Recently there was an SEO company that made an announcement that they would not accept clients that were affiliated with the Republicans. Overnight he went from a 5 star rating to a 1 star rating.
Every year there is a story of a company that makes a misjudges public perception and goes from 5 stars to 1 star. While this is the exception and not the rule the big takeaway is that a good reputation takes effort and time to build but losing that status can happen overnight.
Most business owners don’t understand the value of a positive review online and they believe that the old fashion word of mouth is a bigger factor than online reviews. The truth is that personal recommendations are still powerful but can be reversed if your potential customer sees a negative review, or your only review is 3 stars or lower you need help.
Don’t think that people don’t read online reviews because they do. The latest survey from Bright Local reinforces the reality that online reviews are important when it comes to word of mouth opportunities. Plus the big takeaways are this:
- 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation
- 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they’re asked to
- 90% of consumers read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion about a business
- 54% of people will visit the website after reading positive reviews
- 73% of consumers think that reviews older than 3 months are no longer relevant
- 74% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
- 58% of consumers say that the star rating of a business is most important
People with excellent reviews understand these principles and they pay alot of money to get reviews. If they have had a set of negative reviews in the past a smart company will set up a system to keep getting reviews, and they will also know that to remove a negative review you need to drown it with positive reviews.
With that said there are solutions available that are expensive and those that are affordable. If you know who to go to and they have a good strategy and system for the right price you can fix a bad reputation online and you can defend your company from future negative reviews.
For an affordable solution see what your reputation score is at reputationfeedback.com for free. Because just knowing your reputation score is a starting point to keep those personal recommendations and strengthen your current marketing efforts.