“For all the ink spilled on the importance of Twitter and Facebook as feedback an customer-service channels, there’s another social-media tool marketers are increasing finding useful … the humble product review.”  [source: Ad Age article]

We’ve all seen online ratings and reviews. We’ve all read them. Some of us have even added to them. But most of us probably don’t how effective online reviews are. As WOM TRUTH #37 touts, online reviews aren’t sexy, but the results are.

A December 2008 study from Kudzu.com revealed 86% of consumers seek out and read online reviews before making a purchase decision. 90% of these consumers surveyed said they trust online reviews they read. [source]

A report from the eTailing Group in June of 2008 showed that 32% of retailers who added online reviews to their website experienced an increase of more than 11% in purchase conversions. Of those retailers, 11% of them experience a 20% or more increase in purchase conversions. [source]

A sidebar to the Ad Age article quoted above gave marketers smart advice on how best to use and incorporate online reviews into how a company does business.

Embrace Feedback
“Both the positive and negative feedback provides hints to what your’e doing well and where improvement is needed.”

Act on Lowly Reviewed Products
“Assign a team to read all of the lowest reviews. Make sure it includes the right people who can react quickly and fix the problem—before more customers get riled.”

Involve the Customer Service Team
“Negative reviews can tip off your customer service and support teams to issues that they’ll soon be dealing with.”