Whether you’re a website owner who wants more off-site exposure for SEO purposes or you’re selling products and services, user reviews should always be part of your marketing campaign. Allowing users to tell their honest opinions about the products and services you’re offering is always good for business. Here are some of the advantages of user reviews regardless of whether they’re good or bad.
Insights for Product Development
Both good and bad user reviews are great sources of product insights. You can tell a lot about a user’s experience from the way the reviews are written. You can also deal with bad reviews and get a boost in credibility at the same time.
Sun Bingo did a great job with user reviews as part of the company’s marketing campaign. The company takes bad user reviews seriously. The have steps in place to connect with users that have had a bad experience with the site and they handle all bad reviews seriously.
The result is nothing short of spectacular. Users love it when their inputs are transformed into real improvement. As they see these changes being made, they are more than willing to give the company a second chance.
Great Sources of Backlinks
User reviews, especially on sites like Yelp and Trusted Reviews, are great sources of backlinks. In fact, you should always take the time to complete your business’s page on these review sites and directories in order to allow users to learn more about your establishment.
Every time a user posts a review, search engines will index them. Now that Google’s new algorithm can keep track of changes in real-time, the SEO impact of off-site reviews is indeed substantial. As always, the same impact can be garnered regardless of the tone of the review.
When you handle bad reviews correctly and publicly, you are also improving your credibility online. Credibility is not something that can be built overnight, but it is certainly a key factor worth pursuing. Hotel chains, for instance, are beginning to respond to reviews on sites like Agoda, especially when their guests post bad reviews.
Take a closer look at how hotels handle bad reviews. They don’t always offer anything to the customers other than a promise to do better. Some offer a free stay or vouchers to compensate for the guests’ inconvenience. Regardless of the methods used, the way bad reviews are handled will still reflect on the hotels’ reputation and credibility.
A Stronger Relationship
Last but certainly not least, you can build stronger relationships with customers through user reviews. Keep track of the reviews actively and don’t hesitate to go the extra mile and get in touch with the users directly. Offer added bonuses to those who love your products and services. The smallest reward will be seen as a big gesture.
Some companies take it a step further with their CRM. Users who post reviews are added to an exclusive group with access to new products and other resources even before they are released to the public. This will definitely create a strong bond with customers; one that cannot be built without taking the extra time to read (and listen to) what the customers have to say.
The one thing to avoid is offering bonuses before the reviews are written. This will only result in positive reviews that aren’t always objective. You’ll be missing out on the insights and critical information you need to improve.
You can see that there are so many benefits of user reviews. The ones we talked about in this article are just the beginning. Start taking these user reviews seriously and you’ll end up with better customer relationships than ever before.
