Online reviews have become such powerful tools of influence that no business can afford to ignore their importance anymore. No matter how useful your product is or how well you deliver your service, a single negative online review can create a crack in your company’s reputation. If left unchecked and unresolved, a bad review can cause greater damage for your company in the long run.
If you’re running a business, it’s important to understand how negative online reviews can ruin your company so that you can apply preventive measures quickly and avoid such things from happening. Here are a few things you need to know about customer reviews so you can better handle negative ones:
Why are Customer Reviews Powerful?
Negative reviews have the ability to turn people away from your business, especially in today’s digital age. People rely on the internet for much of their daily activities, including shopping and browsing for their desired services and products. These people are also very smart about their internet transactions, as they make sure that they check online customer reviews of their target items and services before completing any purchase.
Buying decisions of almost two-thirds of consumers are influenced by online reviews. It’s easy to find customer feedback on company websites, and people can compare one business’s online reviews with another until they’re able to tell which company best serves their interests.
Positive reviews can significantly increase a company’s sales by encouraging more people to try their products, which means a boost in sales, an improved reputation, a spike in search engine ranking, and enhanced profitability for your business.
Bad or negative reviews, on the other hand, have several unfavorable effects on business, whether it’s a large firm or a small-scale company. Negative reviews can cause people to avoid using a product and if the resulting negative word-of-mouth is not controlled immediately, the feedback can reach larger markets, effectively ruining any chances of the company succeeding.
Possible Impacts of Negative Reviews on a Business
Revenue Loss
Studies show that there’s a direct relationship between bad online reviews and company revenue. For instance, businesses that have negative customer write-ups on popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Google report below-average revenues. Companies with an average customer rating between 1 and 1.5 stars create 33% less revenue than businesses that score at least 3 stars on their customer reviews.
It’s easy to understand how negative reviews can cause a business to earn less. A whopping 94% of potential customers avoid businesses with bad online reviews, which means it’s almost certain that anyone who reads a negative review on your website or on social media can be easily swayed into looking elsewhere. Negative reviews not only chase potential customers away from your business, it also drives them to your competitors. The more negative reviews your company receives, the more potential customers and income you lose.
Ruin your Business Reputation
It’s hard to build a good business reputation from scratch, and maintaining it doesn’t get any easier as well. A well-timed negative review can cause significant damages to the reputation that you have built for several years. While you may be able to keep your long-time customers because they have been satisfied with your products and services for a long time, the same can’t be said about potential new clients.
The online marketplace is built around trust, and people have been shown to value other customers’ feedback over the usual marketing strategies of businesses. This is why when an online shopper encounters a negative review of a business, he or she automatically questions the business’s capabilities and credibility – because they trust their fellow customers more.
It’s normal for businesses to receive a negative review or two. After all, you can’t please everyone, at least not on the first try. How you handle the customer reviews will speak more about your company’s brand and reputation, so you need to be careful in making sure that you don’t lose your customers’ trust through your actions.
Low Ranking on Search Engine Results
A business with poor review ratings will have a harder time attracting new customers not just because of the low stars, but also due to lower search engine rankings. Search engine rankings refer to the order by which a business appears once an online user searches the internet for a relevant product or service. Search engines only recommend the best companies to internet users, which means that if your business has low customer ratings, it’s highly unlikely to get picked up on the first or even the first ten result pages.
A Final Word on How Negative Online Reviews Can Affect Your Business
Online reviews are quite influential tools of the internet, as they can either attract customers to your business or drive them to your competitors. Since negative reviews can strongly affect your business, it is essential for companies to monitor their online reviews and respond properly to both positive and negative comments to represent their brand and values accordingly.
If you want to make sure that you stay on top of your customers’ online reviews, you can always rely on Review Llama for professional assistance. Review Llama provides businesses with a client-friendly landing page that strongly encourages customers to write positive reviews, while also utilizing high-quality review management tools to make sure that unsatisfied customers are properly heard (and recovered if possible) to prevent negative reviews. Contact Review Llama now and enjoy a proactive approach in getting positive customer reviews.
(Source: Business.com)