The Benefits of Cultivating 2,000+ 5-Star Client Reviews, And How We Did It…

I recently looked at booking a holiday in Corsica and, as I always do, I checked online for reviews of the hotel.

The reviews were mixed, which put me off from the start, but even worse was that the hotel manager’s replies to the reviews all followed a similar, generic line of, “We’ve had great feedback this summer…”, somehow implying that the reviewer was alone in their assessment. But I knew that wasn’t true as lots of people had said similar things. Naturally I didn’t book that hotel.

The Benefits of Online Customer Reviews

I’m not alone in my appetite for reviews and the weight I place on them when deciding to buy a product or service. Here’s what some of the research shows:

• 92% of consumers hesitate to make a purchase if there are no customer reviews and 97% say customer reviews factor into their buying decisions (Fan & Fuel, 2017);
• 70% of people trust online customer reviews (Nielsen, 2015) and 82% of consumers say that the content of the review has convinced them to make a purchase (Podium, 2017);
• 83% of people thought businesses with user-generated reviews on their website are trustworthy and 68% said that positive reviews make them more likely to use a business (Bright Local, 2017).

At the time of writing, we’ve managed to amass 2,146 five-star reviews (representing 92.9% of all reviews), and we certainly felt the positive benefits of both the quality and quantity of these reviews for our business.

In addition to the benefits outlined above, we feel that the other benefits of cultivating online reviews include:

Great feedback

The first of many other benefits of attracting client reviews is that you get first-hand feedback from people who have experienced your service. It’s some of the best qualitative data a company can have to help improve all manor of areas. It’s also a great early warning indicator if something is going very wrong. The client feedback alone is worth its weight in gold

Social proofing

From displaying the number of Facebook ‘likes’ a company has to advertising how many people are viewing this website page right now, companies often try to tap into the persuasive power of social proofing, a term often used to describe our innate herd like behaviour.

Generating over 2,000 five-star reviews not only sends a message that our client satisfaction is sky high, but the sheer volume also shouts out that thousands of people value the products and services we offer, increasing the propensity to buy

Industry awards

Being shortlisted for industry awards has many benefits. You’re more likely to be invited collaborate at industry, trade body or even governmental level, be published in the press and naturally it’s another clear signal of quality for your potential clients.

Halfway through 2019, we picked up Highly Commended at the Protection Review Awards, Highly Commended at AIG’s Adviser Quality Awards and we’re shortlisted at the Money Facts Awards taking place in September. Without such good client reviews, I don’t think these achievements would be possible

Recruitment

It makes sense that people want to join a reputable firm that wants to do the best for their clients. They want to work somewhere they can be proud of. We often have candidates say they’ve researched us online and are really impressed with our reviews. We also often get candidate questions like, ‘What’s your approach to sales?’, and we can refer them to our reviews and say, “Don’t take our word for it, see what our clients think”.

We now make a habit of sending a link to our reviews to all new candidates before they come in for an interview, so they know what we’re all about. This also sets a great tone for new starters who join knowing the level of client service that’s expected;

Better Google rankings

Yes, having great reviews can even lead to higher rankings in search engines. It’s estimated that Google uses over 200 factors when formulating its search rankings. I’d guess that review quality signals are one of them, but it’s widely known that the click through rate (CTR) of a listing in the rankings relative to other listings is a factor.

For example, if more people click on result two than result one, this sends Google a signal that maybe result two should be above result one. Given the value people place on reviews and the fact it’s possible for your reviews star rating to show up in search results, firms with good reviews could increase their CTR and therefore rankings!