Customer reviews: An important asset to boost your online sales and gain social trust
With the increase in online shopping and online marketing in today’s digital e-commerce world, many customers seek a ground level of trust and assurance of quality products via online customer reviews.
With the inability to physically examine and test the products, online reviews are the closest customers can understand the clear picture before deciding if they want to move forward with it or not.
These online reviews dissolve the trust gap between the customers and online businesses, which would have existed otherwise if online reviews were not in the picture.
But are online reviews just about gaining trust? How can they help increase your online sales and benefit your website in the long run?
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How can you increase your online sales through customer reviews?
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How to deal with negative reviews and use them to connect with customers?
How important are customer reviews?
If you were to ask whether online customer reviews for businesses are still relevant? The answer would be a solid yes.
Customers will more likely trust and purchase products from a website with the best reviews online than those that do not.
If a website has no reviews, customers will hesitate to choose their products or services.
Who is reading the online reviews on your website?
In this e-commerce world, right from potential customers to your competitors, everyone reads your online reviews.
In fact, according to research, 91% of the customers’ lookout for online reviews, and 85% of them trust these customer reviews online more than a word of mouth or personal recommendation.
If a website has a maximum number of excellent reviews, an average customer will probably spend 31% more on their products.
If you are still not convinced of online reviews’ benefits, look at the various advantages they provide to boost your website and make it rank up.
Advantages of online reviews for your e-commerce website
Let’s look one by one at what are the major benefits of online customer reviews for your Magento website.
1. Improves website SEO
Everyone is aware of the undeniable importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) today.
Every business’s goal is to rank high in SEO, and customer reviews for boosting online sales can help one achieve that.
When customers provide a positive review & high-star ratings with specific keywords like the product name, the website is more likely to show higher in the search engines when someone searches for the same particular product.
They will also come across the positive reviews a website has received, increasing their chances of buying their services.
It is essential to focus on those particular keywords customers use in search engines to attract specific and long-term customers. Effectively using these keywords will get your website a high score SERP ranking and increase the website’s landing page’s click-through rate.
2. Builds trust and credibility
With the millions and billions of options available with the customers, it is often confusing and challenging for them to choose and opt for just one seller.
But customers tend to trust a website after reading dozens of online reviews that speak of quality products and reliable services.
When they see other customers attest to the product’s worth in getting it, they tend to go for it as well.
According to the statistics, customers are 63% more likely to opt for the website’s services, which have the maximum and quality reviews.
3. Boosts sales
Customer reviews also have a psychological impact on buyers.
When a buyer sees a collective and a bunch of opinions revolving around the products that are nothing but facts and real-time customer experiences with the product, they gain the confidence to invest in the products themselves.
Customers need more than just your words of business. An honest online review added by another customer is more likely to influence the customer’s decision to buy products online, thus increasing the overall sales and net growth.
4. Direct feedback provides room for improvement
It is, of course, not necessary to receive only positive reviews. Not every business is perfect, and there is always room for improvement.
Negative reviews are equally important, as they can help pinpoint where the business needs to improve in its process.
Whether it is your products’ quality, the price of your products, or the checkout and delivery process, you can receive multiple complaints or negative reviews regarding one common aspect. You can use them to improve where you lack and make the process even smoother and close to perfection.
5. Acts like free marketing
Your website is definitely ought to see success if you have an excellent marketing strategy.
But that success is scaled even higher when your customers provide positive reviews and help you market your products.
Customers expressing their positive feedback and recommending others to opt for your products through online reviews will help market your products and services, influencing millions of other potential customers out there on the internet.
There are many ways to ask your customers to leave their valuable reviews, which we will discuss in the latter portion of the blog, but including customer reviews in your marketing strategy is a great approach to boost your website’s growth and increase its sales.
Expert opinion versus customer review
Both could generate online customer reviews, the customer of the product who has experienced using the product, or the professional experts. So, which of the two is better or credible?
It is not about which out of the two expert opinions or customer reviews is much better. Instead, which out of the two people rely more upon and find much impactful and credible.
Expert opinions provide their views of the products, unsure if they are biased. They evaluate the products and speak in technical terms that not necessarily every average customer might understand.
While expert opinions do matter, and many customers rely on them to buy a product, it is to be noted that peer customer reviews are more influential and relatable.
Customer reviews are real, detailed, and mostly unbiased. What makes them even trustworthy is them not getting any benefits by providing a review. They simply write what they feel and share their experience with the product in the most amateur and simple terms.
Such anonymity and unbiased and unfiltered information attract new customers, ensuring them the product is entirely worth and reliable.
How can you increase your online sales through customer reviews?
Doing business in a competitive online environment is challenging.
Apart from being consistent and maintaining the quality of the products and services, businesses can also strategically use customer reviews to boost their online sales.
1. Highlight the positive reviews wherever possible
Instead of just claiming the quality of services, featuring positive customer reviews on websites builds a perfect impression and reputation.
Let the reviews do all the talking.
2. Notice most commonly used keywords for the products & services
Customers often use specific keywords in the reviews related to products. Identifying these and using them to rank up in SEO can be a game-changer.
3. Gain brand awareness
When someone searches for products related to a company’s services, the online reviews can amp up its organic presence, making it appear at the top of the search. This way, more people come across the brand, increasing its brand awareness.
How to deal with negative reviews and use them to connect with customers?
One of the most critical business facts is that you cannot please everyone, and you can make mistakes.
Negative reviews hold as much weight as positive reviews. In fact, according to a study, 82% of people who check for online reviews seek negative reviews.
This fact might seem frightening, but it could also be beneficial. People interacting with negative reviews spend five times longer on the website, increasing the conversion rate.
There might be people who want to blame you for your mistakes, even if it isn’t your fault. There is an interesting fact of negative customer reviews; companies may lose up to 22% of customers if they came across even one negative post/comment. And companies can lose up to as huge as 59% of customers if they came across three such negative comments.
But worry not, negative reviews actually help improve the conversion rate, and there are always ways to deal with them.
The most pleasing way to deal with negative reviews is to read, interact with them, and apply them to improve your services.
Here are some useful tips to follow:
- Respond to negative reviews instead of ignoring them, even if your responses will be publicly visible.
- Admit if you went wrong or made mistakes and provide practical solutions. Solving your customer’s problems, analyzing them, and providing solutions is crucial. You can even offer customer-friendly services like free returns, additional discounts, or complementary products.
- Subtly remind your business’s strengths.
- Address fake reviews that provide inaccurate information and correct them.
- Respond like a person and not as a corporation.
Reviews, positive or negative, are the best way to gain customer feedback, especially being an online seller.
Do not fret if your website gets negative reviews; after all, the presence of only positive reviews and pleasant opinions on your e-commerce website can create suspicions within the customer’s minds. 30% of customers believe that all the positive reviews present are fake and unreliable if there are no negative reviews present on the website.
Being real, authentic, and polite is the key to win over negative reviews.
Encourage customers to provide reviews
Not every online customer will take out time to write a few words and provide their feedback on the products.
Making the customers feel validated about their powerful voice and valuable words will attract them to type in some good comments regarding your products.
You can do this through email lists, offering discounts, and many other creative ways, making customers realize their value, so they return to your website more often.
Some ways to gain more customers reviews is to:
1. Ask your customers to provide reviews directly.
Simply asking your customers for a review once their order is delivered or if the transaction is completed can significantly increase your website’s likelihood of receiving customer reviews.
Etsy asked its customers to leave an online review by sending a follow-up text message or an email. Consequently, it resulted in 25% of their purchases receiving an online review, and all that they did was ask.
A simple question asking, “Can you please provide your valuable feedback on our website? We would appreciate your review!” can go a long way.
2. Make it convenient for your customers to leave a review.
Not every customer with a positive experience with your products will go beyond measures to provide a review on your website, unlike negative customer reviews, which are more likely to go out of their way to share their thoughts.
To get more positive reviews than negatives, you need to make it easy and effortless for your customers to do so. You can do so by including an inbound link to your website to direct the customer’s right to the review section/platform.
Your customers will not think twice before clicking on the link, as it will get easy for them instead of following a long process.
3. Provide incentives to your customers for writing reviews
If you think that this equals bribing, then you are wrong.
You can ask your customers to provide a Magento review, now that can be either positive or negative in return for some incentive money/reward.
Do not ask your customers directly for a positive review in return for a reward, as that might seem unethical.
But encouraging them to take part in winning an incentive if they review your products is entirely ethical, which will help your website gain more honest customer reviews.
4. Conduct surveys to receive customer responses
It can happen that your customers don’t have the right words to express their thoughts, or sometimes they are just too lazy to type in comments.
A productive way to engage with your customers is by asking them to fill out a minute or two worth long survey.
Yes, customer reviews will enhance your website’s SEO, but conducting a survey will help you get a deep insight into where you are doing great and wrong. Surveys are a great medium to receive general feedback, and they can also help you generate social proof.
5. Thank your customers
“Thank you!” is an important customer service term that can contribute to your Magento website’s success.
Thanking customers who leave their reviews online will not help improve your website’s SEO, but it will give a sense of validation to your customers, motivating them to keep purchasing and reviewing.
You can also include the relevant keywords in your response for better SEO performance. For example, “Thank you, XYZ, for your feedback. We promise to continue delivering the best Magento hosting services in the future as well.”
Conclusion
Engaging and interacting with customers through online reviews is the key to manage and maintain the e-commerce business.
Online reviews are not losing their importance soon. They are the digital word of mouth, providing real and relatable perspectives on products and services.
Using them to boost your sales, gain traffic, build a strong reputation will maximize your website’s overall performance and productivity, making the business run ahead compared to other potential competitors.
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Our primary aim at MGT-Commerce is customer satisfaction.
Buying our high-performing managed web hosting services will boost your e-commerce website and at the same time help gain satisfactory customer reviews. With our services, your customers enjoy the top class and hustle-free performance of your Magento website.
The better your website performs, the better chances of it providing an excellent user experience, and the better the chances of customers leaving their positive reviews.
EndNote
Customers are the focal point of any business, especially with online companies and shops, where direct one-on-one communication of the customers with the retailers is quite tricky.
Online reviews provide that platform to e-commerce businesses that help them listen to their customers, their positive/negative feedback, grievances, and make optimum use of it to deliver better.
Contact us to start your journey today with the leading Magento hosting company for your e-commerce website. We’d be delighted to help you grow and reach maximum potential customers.
To begin with, surely try out our free demo! As online retailers, you must definitely avail of the endless benefits of the customer reviews online and grow your Magento website bigger, better, and more robust.
