How GOOD Reviews Can Make Your Customers LESS Likely To Buy
There’s a quirk in the way we think.
When we hear of a restaurant that has long queues, we assume its popularity must be because the restaurant is good.
And – oddly – Social Proof signals such as long queues actually enhance how good we perceive a product is. So we enjoy popular restaurants, wines, movies, books, and products more when they’re enjoyed by plenty of other people already.
It means social proof signals create their own feedback loop – sometimes making popular products far more popular than they might deserve to be.
That’s how we end up with fads or crazes.
If you’re in Melbourne, think back to the opening of Krispy Kreme in 2006 – and the 2 kilometre and three day long queues! How many Melbournians would queue three days for a box of Krispy Kreme donuts today?
As Dr Robert Cialdini wrote in his book Influence: The Power of Persuasion – Social Proof provides powerful signals for how we should act.
And these signals extend online – where product reviews carry a huge amount of weight with consumers.
But Good Reviews Aren’t Always Good News…
Oddly – sometimes good reviews make us less likely to buy.
And sometimes bad reviews make us more likely to buy.
As a business owner, this means the way you use reviews matters.
Let me show you what I mean…
“84% of Consumers Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations”…
According to a 2016 BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey, 84% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
And although the majority of survey participants said they look at star ratings – when researchers have tracked consumer buying behaviour – the star ratings often matter less than how many reviews there are.
It’s A Popularity Contest… Not Just A Rating Game
Studying the data on over 400 million consumers, PowerReviews CEO Matt Moog working with Northwestern University found that the more reviews there are of a product, the more likely it is that a customer will purchase the product.
This is logical.
After all – from a statistical perspective – the more positive reviews there are for a product or business, the more certain it is that your experience will be positive.
How Many Reviews Does It Take To Gain Trust?
According to the same PowerReviews / Northwestern University study, it only takes 20-50 reviews to make a significant difference to consumer confidence in a product.
Why 4.4 Stars is Better Than 5 Stars…
The star ratings do provide a valuable tool for comparison. Especially if one competing product or business is significantly worse than another.
But when a rating is “too high”, it can actually have a negative impact on sales – as shoppers wonder if the reviews are “too good to be true”.
According to the Power Reviews / Northwestern University study, a review score of 4.4 out of 5 is more trustworthy and more likely to lead to a sale than a review score of 5 out of 5.
And consumers will hunt through bad reviews first – to work out the worst case scenario for a product.
So having a handful of bad reviews shouldn’t cause you too much stress. Those bad reviews may actually improve your sales!
People Make Dumb Decisions When Ratings Are Negative
A recent Stanford University study revealed the true weighting people place on the number of reviews a product has – and proved how illogical, irrational and just-plain-bad peoples purchasing decisions can be.
The researchers showed participants in the study two similar products that had low star ratings.
When presented with these two similarly-bad products, consumers routinely picked the more popular product i.e. the one with more reviews.
This might seem logical decision for buyers to make. After all, you’re picking the more popular product, right?
But if more of people have rated a product poorly, then there’s more statistical evidence that it’s definitely a bad product.
And – if we were logical creatures – buyers should be put-off by the number of bad reviews.
But instead, we’re irrationally attracted to the sheer number of people who have had bad experiences with the product.
It goes to show how powerful it can be to have a lot of reviews for your products!
The Size of Your Stars Can Matter A Lot
Consumers want you to provide reviews of your products. And those product reviews do drive sales. So it’s important to give the reviews the prominence that they deserve.
In a recent test, simply increasing the size of the star rating displayed on product pages on an ecommerce store resulted in a 20.35% increase in sales on a client’s website – generating millions in additional revenues without spending an extra cent on advertising.
Key Lessons…
The key lessons here are that – in general:
Reviews matter – even the occasional bad ones.
A high star rating will help make sales – but a 5-star rating may come across as unbelievable.
Having a lot of reviews is a competitive advantage.
And review scores should be displayed prominently
Before I go, here’s a bonus tip…
How do you collect good reviews quickly and easily?
Referring back to the Local Consumer Review Survey I mentioned at the start of this post – 7 out of 10 consumers responded they will leave a review for a business if asked.
This means one simple step you can take to increase sales is simply asking for feedback.
One client does this in a particularly clever way.
Shortly after an order has been completed and fulfilled, they send their customers a quick three-button survey email asking for one-click feedback – Bad, Neutral or Good.
Users who click on the neutral or negative feedback icons get escalated to customer support to have their concerns addressed one-on-one via a telephone call.
Users with positive feedback are shown appreciation, and invited to leave a review.
This provides you – as a business owner – a steady stream of reviews and testimonials to help attract the next generation of buyers.
Plus leaving a review also ingrains buyers’ positive experiences with you, increasing the likelihood that they’ll buy from you again.