In today’s world, online reviews have more power than ever. Maybe you haven’t paid much attention to them because you’re too busy running your franchise. Or perhaps you’re aware of the importance of online business reviews but don’t think you can do much to impact them. Whichever group you find yourself in, you will love our new series for franchise owners about online reviews. We’ll teach you how to unleash the power of online reviews so you can leverage them to grow your franchise and find new customers!
We start by reviewing 6 reasons online reviews are essential for your franchise. Read on as we highlight the benefits of online reviews and some of the latest statistics demonstrating why your business should invest time and attention to online reviews. Then, stay tuned for upcoming articles on topics like:
- Online review websites your franchise should know about (and how to get started with them)
- Simple ways to encourage more online reviews of your business
- How to monitor online reviews (including handling negative reviews)
- Strategies for getting even more out of your best online reviews
We are excited to start this series as we know it will have a huge impact on your franchise business. Let’s lay the groundwork for this important topic below.
The Importance of Online Reviews
Online reviews matter in ways you may not even expect, so today, we want to discuss the importance of online reviews. The items on this list demonstrate why every franchise owner must pay attention to business reviews and what positive reviews can do for your growing franchise.
1. Reviews influence search engine rankings.
And you want your business to show up at the top of the search results page, right? Research indicates that the following factors (related to reviews) influence where your business shows up in search:
- High star ratings
- The positive sentiment expressed in the review text
- Quantity of Google reviews
- How recent are the reviews
- Whether or not the owner responds to reviews
- The number of positive review attributes
The fact that online reviews impact SEO is huge! This list of influencing factors indicates that you can play an active role by encouraging more people to review your franchise and responding to reviews.
2. Online reviews build trust in new customers.
When someone is looking up online reviews, they likely don’t have any (or much) previous experience with your business. They are counting on the experiences of others to tell them whether they can trust your business to provide a quality product or service.
Research indicates that 73 percent of consumers trust a local business more if it has positive reviews. Further, consumers read an average of 10 online reviews before they feel they can trust the business, and they are specifically looking for recent 4- and 5-star ratings (within 3 months).
This indicates that franchise owners can boost consumers’ trust in their businesses by encouraging more online reviews. It also shows that it must be an ongoing effort because the most recent reviews have the biggest impact on trust.
3. Online reviews help with decision-making.
Recent research from BrightLocal shows that online reviews play a significant role in consumer decision-making. Interestingly, a review’s influence on a purchase decision varies by industry. Here are the percentages of people who say reviews play an ‘important’ or ‘very important’ role in each sector:
- Care Services: 83%
- Healthcare: 82%
- Service Businesses & Tradespersons: 84%
- Automotive Services: 81%
- Financial & Legal Services: 76%
- Food and Drink: 76%
- Entertainment: 57%
- Retail: 50%
These statistics highlight the importance of online reviews and the fact that you must take them seriously (because consumers clearly do!).
4. Social proof influences purchases.
We have just discussed how online reviews will increase a consumer’s trust in your business and may impact their decision-making. But do these things actually lead to sales? Research says yes. Here are just a few of the impressive statistics:
- 82 percent of consumers say that a review’s content has convinced them to make a purchase.
- There is a 270 percent likelihood of purchase for a product with at least five reviews compared to a product with no reviews.
- 35 percent of consumers have purchased a higher-priced option because it had better reviews.
- 47 percent of consumers say they will shell out more money for a business with positive reviews.
These statistics indicate that reviews can influence sales and help your business beat the competition. Online reviews and purchases go hand in hand.
5. Online reviews are a learning opportunity.
When a customer leaves a review, you are getting a window into how they see and have experienced your business. Positive reviews tell you what you’re doing well (and what you should keep doing!). Meanwhile, negative reviews help you understand where you fail to meet customer expectations, giving you ideas for improvement.
An important side note is that while negative reviews will negatively impact trust and purchase decisions, responding to reviews can help. In fact, 45 percent of consumers say they are more likely to visit a business that responds to negative reviews. This means you can learn from negative reviews and help sway those reading a negative review back in your favor.
6. You can use online reviews in marketing and sales.
One final thought on the importance of online reviews is that you can get more out of them if you are willing to put in the effort. The positive reviews of your franchise scattered across the web are diamonds—if only you take the time to mine them! You can turn your best reviews into customer testimonials that you can use on your website, social media, and during lead acquisition. We’ll be covering how to get more out of your online reviews in a future article in this series.
Better Business Reviews Starts with You
As we have seen, online reviews impact SEO, trust, consumer decision-making, sales, marketing, and business growth. And the great news is that there is a lot you can do as a franchise owner to encourage more reviews and use reviews to get more customers and sales. This entire series is about how to unleash the power of online reviews in your franchise, and you will absolutely love what we have in store for you! Stay tuned for our next article, where we’ll dive into what you need to know about online review websites.
