3 Ways Customer Ratings and Reviews Can Affect Your E-commerce Brand

It’s a social media obsessed world, and customers are not afraid to voice their opinions to their millions of followers on their Instagram, Twitter or blogs. The minute a product is in the consumer’s hand, they have the power to make or break a brand. In fact, customer opinions have become so important now that many companies urge consumers who are big in the blogging world to showcase their products in order to boost brand awareness and sales.

So how can enabling customer ratings and reviews really affect your brand?

SEO and Ranking Benefits

Enabling ratings and reviews increases the unique content that your websites generates. Each new review has a positive effect on your organic search results ranking because of the content generated through your customers opinions. User generated content is one of the most important factors for SEO boosting your visibility on search engines and your ranking.^[1]

Generating feedback from customers can help you beat your competition by having a website that is ranked higher than theirs. 

Building Trust and Credibility

When browsing online, your customer is more likely to believe something a complete stranger has said about a product or service than the employee behind the “online chat” section. Customers want to feel secure and know that what they are buying today is going to be reliable and give the exact results as advertised. By browsing through other consumers reviews, your website will earn the customers’ trust and increase your websites credibility. If your product or service has generated a lot of positive feedback, they know they are in good hands and thus their decision to pick your brand will be affected.

92% of consumers now read online reviews^[2]. By allowing the public to share their feedback, potential customers will find your website a more reliable place to come to, a place they know they will be getting products that have been proven to be successful.

Ability to Manage Negative Feedback

Sometimes, not all feedback is positive and that’s okay. A customer might not be happy with what they receive, and take it to their social media platforms. However, mistakes do happen and how you handle this situation is what the customer will keep in mind and share it to their friends and family. Be empathetic, your customer is having issues with your product or service and you need to put yourself in their shoes right now. By making them feel like you care and providing the best possible service that you can, ensuring they are happy at the end, is the best way to satisfy them.

33% of customers who had positive customer service experiences went on to tell more than five people about it^[3]. Not only do you have a returning customer, but you might even gain a few new ones. (Don’t make a habit out of bad reviews, because those could negatively affect your brand in the long run)

Being open to the public can be a good thing; your products could be loved and your star ratings can go up. If you are worried about negative feedback, bouncing back is what the public likes, and resolving their issues with the best possible service earns your brand brownie points and keeps the customer coming back for more.

Don’t be afraid to start a conversation about your brand. The more your brand is talked about, the more research will be done around it gaining you a potential increase in traffic on your website.