The One Number That Makes the Case For Why You Should Care About Online Reviews

I find this statistic astounding.

Last year, a study published by BrightLocal asked consumers this:

Do you trust online customer reviews as much as personal recommendations?

The results?

72{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} said yes!

That’s right, when it comes to assessing a local business, 72{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} of people said they trust the reviews from people on the Internet as much as they trust personal recommendations from people they know!

There is a little bit of nuance to the results.

Of the 72{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} who said yes…

• 28{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} said yes IF there are multiple reviews to read about the business.
• 24{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} said yes IF they believe the reviews are authentic (I wonder how good people are at truly assessing this).
• 20{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} said yes BUT only for some types of businesses.

Still 72{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} is a BIG number and demonstrates as much as anything the importance of having a system in place for getting positive reviews.

A close friend of mine has spent the past year developing an incredible system to do that and is currently in Beta. If you’re interested in finding out more, shoot me an email and I can get you on the waiting list for this incredible system.