Credible online reviews are also very important in the B2B segment – after all, they influence the reputation of a company. What you can do to get positive reviews is discussed here.
Why are online reviews important?
Generally speaking, positive online reviews are important for convincing customers of a company’s offers and for boosting sales. Especially in the B2B segment, the products or services are often of a higher quality and therefore higher priced than in the B2C segment. As a result, customers inform themselves to a greater degree before they take a purchasing decision. A survey by Capterra on the importance of online reviews even came to the conclusion that customers trust online reviews more than personal recommendations from friends.
User reviews also make a significant contribution to building up a good reputation. For the B2B segment, this means: quality over quantity. After all, not all user reviews help in equal measure to improve the reputation of a company.
Serious customer references on a company’s own website, which contain a comprehensive experience report, are very valuable. This is also confirmed by a B2B survey from Spiegel Research Centers: the display of reviews on websites and landing pages can increase the conversion rate.
So-called crowdsourcing reviews, where many people provide their customer experiences, are also important; however, their significance is normally secondary. This includes Google reviews or other big-name review portals.
And last but not least, online reviews increase visibility in search results, mainly in local searches such as on Google Maps. All in all, it is clear: good online reviews provide a vast competitive advantage.
„The display of reviews on websites and landing pages can increase the conversion rate.“
5 Measures for getting good online reviews
For this reason, a good strategy is important when it comes to collecting positive online reviews:
Ask your customer base for their online reviews
Ask your customers via email to review your product or service – particularly customers who you are certain would recommend your company. Ideal would be to place such a request shortly after a successful purchase or order. You increase the number of customers who answer this request if you provide an incentive, such as a prize draw or the guarantee of a discount.
Use the big-name online platforms for reviews
Using a retargeting campaign on Facebook or Google, you can ask users who have already ordered something from you to provide a review. Retargeting is generally cheaper than other forms of online advertising.
Consider reputation management software
The program captures what is being written about you and your products or services in various blogs, social networks and media. This lets you plan future activities better.
React to negative reviews the right way
When a company asks for reviews, it must also reckon with getting negative responses. It would be wrong to ignore these and show no reaction. After all, the unsatisfied customers would then feel like they are not being taken seriously and could continue to post negative comments – potentially on other platforms where you cannot intervene. This could seriously damage your image.
It therefore makes sense to react to negative reviews, instead of leaving them to speak for themselves without a counter-comment or, even worse, simply deleting them (insofar as this is even possible for you to do on the review platform). What’s more, if you react to accusations, you maintain control over the discussion, while showing your company to be strong and confident and, at the same time, professional and customer-centric. The tips below can help you react the right way.
Companies should:
- Not take the negative feedback personally, but always thank the user for voicing their opinion
- React to the review quickly
- Apologise – even if the complaint is not justified
- Not argue with the customer, but instead concentrate on the facts
- Always stick to the truth when responding
- Not use faceless, generic answers, but instead always give an individual answer to the specific critique
- Explain in a transparent way how you want to rectify the situation
- In some cases start up a personal dialogue with the customer offline
- Not let the situation fizzle out, but instead follow up with a short closing summary after finding a solution
- Not focus on your own perspective, but instead always take on that of the customer
- When appropriate, send the customer a small gift, e.g. voucher, flowers or a small user-defined video or picture, to maintain a connection to the customer
- Offer compensation if the customer experienced damages
- Learn from the feedback to avoid more negative comments in future
- Encourage customers to provide feedback
- Remove critique (or let it be removed) if it is obviously not genuine or does not adhere to the terms of use of the platform (or your own platform)
- Check all relevant review portals on a regular basis for new comments
React to positive reviews the right way
Praise is wonderful, but not a matter of course. Companies should never forget this. After all, it’s well known that unsatisfied customers are more likely to comment than satisfied customers. For this reason, it makes sense to also react to positive feedback. Here are a few tips.
Companies should:
- Respond immediately, as quickly as possible after the feedback is given or on the next day at the latest
- Say thank you
- Formulate the answer in a personalised way and be polite
- Respond concretely to the specific aspects of the positive feedback
- Give the customer a special deal, if possible, to animate them to make additional purchases
- Not weight down the answer with keywords, even though this could have a positive SEO effect
