Did you know, 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business, according to PwC’s 20th annual survey? That is almost everybody!
Admit it. You do it, I do it, in fact, 88% of consumers trust online reviews more than personal recommendations. After researching the topic, I have learned that reviews can make or break a business which can be quite alarming.
PwC’s survey found so many interesting statistics regarding online reviews. Here’s some stats you might find interesting:
- Customers are likely to spend 31% more if a business has ‘excellent’ reviews
- 72% say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
- 72% of consumers will make a purchase only after reading positive reviews
- On average, a 1 star increase on Yelp (a website used to review businesses), leads to a 5-9% increase in a businesses revenue. And one negative review can cost a business up to 30 customers.
(read more by clicking here)
But who actually has ever left a review?
I have left a review in my life… that’s right a review; one. And it was after the shower curtain pole fell in a hotel room and the hotel then messed us around to get a new room. I felt I had to share this experience with other potential hotel goers. But I didn’t leave a review after the amazing hotel I had experiences right after this one.
So this is saying something.. we feel more inclined to leave a review after experiencing something negative than something positive. In fact, we are 21% more likely to write a review after a negative one than a positive one, according to this article.
In addition this article suggests we give more weight to reviews that are negative than are positive because we “want to feel secure in our purchasing” decisions. It’s so important to realise that reviews are subjective and one persons’ experience will be different to somebody else based on their own ideas, beliefs and past experiences.
So this ‘free’ marketing tool can be extremely useful and increase sales, or extremely detrimental and almost ruin a business.
Some people also just like to make everything a joke… have a read of these:
oh and apparently you can purchase half keyboards …
What are your thoughts on reviews? Do you regularly leave reviews?
I challenge you to write 2 positive reviews this week for products or places that you’ve been to and can recommend! Let’s share the love!
Talking Tech with Bec 
Interesting insights Bec! Never knew reviews had a monetary value that was weighted that heavily.
Have you heard of the ‘Google Guides’ program? It’s an incentive by Google to get people to review, take photos, provide facts and more about the places they visit – each review earns a point (but reviews with higher word-counts earn more points), and once users hit a certain point they level up and eligible for awards etc. I know reviewers with level 4 or higher also receive ‘trusted contributor’ status, so their reviews show up first on Google!
LikeLike
I know! Some really interesting and surprising stats!
I haven’t heard of that actually – but it sounds like a great idea!!! I have received random notifications from google saying ‘Help us answer some questions about (somewhere I’ve been)” and then you would answer a bunch of yes/no answers. It’s a very effective way of gaining information about a business as the responses are so quick and brief.
LikeLike