviews: Statistics
The concept of online reviews has grown, and from just one website to a large number of websites, that now have a section of their page or website, dedicated to it. Some of these websites are Yelp, Amazon, Google My Business, Facebook, etc.
It’s not shocking though. Given that there are already 24 million online stores, some work definitely needed to go into gaining the potential customer’s trust in order to drive sales. And how would a visitor figure out if something is genuine or not, online? Reviews. And lots of reviews.
Per Search Engine Land, 88% of customers trust Online Reviews as much as Personal Recommendations
After all, the internet is widely accessible. Building a good reputation amongst customers, who would then willingly leave an online review would help you gain credibility. This would convey much more about your business, than any description that you put out.
18% of Sales driven by Online Reviews
User reviews increases conversions. They eliminate any doubts that the potential customers may have about your product, and they also help with product selection.
If you have the feature, that enables to leave behind online reviews on your website, it leaves an impression that your visitors are actually buying your product or service.
Furthermore, having high quality reviews on your website, serves as an assurance to your potential customers, as these reviews assures them that the choice that they are now making is the right one.
86% of visitors avoid a business due to Negative Reviews
Should you delete all the negative reviews that you receive? Absolutely not! It’s not only unethical for you as a business to do so, you’re also risking the trust of a large number of potential customers who have already seen these negative reviews, in addition to those who have posted them.
In such scenarios, consider what your customer is trying to convey, and reevaluate your offerings, and workings. This would benefit you immensely, and would attract more positive feedback, and reviews later on.
Now that the essentials are covered, let’s take a look at the top customer, and online reviews management systems to make your work easier.
Best Online Reviews Management Systems and Tools
If you’re asking customers for feedback, and reviews, it’s important to ensure that the process of sharing these feedbacks is easy, and smooth. Here are the best online reviews management systems that can better organize online reviews for your store.
Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice has an application that enables businesses to seek opinions, feedback, etc. from their customers. According to this reviews management company, they help businesses get in touch with the “voices of their customers.”
With Bazaarvoice, customers can also ask questions, and make enquiries on a website. This is super beneficial, as customers sometimes hesitate to purchase a product or a service due to a number of questions that are left unanswered.
With Bazaarvoice you could be that responsive business who cares about it’s current, and potential customers.
eKomi
eKomi is a review management system that can be installed on the user’s (business’s) website. With eKomi feedbacks can be collected using various methods, such as pop-ups, email, physical in-store feedback, and more.
eKomi has collected, and published over 40,000,000 reviews through user-generated content. They have over 14,000 companies working with them.
Trustpilot
This is a well known reputation management software to help businesses, and help them build their trust further. It was founded in 2007. Through their system, you can upload mailing lists on Trustpilot that asks the customers to review the product that they purchased or the service that they used.
When a customer puts in a review, it is shared with search engines like Google, and they in turn, then display reviews, when someone searches for their business.
Podium
Podium is a reviews management system that does an excellent job of managing feedback, and reviews for your company. It has worked with over 40,000 businesses in the field of interaction management. Apart from being able to collect short feedbacks via SMS, it also has tools that makes the entire process very easy.
They have features like automated review invites, facilitates responding to them, easy tracking of trends, etc. for companies to stay sharp, and perform better. This can also help increase your rankings on search engines.
Swell
If you want that the entire experience of sharing customer feedback, and reviews be mobile driven, then Swell should be your top tool.
Swell has specialized in collecting feedback through the two easy channels – email, and mobile. It also works on Google, and Facebook reviews, and this will definitely help you, if you’re an ecommerce business, wanting to expand reach, and ranking.
They track the performance of your business in terms of the feedbacks shared, and provide valuable insights, through which you could then improve your company’s functioning.
Conclusion on Online Reviews
If you’re looking for a high quality reviews management system, then Trustpilot is your answer. Trustpilot works across channels, and platforms, and is not only versatile, but also easy to use.
Invest in a tool that is not only in your budget, but also the one that works across platforms where your brand is active. As these platforms drive traffic to your website, hence the positive reviews available there will be really helpful.
Which online feedback or reviews management system or tool do you use, and why?
