How to Leverage Ratings to Boost Sales and Engagement

What’s the Difference Between Ratings and Reviews?

Ratings are a numerical and qualitative representation of a product, service, or business. Reviews are written representations of individuals’ thoughts on a product, service, or business.

Ratings are usually on a scale of one to five stars and can be aggregated to tell a story at a macro level. Best attribute of ratings is convenience, single glance at a number gives you a pretty good idea about a product/service. Biggest challenge with ratings is specificity, generic ratings are good enough for generic estimates but fails to portray any specific aspects.

Reviews tell stories of individual interactions and thus offer a micro level perspective. They give the reader an idea of what they can expect from a product/service. Best attribute of reviews is their intimate connection to the subject, compelling vivid imaginations in readers’ minds. Biggest challenge with reviews is aggregation. While a review may portray an interesting story, it’s likely based on the author’s most recent thought-provoking interaction with the subject and is therefore potentially given to temporary emotional biases and you can’t take their mathematical average.

What Makes Ratings So Important

Ratings are a powerful tool in the world of commerce. A majority of shoppers depend on them to determine if they will make a purchase. In today’s world, customers are more informed, and ratings help them figure out which products/services are best for them.

A large number of positive ratings creates validation and subsequent trust in shoppers’ minds. Trust creates long-term customers and more of them over time. Negative ratings are not without benefit. They expose areas of improvement in the minds of providers and decision makers.

What happens when you don’t have ratings?

Ratings build reputation, and it’s critical that they’re accurate. Without ratings, consumers don’t know how good a product/service is and providers don’t quantitatively know what if anything is missing in their offerings. Ratings can also be used as a benchmark for similar products/services across the web.

Common Mistakes in Product/Service Ratings and What to Avoid

Product/service ratings are a basic form of customer feedback. They are an essential part of providers’ marketing strategy as they help customers make purchase decisions, while simultaneously helping providers make improvement decisions.

It is important to avoid these common mistakes when it comes to ratings:

• Not responding to negative reviews
• Ignoring feedback and not following up with customers
• Not taking tactical and strategic actions on feedback and complaints

Conclusion: A Step-by-Step Guide in Building an Effective Business Strategy Using Ratings

Effective business strategy is not just about having a good product/service, it also requires a good marketing plan. A well-planned marketing strategy is an essential part of any business strategy because it helps build brand awareness and customer loyalty, which in turn drives revenue. Here’s a 5-step strategy guide:

Step 1 — identify goals

Ultimate objective for most businesses may be to drive revenue, but how you get there is very subjective and dependent on your preferences, style, mannerism, etc. Setting goals is how you identify those choices that interest you.

You need one strategy if your goal is to have the best tasting cheeseburger in town and a different strategy if your goal is to survive a downturn. Having multiple goals is common and fine so long as you can prioritize them to avoid conflicts among their implementation steps.

Step 2 — create questionnaire

To get to appropriate answers, you must ask the right questions. They must be specific and to the point and avoid ambiguity. They should also only require numerical responses, so that they may be scaled and aggregated. These questions should also be updated periodically to stay current or relevant.

Step 3 — gather data

Customer feedback is invaluable and must always be part of any effective business strategy. Present your questionnaire to customers, every chance you get. Incentivize them to respond, if necessary. Record their responses with date time stamps.

Step 4 — analyze data

Data without analytics is just noise. Monitor and chart customer feedback for averages, trends, patterns, etc. to identify what’s working and what needs attention. Remember to not ignore what’s working well, ongoing analytics is necessary to ensure they continue to work well.

Step 5 — create remediation strategy

You identified a common theme; your cheeseburgers are not rated delicious enough to your liking. Talk to your chef, try adjusting recipe, sauce, cheese, etc. then gather and analyze some more data after your changes. It’s an ongoing process and staying on top of it is likely to guarantee success.

The ratings website, https://shaebaratings.com offers a customized feedback generation and analytics service and may be worth looking into.