What’s the value of a positive review?
How much is a positive review worth?
Can you put a number on it like, say, one hundred dollars? Could a glowing review boost revenue? Or help cut costs? Well, yes and no. Positive reviews are a powerful thing. While there might not be a magical formula to calculate every positive review’s bottom-line impact, there’s convincing evidence on how they can be a free revenue booster for your business.
At their core, positive reviews persuade customers, educate the community, criticize (constructively, hopefully) your products or services, but most importantly, they make the case for trusting your business.
According to BrightLocal, 97 percent of consumers at least “occasionally” read online reviews when researching local businesses.
Reviews are powerful, highly visible signs of a business’s track record, and to get a little more specific, its reputation. BBB Accredited Businesses know that better than most:
More than 80% of consumers would choose a BBB Accredited Business over a non-Accredited Business with the same A+ letter rating.
But back to that question: What’s a customer review worth? Maybe the best way to answer that is to look at all the ways it impacts your business’s financial success. Here are some of the factors we considered when analyzing how reviews benefit your bottom line…
1. More customer views = SEO impact
Customer reviews enhance a business’s online visibility through SEO. To quickly recap what that means, SEO is the practice of optimizing a brand’s search engine potential, the idea is to get your business to appear higher for customers searching for your products or services. One of the most effective ways this happens is through the use of relevant keywords picked up by a search engine algorithm.
So, when a customer publishes a review and uses a keyword phrase like “local plumber” (if you’re a plumber), this feeds into an algorithm and has the potential to boost your brand’s online relevance. When customers in your local service area are searching for your industry, that’s a big deal. From RevLocal:
Reviews can also boost sales and SEO, leading to a higher search ranking, since reviews are social proof.
And what is SEO worth to your business? Traffic to your business. SEO professionals demand top dollar to improve your online traffic, but that feat is made easier when you’re already buoyed by multiple online mentions. For the record, SEO strategies are free for anyone to implement, but if you were to hire an SEO professional:
The average hourly rate is between $75-$100.
What you can do: Ask customers for honest reviews that call out the services you provided – it’s free to ask! Keep in mind, though, that SEO is a long game. You wouldn’t see any impact overnight, but if over time more customers are compelled to write about your business and your services, that could muster up some online relevance for your business and its relevance to your local community.
2. Free advertising = More brand awareness
If businesses are expected to spend five to ten percent of their revenue on digital marketing, could an online review serve the same purpose? In other words, is a review worth the same as an online ad?
When a customer writes a positive review on BBB, Yelp, Google, or another platform, that’s in the public forum for all to see. Not only that, but reviews also make ads more effective. When a brand spends money on an ad, their reviews reinforce a consumer’s confidence. They enhance the impact of your ad spend.
To get a look at the side-by-side of reviews and ads, consider this from Statista:
88% of small to medium sized businesses are spending at least $1,000 on advertising.
To stretch that spend, or even pile on top of it, reviews are free word-of-mouth advertising. But word of mouth is now “word of click.” For every potential customer clicking on your review or ad – that’s one step closer to a conversion.
And one final thought on the worth of reviews in the digital space: We hear a lot about influencer marketing these days. Well, when you create a brand advocate out of a customer, they’re influencing readers to go with your brand (and you’re not paying them). Here’s what you’ll pay if you want to hire an influencer:
What you can do: Leverage customer reviews in your actual marketing plans. Put a customer quote in a social post, digital ad or billboard. Your testimonials are opportunities to show future customers how you solved/fulfilled/impacted a customer’s needs.
3. Constructive criticism = Improvement opportunities
What business owner wouldn’t want to know how their business is performing? Your reviews are customer feedback, and in turn, learning opportunities. If there are any issues with your products or your services, your reviews serve as an alert system to clue you into the matter.
It probably goes without saying that some customers might not be able to frame their criticisms in a constructive way. When this happens, is there a way to set emotions aside and look for the constructive takeaways? Easier said, than done, yes, but if you can approach reviews with an open mind, respond sincerely, and grow from them, it’s worth it:
People spend up to 49% more money at businesses that reply to reviews.
What you can do: Make it a priority to respond to reviews in a timely manner, and if there’s something to adjust, review, or learn – create an open channel in your team that allows you to tackle these opportunities.
Remember: BBB is a partner for businesses in responding to reviews. Our review system is uniquely designed to alert you when one comes in, verify its authenticity, and give you the chance to respond. In fact, you have a dedicated BBB rep who can help you facilitate your response, a review concierge, if you will!
4. Positive reviews = Boosting customer lifetime value, loyalty
Satisfied customers who take the time to write a positive review are likely going to be repeat customers. Wouldn’t you want to replicate your experience with a business you trust when you’re in need of their services again?
When customers want to come back, this feeds into their customer lifetime value (CLV), which is accomplished by not only acquiring customers, but retaining them. According to Harvard Business Review:
Boosting customer retention by 5% increases profits by 25-95%.
That’s a wide range of possibility, but here’s something else to consider: Every positive review is a vote of confidence for a brand. And if you’ve already won a customer over, they could be more likely to recommend or re-purchase your products and services in the future. They might even impact customer loyalty, according to LinkedIn: “You can also use your reviews to identify your loyal and satisfied customers, and target them with personalized offers, rewards, loyalty programs or referral schemes.”
The takeaway here is to count customer reviews as evidence that show loyalty, the kind of loyalty that’s at the heart of any business’s success. Reviews are feedback, engagement and proof all bundled together, and they’re worth tuning in to if you want to learn anything about your relationship to your customers.
To bring it back to the power of a review – the worth – consider this: A review pays it forward to future customers in your community.
When enough positive reviews roll in, this creates not only customer loyalty, but community loyalty. Do you set the standard for your industry in your community? And if not, look at the reviews for the top performer in your industry – can you see how their reviews influences their reputation (and most likely, their profits as well)?
What you can do: Positive and negative reviews are a point of reference for those in your service area. Make sure your team is on the same page about the importance of customer reviews and how they can boost community loyalty.
Final thoughts
When a customer takes the time to sit down and write a positive review, there’s something different at play, there. They want to spread the word, tell the world that your business was the one that filled a need for them. You solved a problem. You made their life easier. You gave them peace of mind. That’s your reputation, which arguably, is worth everything.
So, how to get more reviews? Just ask:
BBB Great West + Pacific contributed this article.