As customers, we all had that one purchase when you felt it was totally worth the price, down to the last cent you spent. We also had those purchases when the expectations were just too much compared to the reality that the purchase brought you. Some services did not meet your standards because you felt that it was not done correctly. There are different reasons why this happened, and one could be because you failed to read the reviews of the product or service before buying. The recommendation of the previous customers or clients about their experiences on the same product or service serves as a resource material in making informed decisions before any purchase. The question is, how will you know? How will you let future customers know about your experience? That is what customer review is for, something that you can use to spread the good news of excellent product or service or a way to warn possible future customers. In a world where word-of-mouth is transmitted via digital platforms, customer review has become a potent tool used to give commentaries on products, people, and services and attract leads.
As a new small business owner, real estate agent, or broker, it is hard to survive without carefully observing your competitors as well as what others have to say about you. In some instances, negative and sometimes even derogatory comments are left as a review and are being used by new clients to rate you and help them decide if they will do business with you.
In business, growth is dependent on how satisfied your customers are. It is true because your customers will help your business succeed, they are your first advertisement, and they will dictate your credibility, image, and reputation. What they experienced for themselves will be the same reputation that your business will have. And no better way of measuring your success other than customer reviews. No better advertisement than word of mouth. As a business trying to build the business’ reputation, you need to take care of both the sale and the after-sales to address the things that you can and turn a negative review to a positive review. Their satisfaction or dismay put into words will either be your booster or your hindrance.
Given the current situation and the technology present at our disposal, clients can now express their satisfaction or disappointment through online platforms or lead-generating websites through a customer review. On the other hand, businesses find out about the things that they need to improve on because of these customer reviews. It is helpful if you think about it. However, not everyone has the slightest idea of the importance and how a customer review affects a business.
What is a “Customer Review”?
Customer review or also known as customer feedback, is the evaluation or criticism towards a product, service that a customer acquired, or customer service experience; this is the commentary that a customer will provide after using the product or experiencing the service. Feedback can either be good or bad and typically comes with a rating of 1 to 5 stars, with five stars being the highest.
Where can you get Customer Reviews?
Nowadays, customer reviews are often provided through the use of the internet through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and review sites such as Yelp! and Angie’s List. It will be advisable, especially for new businesses to respond to customer reviews regardless if it is positive or negative, to let them know that their opinions matter.
How can a Customer Review help your business?
Successful people often say that feedback is a gift and that commentaries or criticisms should be taken objectively instead of emotionally. In every business, customer reviews will help you make it or break it. Good reviews should help you decide what processes are helping the customers and the business, and negative reviews should be responded to, after doing so, identify how and why did it happen and what are the things that you need to improve on. Continuous improvement to provide the best customer service experience will help you get a good reputation, but you need to have a basis. What are those things that you need to stop doing, continue doing, and start doing? This is where customer reviews come into the light. A good marketing strategy is utilizing collective reviews and translating them into data for better analysis.
What does a business gain from getting excellent customer reviews?
As a business, the more customer reviews you are getting, the bigger your online presence, relevance, and reputation become. Positive customer reviews give you a good reputation, while a negative customer review can get you a negative reputation. Addressing these negative reviews will eventually help fix that dented reputation as new clients see that you are not just acknowledging and accepting the feedback, but you are also taking action to improve. The goal of establishing customer reviews is to build your online reputation, which will entice new clients to try the product or services that you have to offer. A third of clients usually spend time only if you have good customer reviews, and almost three-quarters of the customers will only make contact or purchase after seeing good reviews, preferably recommendations.
How reliable is a customer review?
Doubt is, of course, inevitable mainly because the internet is open to everyone. So precisely how reliable can a customer review be? The answer is that it will depend on how reliable the review site is. Like other things, customer reviews can be manipulated. An example will be a dummy account created by the business owner to provide positive customer reviews on his or her business while providing negative customer reviews on his or her competitors. The review site has to identify and eliminate biased customer reviews and delete the dummy profile. Some review sites even have sanctions for these kinds of abuse. This is why it is vital to get affiliated with trusted and reliable review sites.
How will I manage Customer Reviews?
The power of free speech and access to digital platforms is a double-edged sword for business owners. It could work to their advantage and, if managed incorrectly, could cause the business to dwindle the failure path. There is no way of managing customer reviews, however, what you can control is the service or item that you provide, the after-sale service, and the way that issues are addressed, which directs them to write either a good or bad review. Checking and replying to each review could be a difficult task, especially if you are too busy with the business. That is why Online Agent Review is established. Their goal is to help you manage your online reputation and make sure that these good reviews are spread through different platforms, either social media or review sites.
Bottom Line:
Managing both your business and online reputation could be a handful. Not to mention the other things that you need to do. Building and maintaining your online reputation in different trusted review sites can be tedious, meticulous, tiring, and sometimes gets too stressful.
Online Agent Review is an online platform that helps build and maintain an online reputation for both veteran and novel real estate agent and brokers by handling your reviews and monitoring them in different platforms to make sure that all negative reviews will be addressed and overturned into a positive review and help increase their conversions.
