Online reviews play an important role in how consumers evaluate businesses. We surveyed 1,068 US adults to find out how they use online reviews, including:
- How often they read reviews
- Which review platforms they trust
- How reviews impact their buying decisions
- What motivates them to write reviews
Here’s what we found out.
1. Nearly all consumers read online reviews
Reading online reviews has become a habit for the vast majority of consumers. 92.5% of buyers state that they’ve read an online review in the past year.
What does this mean for businesses? Well, if your business has very little or no reviews, you might be getting overlooked completely. To compete in today’s market, you need to have a strong online reputation across platforms your target customers use the most.
2. Most buyers check reviews before making a purchase
Consumers don’t just check online reviews casually. They use reviews to inform their buying decisions. 1 in 5 consumers always check reviews before making a purchase, while almost half (47.6%) state that they check reviews often.
The data is clear—reviews are a critical part of the buying process. This means that businesses need to look at review management as a part of the sales process and make sure they have plenty of recent reviews across relevant platforms.
3. Google is the most popular platform for online reviews
86.2% of consumers use Google to look up reviews of businesses. Other popular platforms for checking reviews include Yelp (34.6%), Facebook (28.9%), and Trustpilot (15.1%).
Respondents also mentioned using Amazon, Reddit, and YouTube to look up reviews.
What does this mean? Well, your business needs to have a strong presence on Google and an optimized Google Business Profile.
But, you also need to pay attention to other platforms where your business might be getting reviews and make sure to maintain a positive brand reputation across the entire online landscape.
A good way to do this is to set up alerts for every time your business gets a new review.
Tools like ReviewsOnMyWebsite make this easy—all you need to do is connect your accounts on platforms like Google and Yelp, and the software will handle the rest.
Manage online reviews with ease
Monitor, manage, and get more online reviews for your business with ReviewsOnMyWebsite.
4. Most consumers read 4-10 reviews before buying
A single glowing review isn’t enough to convince consumers to buy from your business. 43% of buyers read between 4 to 6 reviews before deciding to make a purchase. And nearly a third of consumers read 7 or more reviews.
This means that you can’t rely on a handful of reviews to drive new customers to your business. You need to have a strategy in place to keep generating fresh customer reviews regularly.
This might mean asking customers for a review in person after completing a transaction. Or using software like ReviewsOnMyWebsite to set up automated email and SMS sequences to request reviews from customers.
5. A 4-star rating is the bare minimum for most buyers
Buyers don’t just read reviews when evaluating businesses. They also pay attention to a business’s star rating.
More than 78% of consumers won’t even consider a business if its rating is below 4 stars. And 27% only buy from businesses with a star rating of 4.5 or higher.
Having a rating below 4 stars is a dealbreaker for most consumers. In order to stay competitive, you need to get consistent 4-star ratings (or higher). And quickly address any negative feedback that might be impacting your average star rating.
6. 9 out of 10 consumers have avoided a business due to negative reviews
Getting negative reviews isn’t just annoying—it has real-world consequences for your business. As much as 88.3% of consumers have avoided a business after reading negative reviews about it.
Since negative reviews can have such a big impact on your business, you need to monitor review platforms for new reviews of your business regularly.
And implement a system for dealing with negative reviews and turning unsatisfied customers into happy ones.
7. Thoughtful responses to negative reviews build trust
Getting a negative review doesn’t mean that all is lost. 78.3% of buyers state that seeing a thoughtful response to a negative review made them more likely to trust a business.
This makes it crucial that you show professionalism and empathy when dealing with negative reviews. And take accountability for any mistake that might have resulted in a bad customer experience.
This will increase your chances of turning unsatisfactory experiences into happy ones, and prevent losing potential customers due to bad reviews.
Manage online reviews with ease
Monitor, manage, and get more online reviews for your business with ReviewsOnMyWebsite.
8. Businesses are expected to respond to reviews within 3 days
How you respond to reviews isn’t all that matters. When you respond is equally important. 70% of consumers expect businesses to reply to a review within 1 to 3 days.
This means that you need to check your business’s reviews regularly. Or set up alerts to get notified as soon as you get a new review. And then make sure to address each review as soon as possible.
9. 7 in 10 consumers leave online reviews
72% of buyers have left an online review for a business. This means that most consumers are willing to write reviews—you just need to ask them to do it.
Plan a review generation strategy that combines both offline and online methods.
For example, train employees to ask customers for reviews after every successful transaction. Or add a QR code that directs customers to your review page on every receipt.
You can also set up automated email and SMS reminders asking customers to leave reviews for your business.
10. Most reviews are written within the same week of making a purchase
Over a third of online reviews are written on the day of the purchase. And most are written within a week.
This means that you need to ask for reviews quickly. Ideally, send customers a review request on the same day they make a purchase. Or a week later at the latest.
11. A great customer experience is the biggest driver of online reviews
A lot of consumers are motivated to leave a review when they’re unsatisfied with a business. But for the majority of consumers (65.4%), their main motivation to leave an online review comes from having a great customer experience.
This makes it crucial that businesses focus on delivering amazing experiences and ensuring every customer is happy with their purchase. The glowing reviews will then come on their own.
Over to you
The data is clear: online reviews are a crucial part of the decision-making process for today’s consumers.
In order to succeed, businesses need to build a strong online reputation. This will require a structured review management process and the right toolset.
Here’s what you should focus on this year:
- Claim and optimize your business’s profiles across platforms like Google, Yelp, and Tripadvisor
- Reply to all reviews (both positive and negative ones) within 72 hours
- Aim for a 4.0+ star rating across relevant platforms
- Implement automated review request campaigns to generate new reviews consistently
Streamline your online review management process
Need help? ReviewsOnMyWebsite is an online review management software that allows you to monitor your brand’s reputation across 36+ review platforms, get notified about new reviews as they’re posted, and reply to all reviews from one central location.
You can also use ReviewsOnMyWebsite to set up automated email and SMS campaigns to generate reviews on autopilot. And display your business’s top reviews on your website by using the handy review widget feature.
