Consumer reviews: an asset for your reputation and sales?
Who hasn't looked at consumer reviews before making a purchase or booking a service? And who hasn't left a comment following a particularly good or bad experience?
Consumer associations (UFC Que choisir, 60 millions de consommateurs), Google, customer review platforms (TripAdvisor, Tous consommateurs, Yelp, Trustpilot), social networks, blogs, e-commerce sites... consumer reviews are everywhere, becoming a source of information in their own right.
A real marketing challenge, it has a powerful impact on sales and customer relations. And all the better if your customers love you... What about negative and false reviews? How do you manage consumer opinions? We give you our opinion!
Consumer advice: definition and issues
A consumer review, or customer review, is a commentary on the quality of a product, service or company, mostly posted on the Internet, intended for other potential consumers. It's also known as user generated content or UGC.
It is therefore :
- a means of expression for the customer, generally in rather extreme situations (incredible service, or, on the contrary, abysmal);
- a customer relations vector for the company, to respond to and take into account the various opinions;
- a promotional tool, providing the company with presence and buzz;
- an indicator of customer satisfaction.
The impact of consumer reviews
Consumer reviews reassure future customers or, on the contrary, encourage them to look for alternatives. This has a real impact on the company's image and sales.
- Impact on sales:
▷ 88% of consumers consult online customer reviews, forums or blogs before making a purchase (source IFOP).
▷ Nearly 61% of consumers base their decisions on the combination of promotional content and consumer reviews (SmartFocus study).
- Impact on brand visibility:
▷ On consumer review platforms, the quantity but also the quality and date of comments are ranking criteria.
▷ Google uses reviews to understand your business, so it improves your natural ranking on the search engine.
- The recommendation of a brand by a third party has a lot of influence:
▷ According to Bright Local, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as reviews from friends and family (vs. 79% in 2013).
▷ 34% of consumers say positive customer reviews are more likely to trigger a purchase than promos or special offers (American Express).
👍 Even negative reviews are important: they reassure Internet users about your company's sincerity and convey values of transparency and commitment to customer service.
In fact, 68% of buyers say they trust a company with a few negative product reviews (Trustpilot).
The limits of consumer reviews
Of course, if you read an angry review with vague arguments, and it's only one of its kind, it won't carry much weight. The same goes for rave reviews: you'll wonder whether they're well-founded or bought. Especially when you consider a new trend: the promise of a positive review, or the threat of a negative one, is becoming a bargaining chip used by some customers to negotiate good deals...
This is why Internet users generally read several reviews, on several channels if possible.
67% of consumers say they read up to 6 reviews, 85% up to 10 reviews and 7% more than 20 reviews, before placing their trust in a company.
Bright Local
Whatever the provider of consumer reviews, it's important to take users' distrust into account.
Many Internet users believe that certain reviews are false. And rightly so! In 2013, the Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) noted 45% of anomalies in customer reviews. A BFM report on fake certified reviews is damning for sellers looking for reviews on Amazon.
Can we trust online consumer reviews? France 5's "La Quotidienne" program consulted experts (DGCCRF, Afnor, Booking.com) on the subject:
Good news: a new regulation has been in force since January 1, 2018, reinforcing the Afnor standard. Decree no. 2017-1436 of September 29, 2017 requires that:
- the existence or otherwise of a notice control procedure, alongside the notice,
- the date of publication,
- the date of the consumer experience commented on,
- ranking criteria (chronological, from best to worst rating, etc.).
How can I obtain consumer reviews?
There's no shortage of ways to encourage feedback - in all legality.
Companies can publicly solicit customer feedback on their website or social networks, or by sending out satisfaction questionnaires and publishing the results. In this way, they offer customers the opportunity to give their opinion on a product or service.
There are also consumer review platforms dedicated to collecting and sharing reviews with the general public. Among the best-known are TripAdvisor, Yelp and Ciao.
Create a satisfaction questionnaire
Organize a competition on social networks
Offer to draw lots among all the consumer reviews received over a given period (positive or negative 😉 ). Chances are, even the negative reviews will be constructive and full of good points: you'll find valuable information in them.
Send an automatic email after a purchase
For example:
- "Thank you for your confidence, how did your purchase go?",
- "What can we improve to make your next experience as pleasant as possible?
- "How would you rate this product/service?", etc.
40% of Internet users respond positively to this request.
Qualtrics
Create a business page on Google
With Google My Business, you can create a directory listing with your business profile and geolocation on Google Maps, and solicit customer feedback.
As for Google Avis Client, it allows your e-commerce site to collect these valuable comments.
💡 If you need support, Solocal Audit Digital analyzes your digital presence on search engines, directories and social networks free of charge, and makes recommendations, including how to create or improve your Google, Facebook or PagesJaunes business pages.
Install a plug-in on your site and blogs
These extensions are tools that allow your visitors to rate you.
Activate reviews in your social network settings
On Facebook, for example, go to "Settings" in the top right-hand corner of the page. Click on "Modify page" in the left-hand column, then "Add tab". Select the Notifications tab to activate Facebook notifications.
At the end of 2018, Facebook counted 35 million monthly active users in France, a good potential customer base!
Register with online directories or consumer review platforms
Following in the footsteps of Ciao, a very popular consumer review site a few years ago, here are a few well-known examples of consumer review platforms:
alaTest
This platform presents itself as a product quality comparator, notably via product tests.
Avis Vérifiés
It's a directory combined with a support solution for collecting and managing consumer reviews in a wide variety of fields.
Foursquare
A geolocation-based social network, Foursquare not only rates businesses and services, but also shares events and tips.
TripAdvisor
Dedicated to tourism reviews, TripAdvisor is a popular site for comparing prices and experiences at hotels, restaurants, vacation rentals and more.
Trustpilot
An interface between companies and their customers, recommendations are collected through post-purchase invitations. The platform is highly appreciated for its transparency, as neither it nor the companies can modify the published reviews.
Yelp
Social network and search engine for local businesses and services, allowing users to leave comments in real time.
How can you make the most of your consumer reviews?
Among your human resources, a community manager or a communications/marketing manager can launch operations to collect as many reviews as possible, via games on social networks or emailing operations.
This person's duties also include :
- monitor marketing on the web,
- monitor your e-reputation,
- moderate comments on all your communication channels,
- manage the content of your websites and blogs,
- analyze the operations that work best, using statistics from your site and social networks.
In addition to free monitoring tools (such as Google Alerts, which sends an email as soon as someone mentions your company or product on the web), the range of review and reputation management software on offer is proportional to the scale of the phenomenon.
In addition to the platforms presented above, such as Avis Vérifiés or TrustPilot, we have selected 3 that support companies or their marketing agencies:
- Mention enables a company to track conversations about itself on social networks, according to pre-set themes and tags.
Notified as soon as it is mentioned and according to key words, it gives the company the opportunity to engage in conversation, respond to comments from detractors, and identify influencers and online ambassadors.
- MyFeelBack collects customer feedback through surveys and questionnaires, in order to measure customer satisfaction, detect areas for improvement in the customer journey, better qualify customers and their behaviors, and thus enrich the CRM. The aim is to help companies understand their customers' opinions and adapt marketing operations accordingly, to avoid unsuccessful over-solicitation.
- Simple Feedback is an innovative software package for managing opinions, feedback and marketing intelligence. The media listening tool is equipped with an AI, HaPPi, which collects, analyzes and generates reports on reviews left by Internet users, whether on e-commerce sites, social networks, blogs, etc. Users receive alerts on negative reviews, enabling them to launch relevant and rapid action plans.
Change your mind about online reputation management
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to destroy it.
Warren Buffet, homme d’affaires américain et milliardaire
Your success lies in the quality of your offer, the values you convey, but above all in what your customers say about you. And with the web, virality is immeasurable!
Digital word-of-mouth, consumer reviews have a real impact on prospects' motivations and disincentives, and are a real decision-making tool.
Use your customers' positive opinions to develop your reputation and your brand image, but also your negative opinions to improve and communicate your commitment. Sure, you can't control everything that's said about your company, but you can keep your ears open and your eyes open to surf the good buzz and drown out the bad. Provided you have the right tools...
Did you like this article? We'd love to hear what you think! ⭐️
Article translated from French