How Reviews Are Shaping Your Business

In olden days when communication technology was still not accessible, businesses relied on "Word-Of-Mouth" publicity , which was considered more credible than conventional advertising. Relate that word-of-mouth publicity to the modern day online review platforms such as Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Zomato, JustDial, etc. which are driven by customer generated content. With internet, word-of-mouth got wings to fly and reached every palm which holds a smartphone.

Today, whether it is booking a movie ticket, selecting a restaurant or hotel, purchasing a gadget, or even selecting a hospital for a planned surgery, we all look for reviews before we make a decision. The Jio effect and the telecom and mobile revolution in India have made internet so handy and affordable that it has actually helped us go one step further in digitalizing our economy. With this ease of internet accessibility it is no wonder that people value online reviews and feedbacks like never before.

A recent survey by Brightlocal shows that around 88 percent of the consumers rely on online reviews just as much as they do on personal recommendations.

 

Now let me share my experience about reviews. Over the last 10 months I have travelled extensively; took various flights, trains and buses; explored new places; stayed in different hotels; and visited new restaurants. Through my travel experiences I realized that most of my decisions about the products that I bought and the services that I availed were influenced by online reviews. Online reviews provided me a medium to know about the experiences of other people and thus helped me in taking informed decisions.    

Let me share one more experience. A friend of mine became a proud mom last month. She was new to the city when she got pregnant, so she searched for hospitals online and finally selected one which had good reviews. Reviews helped her go through real patient experiences and know about the hospital without just relying on the words of the hospital authorities.       

Not only healthcare, ecommerce, aviation or hospitality but online reviews are shaping every possible industry. Whether you own a small start up or a big firm, a restaurant or a hospital, listening to your customers and paying attention to what they have to say should be at the core of your growth strategy. Reviews are an important medium through which customers tell you about their experience of association with your business.

Collecting, managing and analyzing reviews plays a very important role in devising a marketing strategy. Reviews are health indicator of your business. Research says that "A single positive Google review works better for your business than a Google Advertisement." Turning your happy customers into your brand ambassador is the old yet very powerful way of marketing. 

Let us take an example of MaxCure Hospital in Hyderabad. 


Real time review of MaxCure Hospital in Hyderabad

You can see that the hospital has taken efforts to thank the reviewer and this shows that the hospital authorities value customer feedback. Such efforts motivates the customers to review about your business and help you generate more number of authentic online reviews. 

But sometimes mistakes happen. Sometimes you may fail to provide a good experience to your customers. Not every review can be good and positive. 

Studies show that a single negative review can divert one out of every 3 customers away from your business. Consider that you own a small business and that you cater to 12 customers a day and that an average customer spends 500 Rs on your product or service. Then a single negative review can make you lose 3 customers per day costing you 1500 Rs per day, which amounts to 45000 Rs a month.

That’s a huge loss for any growing business.

Don’t worry there is a work around for it. Contact your unhappy customers and try to understand what went wrong and then work on the issue. Assure your customers to make their next experience a positive one.  Reply to their reviews and apologize to them publically with a promise of improvement.

 Lets take an example of the same MaxCure Hospital in Hyderabad.


Real Time review of MaxCure Hospital in Hyderabad

You can see that the hospital has responded even to the bad review and apologized for the mistake with a promised of improvement.

This not only mitigates the impact of the negative reviews but also shows the customers how much you value their feedback and how much customer centric is your business.

Note: By any means I am not endorsing MaxCure hospital here. I just used it to cite an example.

 One more way of mitigating the impact of negative reviews is increasing your positive reviews. A lot of recent authentic positive reviews build a sense of trust in your business. But don’t even think of collecting paid reviews. It’s a very bad idea. Collecting paid reviews not only dilutes your online reputations but also affects your SEO on Google. Google knows everything and is way smarter than we can even think off. Even customers today have become very smart. They compare reviews on various review platforms instead of just trusting few reviews on a single review platform.

Negative reviews give you an opportunity to identify the gray areas of your business. Proper analysis of your review can give you correct insights of your business. Another way of analyzing your online reputation is to search about different words and phrases people are associating with your business. You can easily do this using Google Trends.

Today Customer experience management and Review management are at the forefront of every successful business model. They should be looked upon as important ingredients not only for consistent growth and development of your business but also for sustenance of your business in this competitive world.    

After all a business becomes successful only when it puts customer satisfaction at the core of its strategic planning.

Today lot of companies are doing  great work in this vertical of review generation, review management and customer experience management. Businesses needing help in this regard can reach out to these companies. These companies can help you gain correct insights of your scattered online reviews with the help of sentiment analysis, trending words and phrase analysis and neutral language processing. Many companies such as ReviewTrackers and BirEye in the US and Friendknows in India are doing very good progress in providing business solution and consultation in the space of review management and customer experience management.

Neither I am a MBA nor a Marketing Strategist but recently I have been reading a lot about this topic because of my interest in marketing and sales. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and realized the important of online reviews in shaping your business.

Do let me know your feedback on my article.