Online reviews play a major role in persuading prospective customers to either support or ignore your business. Since so many people have access to the internet in one form or another, there is no way to ignore people’s opinions about your brand – good or bad. In this blog, we will break down the importance of reviews for retail locations and how to get them for your own brand!
Why Business Reviews Are Important
Customer reviews are critical for any business, but they’re arguably even more important in the retail space. Think about your own purchase process. You probably start off by looking up the store name on a search engine. Once you’ve found them, you likely look at their website as well as their customer reviews! According to Podium, 93% of consumers are influenced to purchase (or not) by online reviews. That’s a huge percentage of people that essentially base their decision from the Google reviews you’ve received. What people say about your business will directly affect your bottom line. That is why it is so important.
Where You Want Reviews
There are many different places for customers to leave reviews on your business! Here are just some of the possible review platforms your business can be on:
- Bing Places
- Nextdoor
- Your Website
Reviews on sites like Google My Business and Bing Places will be really meaningful because they affect your appearance in the search engines which can be the difference between being seen or not seen by your prospective customers. That being said, don’t discount those smaller sites like NextDoor! They can pack just as big a punch due to their localized nature.
How To Get Reviews For Your Business
The best thing you can do is just ask for reviews and there are a couple different ways you can do that. Arguably, one of the best tactics would be through email marketing. The reason this works so well is because you can send a direct link to your customers. Most of the time, when you’ve done good work or provided them with a great product AND made it easy for them to leave a review, they will do it! Some other options you have are to call them on the phone, send them a text, give them a printed card with your QR code on it, or ask them in person. There are so many ways to gain new reviews, so pick the ones that work best for you and run with it!
Online reviews make up a large portion of your reputation. Not only do they affect the way people perceive your brand, but they can often times be the deciding factor in whether or not a potential consumer will visit your location or purchase your product or service. Because it’s so important, you’ll want to make sure that you are getting everything you can out of them. Make sure that you are set up for success all the way around, especially in the location of your brick-and-mortar store.
Review management and strategy is just one marketing service we make available to our tenants. Interested in seeing what retail and office spaces we have available? Check out our retail and office locations available for rent or contact us to discuss.
