Online Reviews: You Must Deal With Them

The dreaded 5 Star Rating

Online reviews can be your biggest curse or the love of your life - and are totally out of your control. A few words posted next to a five star scale rating can be do or die for a business! So, it is imperative that any online review, good, bad, ugly, be dealt with swiftly and efficiently.

A recent review of online reviews by ReportLinker discovered the following:

- The level of trust by consumers of online reviews is incredibly high! 59% of consumers believe that online reviews are as trustful as personal recommendations - with a full 7% saying that online reviews are MORE trusted then personal recommendations.

- 33% of consumers go to search to find reviews, with 25% going directly to review websites.  This means that two-thirds of all consumers go to OTHER sites, than yours, to look for reviews of your business and products/services.

- Besides Google, the top social sites for review ratings were Facebook, blogs, and Twitter.

- When needing specific product reviews, Amazon and eBay led the way, with 57% of consumers using these sites for product reviews.

- 51% of the survey respondents admitted they had written a review within the last 12 months. 49% stated they reviewed when they were very satisfied while 34% said they review when very dissatisfied.

- Content matters most in reviews (not credibility). 62% of consumers said that content of the review was MOST IMPORTANT and not the credibility of the reviewer - NOW THAT'S SCARY.

Like it or not, this is the world that we live in. Every business, large or small, must be proactive in managing their online reviews. Address them individually. Respond to all and, if truthful correct any problems quickly.  Remember, reviews are not only going to your  website or social accounts but are resident on other sites as well. Spend time to search these review sites as well.

James Lavorato
Fund-House