Business reviews may seem like a modern, online business tactic. But the fact is, we’ve always relied on others’ recommendations when making a purchasing decision. Think about how many times you’ve gone to a family member for business advice, or brought a product because a friend swears by it.
Online reviews make these recommendations much more accessible to everyone. This can be fantastic for businesses, as the data show that 98% of consumers always read reviews for a local business, and 85% are more likely to use a business after reading positive reviews.
Online reviews have also grown in popularity in the last few years, with review interaction increasing by 50% since the pandemic. What’s more, 84% of consumers will trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
But, like anything in business, reviews aren’t 100% risk-free. So, to help you decide if this is the strategy for you, we’ve put together our list of the top advantages and disadvantages of reviews.
The good: The advantages of reviews for small businesses
First, let’s dive into the positives of using reviews for your business.
1. They build trust
Every time a consumer purchases something – whether it’s a t-shirt, a gift, or a repair service, they need to know that they can trust your business. They need to know that the product or service is exactly as described, that it will arrive, and ultimately, someone isn’t going to take their money and make off with it.
Reviews are a great way to build trust and show new customers that your business delivers exactly what it promises.
For this point, it is worth noting that reviews are trusted more when they are hosted on independent websites, rather than on your own page. If you haven’t already, it’s worth looking at platforms like Google Reviews, Facebook or Trustpilot as the home for your reviews.
2. They boost sales
In a similar vein to building trust, reviews also help boost sales and increase your conversion rate. It makes sense – people read good reviews, they feel at ease with your business, which then makes the decision to go with you a lot easier. One study found that when shoppers engaged with reviews, there was a 144% lift in conversion rate.
As well as helping customers over that final finish line, reviews can encourage people to spend more with your business. For example, customers tend to spend 31% more on products with glowing reviews.
3. They boost your SEO and help get your business found.
Google, and other search engines, will always priortise active businesses. So, any business that gets frequent reviews will be listed higher in search engine pages, meaning that it is a lot easier for customers to find your business.
This is especially true for local SEO – so if customers are searching for local businesses (such as plumbers, cafes, or dog walkers), reviews are a great way to make sure your business is seen first.
4. It’s free advertising
Reviews are fundamentally a way of getting people to talk about your business and shout about its strengths to others. It’s not just a way to build trust – it’s free advertising for you. You can’t grumble at that.
5. It’s great for customer insights
Ever wanted to know exactly what your customer thinks of your business, product or service? Reviews are the way to gain this insight.
Honest reviews will show you which parts of your business are working well and highlight any weak spots. They’re a treasure trove of information that you can use to help improve your business and streamline your operations.
The bad and the ugly: The disadvantages of reviews
Now we’ve gone through all the positives of reviews, it’s time to be brutally honest about the potential risks and downsides that your business could face.
1. Not all reviews are positive
Not every review that a business gets will be glowing. At some point, every business will have to face negative customer reviews. And just like positive reviews can increase sales and conversion, negative reviews can put customers off your business and drive away sales.
However, not every negative review will have a negative effect on your business. If you handle and respond to negative reviews in the right way, you can turn them into a source of growth.
As we’ve outlined in our guide to dealing with negative feedback, a great response can help you get another chance with any upset customers, and prove to potential new clients that you’re serious about learning from your mistakes and providing the best experience possible.
What’s more, it’s often better to have a few negative reviews than nothing but 5-star perfect reviews. This shows that your reviews are genuine and not fake ones made to make your business look better than it is.
In fact, data show that 68% of customers trust reviews and the company more when they include both positive and negative reviews, and 30% suspect a business of fabricating reviews when they do not see any negative reviews.
2. It’s easy to sabotage businesses with fake reviews
Leaving reviews for businesses is an easy process. But with no requirement to verify that you’re an actual customer before you leave a review, this does open the door for digital sabotage as anyone could leave you a negative fake review. This could be done by anyone – including competitors, spambots, or just internet trolls who think it’s funny.
It’s one of the sad parts of the internet. Hopefully, there’s a slim chance of this happening to you – but it’s still a possibility.
3. It requires time and effort
Reviews are a free form of advertising. But, encouraging your customers to leave reviews, monitoring your sites, and replying back does take time and effort that could potentially be better used elsewhere for your business.
Unfortunately, reviews are not something you can go into half-heartedly. It’s better to have no reviews, than a few scattered reviews from years ago, as it makes it look like your business is no longer active or doesn’t care.
As with any strategy, you need to weigh up whether this is worth the effort and will deliver a good return on your time.
Our final review: reviews are nearly always worth it
There are risks and downsides involved in reviews, including people leaving fake feedback with the intent to sabotage your success. But the advantages of building trust, making your business more visible, and increasing sales nearly always outweigh the disadvantages.
If you’re ready to see the power for yourself, find out how to encourage customer reviews, and the different methods of getting reviews for your small business here.
For anything else your business needs, we’re here for you at Business4Beginners.
Recommended Review Collection Tool:
Want to collect and display reviews on your website, but not sure how? We here at B4B use Senja’s review collection tool.
It’s easy to use and they even offer a FREE plant to get you started. Setting up collection is simple and you have lots of ways to show display the reviews on your website where they will help your business best.
It’s by far the best tool for small businesses to collect and display social proof.
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