The Value of Customer Reviews
Customers usually leave reviews either online or offline after dealing with a business to depict their experience. These customers are usually interested in helping other interested customers to learn about what to expect before engaging with a certain business. The reviews may be left by experts or regular customers. In an age where social media has made it possible for millions of people to connect and share experiences, customer reviews have amassed a lot of value, especially when it comes to influencing purchase decisions. Various studies have been carried out to establish this value; and help businesses tap into it for better performance.
How is Customer Reviews Value Calculated?
The value of customer reviews cannot be easily converted into specific monetary terms; however, its effect and influence on consumer buying decisions can be seen. Consumers are usually seen to spend more when dealing with businesses with a higher proportion of positive reviews as compared to those with negative reviews.
The Influence Mix
To understand the value of customer reviews, you will need to have an idea of the different sources of information that influence consumer purchase decisions. There are three sources of information that consumers rely on when it comes to making purchase decisions, these include marketers, prior knowledge, and other sources. With the rise of the internet, online customer reviews have also sky rocketed, increasing consumer reliance on other informational sources as per the above equation. Given that the influence mix is a zero sum problem, the increase of influence in one part of the equation leads to the decrease in the others.
When looking to ascertain the value of customer reviews, it is important that you consider a few important factors as listed below.
Location
There are numerous online platforms that consumers can post their customer reviews. These reviews usually have different values depending on whether they are visible to a business’s targeted audience. This is where a company’s targeted buyer persona comes in. To maximize the value of positive consumer reviews, it is recommended that you encourage customers to leave reviews on platforms that are popular with your target audience.
Language
It is important to note that as potential customers go through customer reviews on different platforms, they try to pick up the emotional state of the reviewer as communicated by the language used. In most cases, the tone and language used usually determines how useful the reader finds the review.
Responses
It is worth noting that customer reviews are not the only comments that potential customers take into consideration when researching a business. It is obvious that most businesses will have unsatisfied customers from time to time. Consumers also want to see how the business responds to such reviews; gauging their sincerity.
As you can see, customer reviews have a growing influence on the purchase decisions made by consumers. Understanding the underlying factors driving this value will help you gauge how well you can use it to the entity’s advantage.
