Customer Ratings and Reviews
Introduction
Customer behavior — particularly that of Millennials (those born between 1976 and 2000) — shows a strong tendency to search online for almost anything before buying or trying it. Reviews from customers who have already experienced a product or service have become a powerful factor in the purchase decisions of prospective customers. Before watching a film, we check IMDb. Before trying a restaurant, we look at reviews on Google Maps and TripAdvisor. We cannot do without these two platforms when planning a tourist trip and verifying whether a destination is worth our time and money. Before downloading a new app on our smartphones, the primary factor that drives us to prefer one app over another is user ratings in the App Store or Google Play. Before booking a ride with Uber or Careem, we check the driver’s rating; if we don’t like it, we cancel and wait for a higher-rated driver. And before buying a book, we may want to look at customer opinions and reviews on sites like Amazon and Goodreads. The image below, for instance, is from Amazon — a book I wanted to buy, but before purchasing I checked the readers’ ratings and reviews.
Personally, I rate and write reviews about everything I’m able to — a tourist landmark, a restaurant, a book I’ve read, a mobile app I’ve tried. Why do I do this? The behavior is driven by several motives. One may be the desire to benefit others, either by recommending an experience I enjoyed or warning them away from a bad one. I also feel that my voice matters, and that we as customers form a counterweight to organizations that think only about profit, pushing them to make their work customer-centric.
What Are Customer Ratings and Reviews?
These are sites that give customers the opportunity to voluntarily share their experiences publicly. Because customers go to these sites of their own free will, the contributions and ratings tend to be more authentic and accurate than surveys customers are asked to complete — sometimes with incentives. Site operators safeguard this quality by reviewing comments and reviews before publishing them to confirm authenticity. This preserves the quality visitors expect and ensures that those being rated receive a fair assessment based on the actual level of service they provide. We shouldn’t forget specialized forums that aren’t dedicated to reviews per se but give users a place to share experiences, and the same applies to specialized blogs. My focus in this article, however, is on the platforms mentioned in the introduction.
Which Industries Should Care About This Voice-of-Customer Source?
The focus used to be on restaurants and tourist landmarks, but Amazon opened the door wide for rating virtually any product on earth sold through its platform. Google Maps similarly allows you to rate any point of sale or service provider that exists anywhere on the globe. The power of Google Maps is that adding a business doesn’t require the owner’s approval — any customer can capture photos with coordinates and Google will add the location within hours, after which anyone can rate or review it. Again, the business owner cannot delete any comment or rating, which is another sign of the neutrality and authenticity of these platforms.
Great reviews describing your distinctive customer service can generate 40% additional revenue for your business — Source
Online reviews have a strong influence on buyer decisions; 90% of buyers say these reviews play a role in their purchase decision — Source
An Example From Malaysia
Business owners — especially in tourism — have noticed the impact of these sites on their operations. During an earlier trip to Malaysia, specifically Penang, I noticed that many tourist destinations posted the score they had received from TripAdvisor reviews to attract visitors. Although the site isn’t as widely used in the Middle East, my reliance on it during that trip was beyond description. You don’t need a tour guide or travel agency advice — all you need is to look at the overall rating, read a few reviews, browse some photos, and you can judge a place before visiting it.
Reviews and Ratings of Companies by Employees
Even employees can leave reviews of companies they’ve worked for. Were it not for the fact that employers would resist this, sites like LinkedIn or Bayt.com would offer this service. They don’t, because of the conflict of interest. You can check sites such as Glassdoor and JobAdvisor — unfortunately they don’t include many reviews from Middle East employees, perhaps because awareness of these platforms is still low.
How Should You, as a Business Owner, Handle These Ratings and Reviews?
Many of the sites mentioned above allow business owners to respond to reviews. But the point isn’t to apologize for a bad review or thank a good one. The point is to treat all of these platforms as a credible voice-of-customer source, and to make serious decisions based on what’s written. These sites give you a free monitoring eye — don’t miss the chance to use them to improve your service. The feedback customers provide is given voluntarily, and that kind of feedback is gold. Don’t underestimate its impact, because if it accumulates against you, it can drive away thousands of prospective customers and cost you significant market share to competitors who used the same feedback to improve their operations and fix weaknesses. To come back to the start: responding to customer ratings and reviews signals that you’re listening, but be careful not to make empty promises about fixing things, because that will only make future negative reviews more severe.
A Common Question: Should We Ask Customers to Rate Us on These Sites?
Some of you will ask this. My personal answer: I don’t recommend it at all. Some try to be clever by only asking happy customers — but the very act of making this request, even to a satisfied customer, can feel awkward. I always say: a good rating, like respect, is earned, not requested.
In Closing
I hope this article inspires business owners and successfully reinforces the importance of customer ratings and reviews sites as a core source in any voice-of-customer program. Stay well.
For related work, see Voice of Customer (VoC) and Closed-Loop Feedback.
← Articles MOC