The internet world has expanded and has become the most powerful platform for the consumers to express and share their views and feedbacks. Taking this into consideration, the consumers & users have a bigger impact since they will influence public perception of the business. Subsequently, the companies have to take a quick and active approach for managing the reviews & reputation online with the help of an online reputation management company. Let us check out the impact negative and fake reviews will have on your company’s reputation.
Driveaway customers
The negative reviews can chase away customers from the business and shift them to your competitors. As per the research, one negative review will drive away around 22% of the prospects, over 30 customers. And the percentage of the lost users increases with the increase in the negative reviews. And three negative reviews will drive away your customers by around 59.2%. Over four negative reviews can result in 70% of your customers lost.
Local search traffic will drop
Google’s whole business is based on data. They’re very proficient in tracking & predicting various trends. Suppose your reviews seem unnatural, you will be penalized. When Google knows you’re trying to trick the system, then they will not rank you for the relevant local search phrase. This will reduce the traffic on your website, as well as cause a drop in revenue.
Reviews influence customers buying decisions
Almost 2/3 of the consumers look at the online reviews each week. As we know, around 93% say they directly influence buying decisions. People would like to hear experiences from the peers and then make the decision. Many studies show it is important to some than the price that they pay. It is not only about star-rating the business gets on the review website. When making any kind of buying decision, the consumers may dig deeper in the internet sentiment concerning the business to know what people think about your business or products.
You Can Be Fined
The regulators turned blind eye to the fake and negative reviews. It has not been till recently that reviews have become one important part of the digital marketing strategy. Since consumers have now grown to trust the reviews quite often, regulators have now taken the steps to quash deceptive marketing methods. Even though it is currently an isolated occurrence, you may expect to see such kind of behavior punished quite often in near future.
Undermine the business reputation
The negative reviews have the power of damaging the online reputation that you have taken years to build. They make the potential customers trust your business a bit less. Many people don’t purchase from a store that has a bad reputation & questionable credibility. Around 50% of the consumers question the quality of the company with negative reviews. Plenty of negative reviews are tough to fix and make it a bit challenging to regain the consumers’ trust.
Fake reviews will destroy your customer’s trust
Many companies earn money by selling fake reviews on the internet. Normally, these reviews will be outsourced to overseas laborers that are keen to work for the low wage. Such workers can often write plenty of reviews daily. How much time or thought will you think they can put in your review if there’re hundreds more in a queue? Consumers are getting very good at spotting out fake reviews. When they look at the page & see nothing but wrong structured comments at some odd hours, they will not trust your business.
