If you are not using reviews are you losing business?
What people say about you is at least 20 times more powerful than what you say about yourself, that’s why businesses collect testimonials about the services they offer, the goods they sell and customer satisfaction they provide, in the old days this was the smart thing to do; but it’s all changed, you now need reviews!
Here are a few facts about reviews from a recent report published by Customer Lobby.
Just to be clear before we start:
A testimonial is a comment about a business on its own website from one of its customers.
A review is that same comment featured on an independent website.
Testimonials about a business on the businesses own website typically represent a no-win scenario. Readers assume that positive reviews are not representative of customer sentiment and that negative reviews are being censored and therefore not published.
Independent research has shown that positive reviews have a significant impact on businesses:
Customer reviews increase sales, margins and customer loyalty (Deloitte & Touche). Reviews are the most credible (Nielsen) and effective (Deloitte & Touche) form of marketing available and reviews have an ‘important ingredient’ that helps propel them up the search rankings - Lots of searchable keywords!
You need to start using reviews and NOT testimonials!
In a survey conducted by Customer Lobby, more than 90% of respondents said they believe testimonials are not representative of customer sentiment. In the same survey, over 80% reported that they would trust reviews hosted by a third party as providing a good or excellent representation of customer sentiment.
Businesses using a third-party to host and manage the review process such as thebestof Coventry benefit by gaining the credibility with potential customers that the reviews are authentic, verified and standards-based!
The picture above shows that in a Google search for CCTV Coventry the reviews are highlighted with a star rating and shows how many reviews that business has. Not only does this make the business listing stand out on the search page (it’s hard to miss 5 yellow stars amongst the plain lines of text) Internet users tend to click when they see a listing that says “reviews.”
Here is an example of a great review posted on thebestof Coventry for JP CCTV:
“The level of service was second to none and great value for money, after calling 6 other alarm companies (who could not attend that day) I called JP CCTV. They came out on time fixed the problem, gave advice on the system. I was so impressed I asked them to sort our business alarms too. I strongly recommend these guys and wish other companies in all sectors ran their companies as well as this. They even went the extra mile and printed off an instruction manual for us. Great service many thanks” - Steve Sale, Director Churchill flooring and home owner.
After reading this review alongside the other 60 odd great reviews that customers have said about JP CCTV, wouldn’t you be inclined to use JP CCTV rather than any other CCTV or Alarm companies in Coventry without any customer reviews?
Getting customers to write reviews is dead easy - Just ask. You’ll be surprised how many people will say nice things about your business and even the odd negative review can be positive for your business! We will discuss negative reviews next time.
There are lots of third party websites offering to host your reviews (If you pay!) at thebestof Coventry we host your reviews for FREE and if you need any printed customer comment cards, we provide these for FREE too!
If you need a reliable CCTV & Alarm company you really should give JP CCTV a call! Tel: 024 7696 0732
Read all the reviews about JP CCTV & Burglar Alarms in Coventry – HERE!
If you would like a full copy of the ‘Customer Lobby’ report: Reviews v Testimonials CLICK HERE!
Are you using reviews within your business?
We would love to hear how reviews are working for you; why not leave a comment below?
Yours in Business, Paul Jones,
Marketing Director – thebestof Coventry
